Is it possible to create Portable VM?

vmware virtualization virtual-machine virtualbox portability
Anindya Chatterjee picture Anindya Chatterjee · Aug 10, 2010 · Viewed 40.9k times · Source

I want to know that is it possible to create a fully portable virtual machine using any of the VMWare like products? My objective is to create a virtual machine (XP as guest OS), install some app in it, put the vm in a usb2 drive (performance is not a matter), and run it in any windows os (xp, vista, 7) without installing anything in host, using any host account (admin, guest, limited). Is it possible to do that using any vmware like product? If possible then which one is my best bet?

Answer

saschabeaumont picture saschabeaumont · Aug 30, 2010

Can't be done if you want to take advantage of Hardware assisted virtualization. Basically you need admin rights in order to access all the nifty features that make modern, hardware assisted virtualization so fast.

QEMU can run in a few different modes. When run as an emulator the processor is replicated in software, so hardware assisted virtualization is not necessary. This emulation is slow, but very useful if you're developing for embedded hardware that is different than your main PC.

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