Multiple OS

Takaharu · May 5, 2011, 11:25 AM

I can't remember who it was that mentioned it or how long ago it was but I remember someone mentioning that they run a piece of software on their system that allows them to run multiple operating systems (I think) simultaneously on their PC.
Could anyone refresh my memory?

Kizo · May 5, 2011, 11:52 AM

OldBuzzard, HyperOS

Not sure about the "simultaneous" part though...

Takaharu · May 5, 2011, 12:23 PM

That be the one. Much appreciated.

IvanV · May 5, 2011, 12:31 PM

You've got Microsoft's VirtualPC, though I haven't used it for anything other than Windows XP mode. It's mostly meant for running Windows virtual machines within a Windows host, but several Linux distros (SuSE and Red Hat) also work. As for Windows guests, the latest version officially supports only XP and higher, though several others should work too (or you can get Virtual PC 2007 which supports them officially).

VMLite is another free solution and has some nice features (3D hardware acceleration, for instance), but it only supports Windows hosts and guests.

blibbax · May 5, 2011, 01:00 PM

What does HyperOS do that dual booting doesn't, out of interest?

OldBuzzard · May 5, 2011, 01:31 PM

Yeah, it's HyperOS.
HyperOs Systems

It doesn't run them simultaneously though.

Here's the info from their site:

Quote:

Geek
Clones and runs up to 10 Windows systems from your boot drive and up to 10 further systems, one system per partition.

SuperGeek
Clones and runs any number of Windows systems in each of up to 24 partitions.

HyperOs is a must for any serious Windows 2K, XP, Vista or Win7 user because you can:

1. Add Windows7 to your Vista machine, or add Windows7 to your XP (or 2K) machine as a separate system and swap between systems with a double click. Clone/backup/restore/image/delete whole systems like files.

2. Add XP (or 2K) to a Vista or Windows7 machine as a separate system and swap between systems with a double click. Clone/backup/restore/image/delete whole systems like files.

3. Add Vista to an XP (or 2K) or Windows7 machine as a separate system and swap between systems with a double click. Clone/backup/restore/image/delete whole systems like files.

4. Clone one XP or Vista or Windows7 system as many times as you like with a drag and drop. Then switch between them with a double click. You can have a hundred copies of each version of Windows if you like with HyperOs 2010 SuperGeek!

5. Solve every software problem with OneClick (swap to the next system)

6. Give the Internet its own Windows System (fight the war only in this system)

7. Give everyone in the Family PC his or her own system.

8. Give your big application(s) their very own Windows system (best performance and stability for your big apps, such as graphics, music or games)

9. Create a sacrificial Windows system for testing out new software

10. Create a secure mission critical Business Windows system (ring fence it, then install all new drivers and applications in a second Windows system).

11. Create a parallel backup system or systems of your most important Windows systems just in case.

12. Back up or restore any system locally or to a network location in seconds with a drag and drop, or a double click.

Virtualisation
Virtual PC, VMWare and suchlike are hardware virtualisation programs. They enable the user to run one copy of Windows on several pieces of hardware so that if one piece of hardware fails, the user can continue seamlessly. This protects the user from hardware failures but the Microsoft Windows operating system is far less reliable than most computer hardware. So it is far more important to protect yourself against operating system failures than it is to protect against hardware failures. This is where HyperOs comes in. We offer software virtualisation with a 30 second delay for a reboot. If your first operating system fails then 30 seconds later HyperOs will have you up and running in your second operating system. This is simple, effective software virtualisation.

Here are the technological capabilities of HyperOs:

1. Runs up to 20(Geek) or any number (SuperGeek) of copies of Windows 2K, XP, Vista, Server 2003/2008, Windows7 on one PC on one or more HDDs without changing your boot drive. It is still drive C:

2. Live clone (2K XP XP64 Vista32 Vista64 Server2003/2008 windows7) and live backup (2K XP XP64 only) of each Windows System. It clones or backs up the Windows system you are actually in, from that system!!

3. Full Calendar based scheduled backing up of each Windows System and Partition, locally or to a network location.

4. Now fixes Windows bug when more than 2 Physical Hard Disk drives are present by including a BIOS disk number sequencer in My Other Computers - Tools - Options.

5. Swaps systems without multi-booting. The C: drive remains your one bootable partition, just like a single installation. HyperOs does not change your boot environment at all. HyperOs rewrites BOOT.INI and/or Vista's BCD.

6. No partitions are hidden, all Windows systems can see all other Windows systems and all data and all data partitions. Each Windows system can operate on all the data on any HDD.

7. All 2K and XP and Vista and Windows7 systems share the same Paging file. This works flawlessly and saves a lot of space.

8. Swaps systems with a double click fire and forget from within Windows using the My Other Computers Window.

9. Keeps your existing Windows installation on C and allows you to add as many other Windows systems as you like.

10. HyperOs can back up a system (FAT32 and NTFS) in seconds, at Windows speeds, several times faster than Norton Ghost or Acronis True image or other command line based backup utilities.

11. HyperOs provides an optional boot interrupt menu.

Improvements in HyperOs 2010 over HyperOs 2007:

1. HyperOs now includes removeable drives, such as USB sticks or external USB drives in the My Other Computers Window. So we can now Backup and Restore Windows Systems or Documents Drives to a USB stick or an external USB HDD by a simple drag and drop in the My Other Computers Window.

2. We can now clone and run several Windows systems in the same partition. You no longer need to make extra partitions to have extra Windows systems. There is no limit to the number of systems you can clone and run with SuperGeek 2010.

3. PerfectLiveClone technology clones the OS you are running (your live OS) to a new partition and then rather than rereferencing the Windows registry to the new drive letter, it keeps the drive letter the same and rereferences the new partition to that drive letter. The Clone then believes that it is the original and all rereferencing problems are avoided. We use the command language underneath 2K, XP, Vista and Windows7 on reboot, to grab the locked files that we could not get from within Windows itself.

4. PerfectClone technology clones the OS to a new partition and then rather than rereferencing the Windows registry to the new drive letter, it keeps the drive letter the same and rereferences the new partition to that drive letter. The Clone then believes that it is the original and all rereferencing problems are avoided. Therefore you can uninstall applications from cloned systems without difficulty and drive letter sensitive applications such as MSOffice and AntiVirus shields and Firewalls will run and uninstall fine from the cloned system.

5. We have improved backups so that they are twice as fast in the event that a reboot is required to get some locked files. They no longer take up twice the space of the finished backup temporarily in the case where the locked files have to be added to the archive after the reboot (this was a Winrar problem). So Winrar should no longer run out of space and give you an error message.

6. Fully modernised My Other Computers interface. We now list the partition numbers so that you can refer to a Windows system by that number rather than by its drive letter.

7. The new My Other Computers GUI allows you to customize your icons. You can have a different one for each system if you require.

8. We now track all backups wherever they are so that HyperOs can always find them so long as they are on the local machine or an accessible network.

9. Combines the BCD booting technology of Vista and Windows7 with the Boot.ini booting technology of 2K and XP. The result is seemless GUI or post BIOS booting.

10. Guides you to disable the UAC in Vista, so that you do not spend your life being interogated by an inanimate machine.

11. Synchronises the restricted Vista installer drive letter assignments with those of your existing 2K or XP installations.

12. Improvements to the scheduled backup feature to allow backup on system shutdown.

That pretty much tells the story. I will however dispute the one that I BOLDED. That used to be true when they used 'sector copy', but the newer versions of Windows don't allow that, and a clone/backup will take up to 30 minutes. Even then that isn't too bad when you consider that it's creating a new system with all the drivers, etc installed. It's still faster than doing a 'clean' install', and starting from scratch.

I will do ONE install of each different OS, and install the various drivers for all of the hardware, but no other applications. I then clone those as many times as I need to and then install the applications that I want that particular OD to run. That way you only need to Validate/Register each OS one time.

I've used HOS since 2003, and I really can't understand why it hasn't become more popular. It offers SO many advantages to having just one OS.

If you have any questions abut HOS, feel free to ask me here or via PM.

May 5, 2011, 11:25 AM	#1
Takaharu I can fart in 7 languages Join Date: Aug 2009 Location: England, UK Posts: 1,838 Rep Power: 107 System Specs	Multiple OS I can't remember who it was that mentioned it or how long ago it was but I remember someone mentioning that they run a piece of software on their system that allows them to run multiple operating systems (I think) simultaneously on their PC. Could anyone refresh my memory? __________________ I don't get paid to know the answer, therefore I'm far more likely to give you a straight and honest answer. Mods Rig, Box Mods Rig, Folding details

May 5, 2011, 11:52 AM	#2
Kizo HHs Valve fanatic/C++ dev Join Date: Apr 2007 Posts: 280 Rep Power: 72 System Specs	Re: Multiple OS OldBuzzard, HyperOS Not sure about the "simultaneous" part though...

May 5, 2011, 12:23 PM	Thread Starter #3
Takaharu I can fart in 7 languages Join Date: Aug 2009 Location: England, UK Posts: 1,838 Rep Power: 107 System Specs	Re: Multiple OS That be the one. Much appreciated. __________________ I don't get paid to know the answer, therefore I'm far more likely to give you a straight and honest answer. Mods Rig, Box Mods Rig, Folding details

May 5, 2011, 12:31 PM	#4
IvanV HH Assassin Guild Member Join Date: Dec 2004 Posts: 5,908 Rep Power: 333 System Specs	Re: Multiple OS You've got Microsoft's VirtualPC, though I haven't used it for anything other than Windows XP mode. It's mostly meant for running Windows virtual machines within a Windows host, but several Linux distros (SuSE and Red Hat) also work. As for Windows guests, the latest version officially supports only XP and higher, though several others should work too (or you can get Virtual PC 2007 which supports them officially). VMLite is another free solution and has some nice features (3D hardware acceleration, for instance), but it only supports Windows hosts and guests. __________________ If anyone has Portal 2 and hasn't played the co-op and wants to do me a favour, let me know (PM me or whatever).

May 5, 2011, 01:00 PM	#5
blibbax What does this do? Join Date: Sep 2008 Location: Oxford, UK Posts: 4,208 Rep Power: 245 System Specs	Re: Multiple OS What does HyperOS do that dual booting doesn't, out of interest? __________________ Donate the spare computing power of your PC to help to cure Alzheimer's, ALS, Huntington's, Parkinson's disease and cancer: Fold for HH!