You can try different operating systems without having to reboot a computer.

ico of the shortcut to an Ubuntu logo making it 1-click from running a full instance of Ubuntu simultaneously with the physical machine's OS.A virtual machine can easily emulate a different operating system.

Now when Host+f is pressed, the Ubuntu desktop should fill the entire screen.Ĭreate a shortcut of the newly installed virtual machine to the taskbar by right-clicking on the virtual machine inside of VirtualBox and choosing “Create Shortcut on Desktop”. Once installed, reboot the virtual machine. Press Run and type in your password (if it asks). *NOTE: make sure to select the correct version based on your computer's architecture 32-bit or 64-bit. This tutorial uses Ubuntu 12.04 LTS 64-bit but any version should work fine. iso file to install on your virtual machine. If process and memory heavy applications are also going to be run inside of Linux or Windows while the VM is running, this could cause for some pegged resources.ĭownload and install the latest version of VirtualBox for the OS in which you would like to concurrently run alongside of Ubuntu.

Since Linux will be run in a VM on the same hardware as your main OS, the computing resources are shared.

Don't need to sacrifice a full machine to solely run a secondary OS that might not get used all that much.

To switch between the operating systems, you don't need to fully shut down one and then boot up the other.

Can simultaneously run Linux alongside of Windows.

Like most things, pros and cons exist with both. However, I didn't have a laptop available that I could fully dedicate to running Linux since many of the applications I do run in my spare time are Windows based.ġ.) Partition my hard-drive and dual-boot both Windows and Linux.Ģ.) Install a Virtual Machine and run Linux alongside of Windows.

IntroductionĪs a computer science student, I have found the need for a full-fledged Linux distro but ssh-ing onto a separate Linux machine (although wonderful in a pinch) started to become obnoxious. Installing Ubuntu on a VM Using VirtualBox A tutorial on how to install and run Ubuntu on a new virtual machine alongside your main OS.

Download ubuntu virtualbox image