The processing power of computers is increasing at a speed which would have been almost unthinkable a few years ago. The arrival of multi-core processors, along with the falling price of memory and hard disks, means that the computers are not used to their full potential most of the time. One way to make the most of all that potential is through virtualization. In other words, installing several operating systems side-by-side using tools such as VMware Server. After installing VMware, all you have to do is launch the assistant and follow the steps that are described to be able to work in Windows whilst installing the latest Linux distribution, for example. Once this has finished, you will have a “virtual machine” window on your screen containing Linux. Or if you prefer, you can install Windows XP, Windows Vista or even MS-DOS. Everything will work exactly as if you had two computers in one.

There are limitations, of course, such as graphics acceleration for games, which still isn’t completely resolved, or the slight performance drop when compared to a real dedicated computer. But despite these small problems, it’s a very attractive way to make the most of the money invested in your PC: And as if that weren’t enough, the web page of VMware features a section dedicated to gathering together pre-built virtual machines which can provide all sorts of specific functions. For example, there are virtual machines designed especially for safely browsing the Internet. Using them is simple: download the file (which, it has to be said, may be several hundreds of MB) and open it using VMware in order to enjoy a browsing environment which is completely isolated from the real computer but which includes all the features of a conventional web browser.

It’s easier than it seems and, what’s more, it’s free.

You can find it here: Goofull VMware.

The virtual machines can be downloaded from here: VMware.

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