VMWare and the like: General Question

[George27]

I remember on the forum when XP came out there was a fellow that had a duplex printer that would not be supported under xp with the duplex function (MS drivers no duplex, HP was no longer writing a driver for that model). Running the 2k os on vmware and installing the old drivers would solve this problem or is a virtual os dependant on the existing drivers of the master os? Secondly with time zones, using vmware can you set up the os your using to a different time zone (or language setting US English \ British English) or are the these settings dependant on the prinicple os's clock. Essentially my question is will an os on vmware run as if it where the second os on a dual boot, completly independant or is as in printing is it dependant on the principle os to be able to print or any other functions like burning. TIA

[prathapml]

The two main virtualizing software today are: VMware and VirtualPC.

Both of these give a totally different environment to "guest" OSes installed within them. Call this to be something like being divorced from the actual hardware - because the actual hardware that you have does not at all matter to an OS within the VM, because it cannot access it anyway.

A VM is rather, wrapped into a "shell" if you'd like to call it that. And from this shell its able to access the external devices that you have on your real PC (like network cards, printers, etc.). The VM has a hardware environment of its own, and the software (VMware or VPC) provides the VM with a "bridge" to access external devices.

So.... its not a second OS on dual-boot. Its totally independant of the actual hardware and is dependant on the VM software you use, to provide it a bridge to use (very few) external peripherals.

HTH

[George27]

prathapml, thanks that really clears things up.