Running VM's Within Windows 10

Hello, my first post here, hope it's in the right place. I've been running Windows 10 since the day after the preview was released. However I took a different route than most when evaluating the OS, I installed it on my school laptop. Now it's not the best, only 1.4Ghz Intel Celeron 2995U processor with 4 gigs of RAM.

What I am attempting to do is run 2 virtual machines within Windows 10, one running Windows Server 2008 R2, and one running Windows 7 Pro.

My question is this, has anyone had any issues running VM's on Windows 10? Hell, has anyone else even attempted? I've been digging around on the net have yet to find any sort of commentary on this.

Any help you might be able to provide would be greatly appreciated.

Hyper-V works fine - see here Hyper-V virtualization - Setup and Use in Windows 10 for details on set-up.

VirtualBox works but not the latest hardened version. You need 4.3.12 (released may last year) or earlier https://forums.virtualbox.org/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=63923 This works fine for me.

I've not tried running VMWare in Windows 10 host but another user (Jimbo) has been having networking problems using it Vmware on HOST W10 Machine Networks don't work This may be resolved now - you could try it if you prefer VMWare.

Your CPU supports VT-x (ARK | Intel® Celeron® Processor 1017U (2M Cache, 1.60 GHz)) but it isn't clear if it supports SLAT which you need for Hyper-V. Your best bet is to try and turn on the feature - it will either work or not.

So yes, plenty of people have tried virtualisation on a 10 host and your best bet at the moment is probably Hyper-V (if your CPU supports it, specifically SLAT) otherwise an older version of VirtualBox.

One issue you will have, particularly if you plan on running both virtual machines at the same time, is a lack of memory. Each running VM OS needs adequate memory and you don't want to run the host system short either. Fitting 2 client operating systems plus the host in 4 GB RAM (and even less if the host is 32 bit) is going to be tight. And if the host is 64 bit it's needs will be higher.

Hi there

Windows 10 communicating with earlier releases than W8 and most Linux Distos is OK -- the problem arises when you want to share FROM W7 TO W10. To make this work simply block INBOUND port 139 on your firewall (on the W10 system not the W7 / Linux systems). TCP Ports BTW not UDP.

This is for those of you still essentially using NETBIOS naming or similar -- the HOSTNAMES don't get resolved on the old way. Accessing by IP address or a HOSTS file will always work but a lot of people on Home networks use DHCP for their networks so can't always guarantee the IP address.

So to repeat - whether W10 is on a REAL or VM and you need to access shares FROM Linux (SAMBA) or OS's W7 and earlier block INBOUND port 139 on the W10 machine. I.e click the Network button on the W7 machine or search Network SAMBA shares on your Linux equivalent of File explorer - in my case Dolphin.

To avoid confusion -- access the W10 shares FROM W7 and SAMBA (LINUX). W10 can access the shares without altering the firewall but I like my shares to go BOTH ways.

My understanding is that formerly TWO ports were used 445 and 139 - if one didn't get a response the other port was tried. Windows 10 only listens for port 445 - so Port 139 doesn't send a response and the remote system times out.

There may be a better explanation but this seems to fit the facts - blocking INBOUND port 139 on W10 seems to do the trick.

Basic solution here is for simple HOME LAN's -- those guys using complex things like DOMAIN servers etc - then I don't know if there are problems.

I'm using VMWARE release 10.0.4 / vmplayer release 6. There were some issues using VMware WKS 11 / VMware player 7 with USB dynamic attachments with W10 as a VM and sometimes the whole system would freeze requiring a re-boot of the HOST. No issues with VMware workstation 10.0.4 even when using W10 as a VM in unity mode.

I've run 4 concurrent VM's on a Linux Host on a HP 8GB i5 machine with an SSD fitted -- W7, W8.1 W10 and XP. Host system is CENTOS rel 7. The only 32 bit system is the XP system. I've allocated 2 GB RAM to the VM's apart from the XP system - 1 GB.

System runs OK for what I want to do but 4 VM's is probably the max you could run without getting excessive swapping etc. When running 1 or two - they run at almost native speed. Linux HOST IMO has a lot less overhead than running Windows as the HOST - unless using HYPER-V which is another story.

Cheers
jimbo

Vladimir said:

I've not tried running VMWare in Windows 10 host but another user (Jimbo) has been having networking problems using it Vmware on HOST W10 Machine Networks don't work This may be resolved now - you could try it if you prefer VMWare.

I got VMWare 11 Workstation running on Windows 10 build 9879 (host) without major issues. Can't say nothing about other builds yet. I'll try it on 9860 today.

Hi there.

What GUESTS are you running -- my issues were with running W10 as a GUEST with VMware workstation 11. You can run a guest W10 system on a W10 HOST if you want - no probs with that configuration but does the VM perform correctly.

Other guests seem to work OK with VMware rel 11.0 but I wanted to test W10.

Cheers
jimbo