How to Convert a Physical Windows or Linux PC to a Virtual Machine

Need to keep an old Windows or Linux establishment around without keeping the equipment around? Change over that physical Windows parcel to a virtual hard commute, permitting you to boot it in a virtual machine project like VMware, Hyper-V, Parallels, or VirtualBox. 

Windows binds itself to your PC's equipment. These apparatuses will make a duplicate of a physical machine's satiate and transform it into a virtual machine, permitting it to boot in the virtual machine program you favor.

For VMware – Windows or Linux

VMware offers a free apparatus known as VMware vCenter Converter. It can change over both Windows and Linux physical machines into VMware virtual machines. You can then boot these virtual machines in VMware's free VMware Player application, so this can be a totally free arrangement. You could likewise boot it up in VMware Workstation or VMware Fusion. 

Download vCenter Converter from VMware and dispatch it on the PC you need to transform into a virtual machine. Click the "Proselyte machine" catch on the toolbar and select the present, fueled on PC as the source. Pick a VMware Workstation, VMware Player, or VMware Fusion virtual machine as the destination and arrange the choices for the virtual machine. 

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The utility will then make a virtual machine from the current Windows framework, changing it so it will boot legitimately in a virtual machine program. Spare that virtual machine to an outer hard commute and boot it up on an alternate PC.

For Microsoft Hyper-V – Windows Only

Microsoft offers a Disk2vhd device — one of their numerous valuable SysInternals utilities. This utility will change over a running Windows framework to a VHD (virtual hard commute) record for utilization in Microsoft's virtual machine items, for example, the Hyper-V virtual machine device included with expert renditions of Windows 8 and 8.1. 

Run this device on the Windows framework you need to change over. You'll have the capacity to choose which parcels and drives you need to incorporate in the VHD document. It'll make a duplicate of the running Windows framework as a VHD record, and you can take that VHD document to another PC and run it in Hyper-V — the changed over physical framework ought to boot up fine and dandy the length of you dispatch it in Microsoft's own Hyper-V virtual machine programme

For Parallels – Windows or Linux

Parallels offers their own particular device known as "Parallels Transporter Agent." This utility can be introduced on either Windows or Linux, and it can change over a physical framework to a virtual machine for utilization in the Parallels virtual machine application for Macs. It can duplicate the physical machine to a Parallels virtual machine record on an outer commute, or you can exchange it to a Mac running Parallels over a neighborhood system. 

Download the Parallels Transporter Agent application from Parallels and run it on your Windows or Linux framework. Utilize the wizard to exchange your current physical PC to an outer hard commute or your Mac over the system, picking precisely what makes it into that virtual machine.

For VirtualBox – A Manual Method

VirtualBox doesn't offer a simple graphical utility for changing over a physical machine to a virtual machine. In case you're feeling especially adventerous, they do offer some unsupported guidelines for changing over a physical Windows PC to a VirtualBox virtual machine. This obliges some registry tweaking and closing down the PC. You'll then need to physically make a duplicate of the plate and believer it to a VirtualBox VDI document. The procedure for changing over a Linux virtual machine ought to be about the same, however without all the additional changes needed to make Windows act. It's much less demanding to move Linux establishments between distinctive machines with diverse equipment designs. 

This procedure isn't for the weak of heart, and we incorporate it here just for the purpose of fulfillment. Regardless of the possibility that you utilize VirtualBox as of now, you may need to simply utilize VMware or Microsoft's utility and try VMware or Hyper-V out. In case regardless you're prepared to try it out, counsel the MIgrate Windows page on VirtualBox's wiki. 

In case you're changing over a Windows PC to a virtual machine, recall that you may experience permitting issues. Windows Activation may recognize that its running on an alternate machine, and you may need to contact Microsoft to get it appropriately enacted. Windows licenses are just expected to be being used on one PC at once.