Windows 7 desktop virtualisation opens new possibilities

David M Williams
Sunday, 21 June 2009 14:33

Business IT - Technology

VHD is the file format used by Microsoft’s existing range of virtualisation products. For the first time, Windows 7 will be able to natively create VHD files without the use of any additional software. Similarly, a computer can boot from these self-same VHD files.

Just as with Windows XP and Windows Vista users can manage hard drives within Administrative Tools / Computer Management.

Presently this is where you go to slice up your hard drive(s) into individual disk partitions and format them for use. In Windows 7 you can also opt to create new virtual hard drives with the same ease as managing physical hard drives is already.

Or, if you have existing VHDs from previous Microsoft virtual products, you can attach them to drive letters here just like you had plugged in a new disk. In actual fact, if you check Device Manager you will see your computer believes it has a new storage host adapter as well as a new disk drive.

The usefulness of this cannot be understated. A VHD file is “just” a file on your hard drive. Even if you opt never to run any virtual machines, by creating VHDs instead of disk partitions you can save yourself a world of maintenance issues.

For one, your VHD file may grow as large as is required over time. It can be copied to increasingly larger hard disks without the need for imaging tools. The whole hard drive can be backed up by simply copying the file – and restored by merely copying the original file back.

For those interested in experimenting with new and different operating systems disk partitioning becomes totally obsolete with your different Windows and Linux installations needing to be nothing more than VHD files.

In fact, even if you are purely a Microsoft environment you can still benefit from dual-booting into a safe Linux environment for secure and sensitive computing like online banking. In the past banks have discussed bootable Linux CDs as a means of giving their customers a virus- and malware-free sandbox. By storing a Linux system contained within a VHD file, and booting from it, this same objective is achieved but without having to carry a CD around.

I’m persuaded that virtual hard drives are going to be a key software distribution mechanism in time to come, allowing fully configured computing environments to be shipped and effortlessly deployed.

Get ahead of the curve; begin considering the use of virtual hard drives in your environment.