Virtual XP Home

[Dave]

Well seeing as my idea to use VirtualBox to practice on went pear shaped due to not having another product key. Does anyone know of other free alternatives I can use? My requirements are:

• Free to use
• Product Key not needed

The reasons I need this is to practice/train:

• Removal of Viruses/Trojans/Malware, etc
• Missing files
• Errors
• Registry tweaking and removal of un-needed registry items
• etc

 

[NickCat11]

Unfortunately I don't think you're going to find anything without needing a product key. I am getting ready to join Technet which offers you access to most of Microsoft's future, current, and old software. It's $350 for the year but there are coupons that drop it down to $250. I know you're probably thinking that's a lot of money but it's definitely a worthy investment, especially in your case if your looking for practice.

 

[hondablaster]

http://www.technibble.com/repair-tool-of-the-week-returnil-virtual-system-personal/


Visit this site. Its was a repair tool of the week.

But listen Just take a stupid torrent off some torrent site. Emulate it with Virtualbox when your done delete it. Your over complicating your experiment by blindly follow a moral code made by a company who follows no moral code. They use a blanket legality that is so gray that everything is legal and illegal then the arbitrarily enforce certain aspects of their blanket so they got you from the front and from the back. They can look like good guys or bad guys. Depending on the situation.

I believe the rule applies to PHYSICAL CPUS. Anyways. Im not sure because I get tired of reading their EULA. Take your OS and clone it or use your serial and do not validate. Your only going smash the OS to pieces anyways. How long will it be installed less than 12 hours? Are you planning on actually using it?

M$ is the most sneaky kniving underhanded monopoly second only to the OIL cartels and banks. Read about all code they have stolen and businesses that went under. What happend to PKzip or Netcrap navigator. Stacker? A San Diego based business!!!!!

Just borrow an ISO when your done delete it. If you dont feel comfortable clone your own OS and do the same thing. Nobody here is going to bust you down and if they do I will be the first one to raise the hypocrite flag. Because I know not everyone on here is buying 80-120 dollar copies to run in VrB that simply gets deleted anyways.

BTW under that logic if you use your Copy from Virutalbox to lets say VMware. You should probably run out and buy another copy. Because its per installation. Oh and if you have two physical CPUs on one machine buy another license.

Oh and if you OWN Vista You can run your copy of Vista inside the same OS with same license. Or can you.... Who knows?

http://www.vistax64.com/vista-insta...-ultimate-running-within-virtual-machine.html

P.S. I hope everyone who would disagree, paid m$ for their UBCD.

Goodluck. I hope this helps.

 

[hondablaster]

While I agree that MS sucks etc, I don't think this board is the place for promoting pirating Windows. WHY someone would want to steal something that sucks when GNU/Linux is free, no idea, but again, this board isn't the place for that.

You have no idea know why someone would use XP Home in a virtual environment to practice troubleshooting???

It would not make sense learning how to fix and diagnose an XP Home machine using GNU/Linux.

 

[MrUnknown]

I can easily run Linux. I understand it and have ran it in some form for many years. I am currently making a website in Ubuntu, but for my daily needs, I run Windows.

Each OS has their market, likes and dislikes. To say there is no reason to run Windows is a little closed minded. When actually taken care of, it is fine. Give enough users Linux or Mac, I can promise you they will screw it up.

 

[MrUnknown]

I agree with your points and I probably took you wrong, so I am sorry for that.

I honestly have no technical reason to run Windows except my sound card doesn't work under Linux last time I checked (X-Fi), I have no idea if it does now but it worked under the Hackintosh install so it may. Either way that isn't a big deal because my onboard works just fine under Linux.

I think the point I was trying to make back is, not all of us run Windows because it is default and we don't know better. I love both Linux and Windows and feel they have their areas that they are useful. Windows for day-to-day, Linux for programming. I personally do not feel that Linux has reached the point to where it could be the default desktop for tons of people, no matter what those articles released every damn week say.

I believe the main reason I run Windows is because I like to try various software and tinker. Yes, possible under Linux but most websites have Windows software. I also do like to game, sure I could dual-boot but I hate doing that.

In general, I am more comfortable under Windows also. This isn't because I lack experience with Linux though. I started messing with Linux like OSes by installing FreeBSD on my 233MHz computer. I have hand-edited X config files to make the refresh rates match my CRT monitor. Learned a lot by going through the steps of Linux From Scratch. I am not sure how many distributions I have tried, my favorite was Gentoo until I switched to Ubuntu because it requires less upkeep although I still love the concept of Gentoo and how it operates.

Sure, GNU lets you alter the source code, and gives you true freedom, but how often do you exercise this right? Nevermind the fact that I actually do not care for the GPL, especially version 3. A truely free license is BSD.

The Linux versions of software aren't always equal. I do not care for OpenOffice that much. It gets the job done but it needs some work. I actually like using Word and really enjoy using the Ribbon UI, but for documents I am writing to myself, I use AbiWord.

I know I rambled quite a bit in my reply so I am sorry for that, and sorry to the poster for taking over your thread =\

 

[Dave]

Don't worry about it. I'm enjoying the discussion

On a side note, just to clear some things up. I have used Linux before (Ubuntu). I'm not a pro on it or anything. But I have always managed to sort any problems I had with it, with the help of the support forums, etc. I learned a bit, but forgot it now as it has been a while since i've last used it. However this just may be my solution. If I install Linux and then install VirtualBox, I can then use my product key for XP Home on VirtualBox. Since it will be the only install of XP on this system. And as a bonus I will be able to learn more about Linux and maybe try my hand at a bit of programming. The reason I want to train on Windows first, is because it's probably the most widely used operating system that I will come across especially since I don't a lot of Linux. But i'll be training on both now. So should be all good. Thanks for the replies too .