Running W7 as both VM _and_ dual-boot?

Ashton

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After yet another crapout on my desktop I'm planning to give up and make Linux my primary OS, however, so much software is still windows-only that I need some flexibility...

I've been running windows as a VM on my mac for a while now and it's working acceptably, however I know there is software (specifically graphics/video/games) that will suffer a performance hit or not run at all under a VM...

But, for the software that I use the most, I'd like to be able to pop it up under linux inside a VM

I know you can set VirtualBox (and other VMs) to use a raw disc, but my experience with my mac is that if it's installed in VM, it won't boot as a guest OS, and if installed as a guest OS, it won't boot as a VM (due to "hardware changes")

So, is there a way to set up windows so it will run both as a VM (with less ram/CPU) and as a dual-boot (will full ram/CPU) as needed?
 
Probably not without another Win7 license, depending on which version of Windows you have.

See here for more information.
 
Probably not without another Win7 license, depending on which version of Windows you have.

See here for more information.

I'm not wanting to do two separate installs, I want to set it so it can boot EITHER as a VM or as a whole OS from the boot menu. (Didn't even think about licensing issues yet, just wondering is there is a way to make it hop between the two without issue)

To be more literal, When I turn on my PC I want my boot options as "Linux" and "Windows 7" and if I boot linux, I then want to be able to click on VirtualBox and "Start Windows 7 VM" and THE SAME windows setup will boot in the VM inside Linux.
 
After yet another crapout on my desktop I'm planning to give up and make Linux my primary OS, however, so much software is still windows-only that I need some flexibility...

I've been running windows as a VM on my mac for a while now and it's working acceptably, however I know there is software (specifically graphics/video/games) that will suffer a performance hit or not run at all under a VM...

But, for the software that I use the most, I'd like to be able to pop it up under linux inside a VM

I know you can set VirtualBox (and other VMs) to use a raw disc, but my experience with my mac is that if it's installed in VM, it won't boot as a guest OS, and if installed as a guest OS, it won't boot as a VM (due to "hardware changes")

So, is there a way to set up windows so it will run both as a VM (with less ram/CPU) and as a dual-boot (will full ram/CPU) as needed?

I'm not wanting to do two separate installs, I want to set it so it can boot EITHER as a VM or as a whole OS from the boot menu. (Didn't even think about licensing issues yet, just wondering is there is a way to make it hop between the two without issue)

To be more literal, When I turn on my PC I want my boot options as "Linux" and "Windows 7" and if I boot linux, I then want to be able to click on VirtualBox and "Start Windows 7 VM" and THE SAME windows setup will boot in the VM inside Linux.

No...at least not that I know of.
What you seem to be trying to do (as far as Windows goes) is the equivalent of moving a hard drive with Windows OS installed from one physical computer to another.

The only thing I can think of remotely close is XenClient .. but I don't think a free version is offered any longer.
 
No...at least not that I know of.
What you seem to be trying to do (as far as Windows goes) is the equivalent of moving a hard drive with Windows OS installed from one physical computer to another.

The only thing I can think of remotely close is XenClient .. but I don't think a free version is offered any longer.

It's ironic - I remember I think 98SE I literally pulled a HDD from one PC and put it in another one and it booted fine (except needing to install a few drivers) And yet here the only change would be RAM and CPU...

Well, I guess score 1 for the cloud then - I just have to make sure what I want to share between the VM and the main install is sync'd to dropbox/skydrive...

Thanks for the help though! :)
 
When you boot it from within the VM, Windows is going to see the virtualized hardware and tell you that the license is already in use on another machine whether or not its a separate install. The license gets tied to the mobo when you activate it.
 
It's ironic - I remember I think 98SE I literally pulled a HDD from one PC and put it in another one and it booted fine (except needing to install a few drivers) And yet here the only change would be RAM and CPU...
That's not really the case at all....there's a large chunk of hardware that VMs don't see directly. In general, GPUs aren't directly shared, and for the most part the VM doesn't necessarily see the "real" motherboard, chipsets, etc. - they're all virtualized through different drivers.
 
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