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VMWARE vs HYPER-V - difficult choice
HI there
By using the bcedit trick I can run both HYPER-V VM's and VMWARE (not simultaneously though - you have to re-boot).
VMWARE has the advantage of not relying on RDP for all communications - RDP could be real slow on a laggy network. You can get better response by using the HYPER-V console on the HOST but this could be fiddly too and it still uses the Virtual Switch adapter for communication between HOST and VM.
HYPER-V seems to have Virtual Disk access better and the dynamic memory is a brilliant feature - BUT if you want to test specific hardware that is USB connected then VMWARE is the way to go -- HYPER-V allows you to access say external USB's but you have to attach them to THE HOST and then access them via connect network drive.
If you want to use something like a USB webcam then VMWARE again. VMWARE is superior when it comes to attaching and detaching all sorts of devices to the VM.
It would seem to me that using the HYPER-V model is the way to go if you were virtualising essentially a bog standard machine running things like CORPORATE applications, web access and office apps.
If you are a HOME user where you plug in things like mobile phones and other hardware and you tinker around a bit then VMWARE is probably the choice you should use. Note also VMWARE supports 3d acceleration and graphics so your games will run. HYPER-V will use whatever your RDP supports - so even 2-D rendering is likely to be better with VMWARE. For normal "office" type work probably not a big issue.
Of course HYPER-V is free while WORKSTATION costs around 180 EUR for a non upgrade version. VMWARE PLAYER is FREE though and uinless you do a lot of snapshotting / checkpointing of VM's or use some other rarely used (by home users) features then VMPLAYER is good enough.
(VMWARE networking though is BROKEN on a W10 HOST but version 11 together with the latest VMPLAYER is being release next month so I'd assume that would be fixed by then -- upgrade from version 10 of Workstation is free for purchasers of Workstation 10 if they buy in October).
Running W10 in VMWARE on a W8.1 HOST seems just fine as does HYPER-V. I get the impression that after installing VMWARE TOOLS the workstation VM is just a bit snappier than the HYPER-V version - probably due to HYPER V using a network for communication - especially if you are using RDP on a remote machine.
If you run SEVERAL VM's then the dynamic memory idea of HYPER-V might be a winner as when the VM's are "quiesced" the memory will drop towards the minimum allocated which could be s low as 750 MB.
Thanks to KARI who with his excellent tutorial got me started on HYPER-V.
I think it's not an easy choice to make - but if you are prepared for re-boots of the HOST you can by using the bcedit trick simply enable / disable the HYPERVISOR so you can run VMWARE without having to uninstall HYPER-V.
For the bcedit trick here's the link - I believe it has been mentioned before but here's the link again.
http://www.ivobeerens.nl/2013/12/16/...n-windows-8-x/
Hope this helps some in deciding what virtualisation platform to use.
Cheers
jimbo
Last edited by jimbo45; 09 Oct 2014 at 08:55.