Paragon Software recently gave away free licences for it's Virtualization Manager, and I decided to check it out. Sadly I was to be disappointed, as contrary to it's name - it's not virtualization software at all.I already knew I was going to be a little disappointed when I noticed it wouldn't actually allow me to run an ISO (tried ISOs of both Linux and Windows) as a virtual machine (at least, I certainly couldn't find that option, and nothing in the Virtualization menu indicated such facilities). All this program allows you to do is copy/restore/backup, partitions/disks, or sysprep an image (something Microsofts own sysprep tool does).
I am therefore left a little bewildered as to the point of this, especially given their Partition Manager, System Backup, Drive Backup etc software, already allows you to do everything this one does.
I'm going to check it's sysprep abilities as soon as I get back home on Monday/Tuesday, but as far as virtualization, I'd suggest you stick to the current offerings such as Virtual Box, Microsoft Virtual PC, MobaLiveCD, VMWare et al.
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2 comments:
I use VM, and came across your blog, and thought I would leave a comment :-) Hopefully it will help you to appreciate this product too :-)
Yes, sysprep is one of the features, but what's more important, it allows to convert real Windows system into format of virtual machine, and then you can run this virtual machine in MS VirtualPC or in VMware.
The basic concept is: this is a convertor tool, but it doesn't run virtual machines by itself. It creates virt.machine, but then you need VirtPC/Vmware to run it.
Plus it allows to adjust existing Windows to new hardware, or make Windows work after unsuccessful migration to virtual hardware with third-party software.
Thanks kiwi. I'd noticed the confusion surrounding features and their intended usage. It was the programs name that threw me off.
Planning on a follow up article within the next 72 hours or so :o)
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