Virtual PC: Letting Your Students Install and Explore Without Fear
Joe Hummel, Lake Forest College, Dept of Math/CS
Virtual PC is a Windows application that fully emulates an IBM PC. Using VPC, students can install Linux onto a virtual machine, have root access, and dive into operating systems internals. Or students can install Linux and Apache, build server-side web applications, and then use the Windows host as a client for testing. Or students can install another version of Windows, have administrative access, and proceed to install and configure whatever software you wish: IIS, SQL Server, Visual Studio .NET. In general, virtualization software opens the door for students to install and explore platforms and tools you might otherwise be unable to install in a lab or personal environment. Virtual PC is a Microsoft product available as part of the MSDN Academic Alliance, and runs under Windows, Mac OS 9, and OS X. Similar products are available for Linux.
