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Virtualization rather than multibooting [was Re: La Machine Est Morte, Vive La Machine!]

I totally agree with Kari that virtualization is
the the most sensible and elegant route to go. To
me, multibooting seems unfriendly, time-wasting
and irrational by comparison. Virtualization has
been the most attractive choice since it became
theoretically possible with the 386 processor.
Now, decades later, we are living in a golden age
of virtualization, with all the significant
hardware and software kinks ironed out.


That said, I have yet to try PC2007 and enjoy
XyWrite fullscreen. I have been happy enough with
partial XyWrite screens since Windows 3.1. Though
I can see it would be less distracting, in some
sense, to have XyWrite completely cover the
screen, I find that if I need that level of
freedom from distraction, I am better off with
paper and longhand. I also would not want to have
XyWrite occupying an entire _wide screen_, as most monitors seem to be now.


As I am such a flibbertigibbet, perhaps it is
time for me to find a way of working with XyWrite
where I don't see anything else. Rather than
trying to find a way to run it full screen, I am
going to try running it within Win2K but giving
W2K a black background so that very little else
is visible other than the Xy4 window.


At 21/07/2014 12:14, you wrote:


Hello Carl,

>It's an HP Envy 700xt (4th Gen Intel Core
i7-4790 processor quad-core [3.6GHz, 8MB shared
cache]) with 8GB RAM and a 2TB SATA hard drive.
It comes with Windows 7 Home Premium 64
installed, but I've also bought licensed copies
of Win 7 Pro, both 64- and 32-bit.


This is a machine that is best suited for
running Win 7 64-bit. For 32-bit, lesser
machines would do equally well. Performance-wise
a 64-bit operating system is the way to go. If
you try running 32-bit XP on it, you will see
what I mean. There is no going back to that kind
of system. In fact, I would completely ban XP
(even virtualized), and run a copy of W2K
instead where 32-bit Windows is needed.


>I'm thinking of setting up a multiboot system
with, say, three partitions: Win 7-64 in one;
Win 7-32 in another; and, who knows, maybe one
of the Linux distros in the third. My basic question is, how best to do this?


The best would be, of course, to forget about
it, skip this phase altogether. It has been
tried by others, me included, and I think only
very few people still use it. My advice: do not
multiboot with a machine that has all this
power. It does not make any sense. You can
virtualize everything you need, and you are
better off doing so. In every respect, including
setting it up properly, backing it up, restoring
a setup with less partitions, etc. You can
easily manipulate virtual machines, copy,
delete, backup and restore them at will with
your machine intact. This is not so with a multiboot setup.


OK. If you did not take my first advice, then I
will try to give some hard-earned guidelines of
setting it up. It is best to use Windows 7 own
resources to set up alternate Windows
installations. The tool you need to manage this
is: EasyDCD (free edition will do the trick!)
http://neosmart.net/EasyBCD/ (Read the
documentation well before use, use with caution!).


>I'm thinking along the following lines: First,
install Win 7 Pro-64 over Home Premium in the
existing partition. Then create the two new
partitions, and install Win 7 Pro-32 in the
second. (Let's leave what to do with the third
partition until later.) My first question is,
should I use Windows to create the multiboot
system, or is there an external partitioning utility that's preferable?


If I were you, I would not install Win 7 Pro
over Home Premium, I would save that for some
other purpose, perhaps for running a virtualized
Win 7 Pro under Linux (or on a Mac). After all,
Win 7 Pro gives you the right to virtualize XP
(using MS Xp mode or under VMwware), and that is
the main difference vis-à-vis Home Premium. But
you can virtualize W2K without activation, and it is much better than XP.


>Second, I'm crestfallen over the prospect of
not being able to run Xy4 full-screen. I've
become somewhat used to running it in a window
at work -- I have no choice, as I lack the
network privileges to do otherwise. But at home
I'm wondering whether I should downgrade the
video drivers to enable DOS full-screen in my
Win 7-32 partition. Anyone here tried this? What are the pros and cons?


I would not downgrade anything. You can run Xy4
full-screen in virtual machines, if you wish to
do so (at least in VirtualPC 2007).


>Once I get XyWrite running satisfactorily in
the 32-bit partition, I'll probably play around
with virtual 32-bit environments in the 64-bit
partition. When I do I'll no doubt have further
questions, even after I reread the volumes you
all have written on the subject in this space.
It was all academic for me then, so a lot went
in one ear and out the other. But I'll be all ears now.


To experiment, you could leave the primary
operating system as is, and add 32-bit Windows 7
in a second partition, and perhaps a current
Linux distro to the setup. You will be needing a
good partioning program to accomplish this. I
use Acronis Disk Director, but Paragon has a
free tool that might be just what the doctor
ordered: http://www.paragon-software.com/home/pm-express/


And remember: DOS is alive and kicking in Virtual PC 2007, vive le roi!

Best regards,

Kari Eveli
LEXITEC Book Publishing (Finland)
lexitec@xxxxxxxx

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