Posted by Vince on 4/21/2009, 4:01 pm, in reply to "More on VirtualBox"
68.144.14.16
We're coming at this from opposite ends, LOL.
YOUR interest would be in running XP as a virtual machine. In that case -yes- you'd want to be able to slipstream service pack 2 or 3 into your XP installation disc before installing it.
I'm running VMware inside of XP. XP is my host; Linux or desktop BSD would be my guest virtual machine. So -while I'm quite familiar with slipstreaming service packs- I have no need of that since I'm already running XP-SP3 on my machines.
Yet, I think the author is "confusing" slipstreaming here, with mounting an image as a virtual disc. If he's not confused himself, he succeeds in confusing the reader by writing it the way he did.
One of the easiest ways to slipstream a Window's service pack into a new disc is to use a small program called "AutoStreamer". You can slipstream it 'manually' as well -using a Microsoft basic program with command lines- but it's much handier to use AutoStreamer instead.
One of the neat side effect benefits of using AutoStreamer is that it will create an ISO from Windows files. So... you can copy an XP installation disc to your hard drive and simply use the files on the hard drive to combine with a service pack and AutoStreamer will combine them for you and create an ISO out of the combination. This ISO can then be burned to a new CD and it becomes the installation disc. The author is saying that one doesn't need to burn it to CD though ....... just mount the ISO as a virtual disc in the virtual machine builder.
So why -you might ask- would anyone want to copy an XP installation disc to hard drive instead of using the CD for installing? Well, it's a lot faster to install that way and ....... it's handier. I have pretty well ALL of my program CD's copied to hard drive. That way, if/when I make a new XP operating system, I can install programs rapidly, one after the other ......... without needing to dig out all the CD's and keep putting them in/taking them out ...... of the CD/DVD player.
An XP installation itself, is speeded up by maybe 30% if it's installed from hard drive instead of from CD .... and you don't get the constant whine of the player either.
It's even possible to install an OS without a player or burner if the installation disc is copied to the target drive first. Just don't format the drive during installation.
And take note of this:
"I have to note here that VirtualBox is far from the only competitor in this field—in fact, many in the tech community report that VMWare's Workstation offers more features and handles multiple virtual machines better."
I'm using VMware's workstation already. So I really DON'T have any interest in using something even less capable.
But thanks anyways. 
-Vince
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