How to install a Windows XP Pro sandbox or jail?

[Mateo1041]

I would like to set up an area in Windows XP where I can test settings and applications, but without it interfering with my normal everyday setup. It would be a development environment instead of production.

Does anyone know how I could accomplish this? Would I need to install another copy of Windows on some other partition? Would there be an easy way from within Windows XP to switch back and forth between the two environments?

Thanks,

- Matt

[ɹəuəllıʍ ʇɐb]

Welcome to the Windows Forum.

I think the easiest way to achieve this is by using Virtual PC. This way you can stay in your original Windows while using the Virtual PC version(s) of Windows.

Another way is to have multiple Windows systems in a multi-boot environment, using a boot manager. This way you will need to reboot each time you want to switch to the other environment. However, they will be completely separate environments.

P.S. I have used VMware in the past to install separate Windows environments for software development. However, I had great difficulties - in fact, it proved impossible - to link my compiled object into a valid Windows executable. This was with Borland Delphi. I have since stopped using both VMware and Borland development tools.

[Mateo1041]

Thanks! The MS Virtual PC product looks to be exactly what I'm after. Hopefully it doesn't use too much memory. Thankfully I at least have 1.5 GB.

I'll try this out and report back.

[Mike567]

VPC is great under windows XP.

Virtual Box is what you want if your running linux.

and VMWare is best on Mac.

[Mateo1041]

I ended up going with VirtualBox instead. It's soooooo much better than the Microsoft version. You can do more with it, use more operating systems with it, and it seemed a lot smoother. I've been using VirtualBox for about a month now and it does exactly what I need. I can essentially install anything on it for testing purposes.

Thanks everyone!