Hello everyone,

As a computer technician I must be familiar with the various Windows Operating Systems. Basically I need to know Windows XP, Vista, and Windows 7 , like “the back of my hand”.

The other day I decided to install Windows 7 Home Premium on my Toshiba laptop which was already running Windows Vista Home Premium. I wanted to have both Operating Systems on this same laptop computer.

I first thought about setting this up as a dual-boot system (both Operating Systems on the same Hard Drive and then choose which one I want to use at startup). But I decided against this because I didn’t want to waste time by booting and then rebooting every time I wanted to switch Operating Systems.

The better, easier way I decided was to install and run Windows 7 using virtualization software. This incredible software allows Windows 7 (or any OS) to run as a “guest” OS within the “host” OS (which in my case was Vista Home Premium). In other words, Windows 7 runs “on top of” or “within” the Vista OS but it thinks that it’s actually running all by itself on its own machine! How incredibly cool is that?

I downloaded and installed the free VirtualBox from Sun Microsystems, installed Windows 7 into its own “little Windows 7 world” (virtual machine), and now I have two Operating Systems running side by side in their own environments and can access either one with just a click of the mouse! How awesome is that!

Professor Randy says: Don’t waste time and be hassled with a dual-boot system. Install any OS by using virtualization software and flip-flop between Operating Systems with just a click of the mouse!