Software Questions and Answers - How to Run virtualized Computers on a Server

S. De writes in with a software question
Question: I have a Windows NT server with SP 2 loaded on a Compaq Proliant 400 machine. I want to have the a virtualized copy of a Windows NT server on any Pentium 4 or Core 2 Duo processor with Windows XP professional or any other Microsoft Windows OS. How can I do this?

Answer: To run virtualization software on your computer the processor must support it. If it's an older server like you have it may not support virtualization so you may not be able to run any of the software on it. And since you are running Windows NT there is good chance the virtualization software won't support that version of Windows. You can look into VMware Workstation or VMware server and see if you can get it to run on your server.

Microsoft has their own virtualization software called Hyper-V.

There is also the free Microsoft Virtual PC but it won't run on NT.

You may want to consider getting a new server or at least upgrading to Windows Server 2003 before getting into virtualization but be sure to make sure your processor supports Intel Virtualization Technology (Intel VT).

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