Which virtual host do you choose for virtual machines?

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I find this to be a very difficult decision. There are quite a few pieces of software that will, essentially, do the same job. However I seem to believe that some are better than others.

In this post I’m going to try and show which piece of virtual machine software I prefer any why I like it.

If you’re looking for free software (which I generally do – who doesn’t?) you’ve basically got three choices – VMware Player, Microsoft Virtual PC (which seems to be getting outdated, but still works fine), and VirtualBox.

Here’s the order in which I would choose them:

  1. VirtualBox – I have to say I like VirtualBox the most. It’s fast and has a very tidy interface that is easy to use. I tried all three pieces of software on the same machine and it was noticeable that this piece of software was most responsive and most effecient – especially when using Windows guest machines. It doesn’t have the handy quick install feature that VMware has, but the speedy performance definitely makes up for that. Sadly it doesn’t support FAT32 file splitting, which is a shame if the hard drive you want to run it on is FAT32 as you wont be able to make virtual hard drives bigger than 4GB. However, I do think that it does work most efficiently and has the best interface.
  2. Microsoft Virtual PC – Despite the fact that Microsoft seem to be trying to phase this out (with the launch of XP Mode in Windows 7) it is still a very good virtual machine host. It not only has a clean interface, but it’s native virtual disk format supports FAT32 file splitting, so you’ll be able to run virtual hard disks on drives that run FAT32 without the 4GB file size limitation. However, I find it to be quite slow. Even when you are performing simple tasks (such as clicking the Start menu in the guest machine) it can take ages to respond. Also, it seems to be designed more for Windows guests, as it’s “Other” host option is very vague. I like Virtual PC more than VMware, but I’d still choose VirtualBox any day.
  3. VMware Player – This is my least favourite piece of software. Despite it being a very popular company who makes VMware Player, I still think it really isn’t up to regular virtual machine jobs. The main thing I can’t stand about VMware Player is the interface – I find it so clunky and unhelpful. I also find it the slowest of the three in terms of performance. It seems to cope pretty well with most operating systems, but the lack of speed makes VMware annoying at times. It does have the Easy Install feature – which is designed to make OS installation much more simple by automatically running through the process, but I’ve never found that particularly useful.

So there you go – if you want a decent, free virtual machine host I’d recommend VirtualBox to you.

Review: Exspect In-Ear Earphones

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I went out today and actually bought my second pair of the Exspect In-Ear earphones. I know, you’re thinking who the hell are Exspect? To be honest, I don’t really know – but I do know that their bargain earphones are fantastic.

They sell in HMV for £6 and to be honest most people – including myself – would think that they are £6 and therefore are probably god-awful. Absolutely not the case.

When I bought them the first time, I was amazed at how amazing the earphones sounded. The sound is extremely crisp, the bass is very well balanced and they are also (importantly) very comfortable. From a set of earphones this cheap, you’d expect a tinny sound with a lack of bass but I have to say I was astonished to find they are much better than you can expect at this price.

I also love the great 3D effect you get from the earphones. Listen to a song like Pink Floyd – On the Run and you’ll see what I mean. It’s as if the music is playing in your head, not your ears.

They are available in two colours – black and white – and having owned both I prefer the black – but that’s just my own preference.

In summary – a definite must if you’re on a budget. There are better earphones around – but there’s no point in buying cheap, tinny earphones when you can get these.

Remove Sky Player channels from Windows 7 Media Center

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If you’re like me and get really annoyed by the Sky Player channels in the new Windows 7 Media Center, you’ll be pleased to know I’ve worked out how to get rid of them.

Simply right-click on each Sky Player Channel in the TV Guide, and click Disable channel. This will remove it from the guide and stop it showing up.

I suppose the service is only really useful if a) you’re a full Sky subscriber and b) you have unlimited broadband bandwidth. I have neither so it is useless to me!

With 2TB memory cards on the way in the next 2 years, hard drives may become superseded!

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Just browsing through the various tech news going round at the moment – with CES (the Consumer Electronics Show) dominating posts, I noticed that companies are aiming to have 2TB memory cards on the shelves in the next 2 years.

Now when you think that the most common hard disk size at this moment in time is 250-500GB, it makes you realise how quickly memory cards are growing in size and how quickly they could take over hard drives.

At the moment the biggest memory card you’ll find on the shelves is about 32GB – at most 64GB – but recent technology has enabled companies to rapidly expand the amount of storage on one memory card.

Obviously there are some factors will slow down the use of these bigger cards – cost being the biggest. It’s unclear how much these supersize cards will cost and therefore hard drives will probably continue to dominate the market for the next 24 months, at least.

However, with the larger cards now available, it opens up opportunity for Linux builders to start optimizing their operating system for memory cards  – so computers without hard drives can boot and run their operating systems with ease.

In addition, it will hopefully expand the netbook even further as the small memory cards will help to free up space for better batteries that last longer. It also solves the annoying problem of the lack of memory space in some netbooks.

So overall, the new memory cards coming in the next 12-24 months will hopefully bring new hope to computer users as they are much more convenient than big, bulky hard drives.

Mediamote – free remote control for Windows Media Center, designed for iPhone and iPod Touch

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I recently stumbled across this free app, available on the App Store, which is designed to work as a remote control for Windows Media Center on Windows Vista and Windows 7.

The app works over wi-fi, so you’ll need a wi-fi connection for it to work. You’ll also need to download the Mediamote server from here and install the software.

Once it is installed, simply run the Mediamote app from your iPod Touch or iPhone, select the PC that it is installed on and then you are good to go.

Now it is up and running, you’ll see that the app has some quite concise options that allow you to control most aspects of Media Center.

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When I tried this with the Windows 7 Media Center, I was very pleased at how quickly it worked and how all of the buttons worked properly.

I would recommend this to anyone who can’t afford to shed out of a new Media Center remote but would like something simple and easy to use.