Impressive and free antivirus and antispyware package
Platform : Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows Vista
Type:
Manufacturer: VMWare, Inc.
Size: 429MB
Rating: 5
Verdict: A great antivirus and antispyware program at no cost
System Requirements:
Imagine being able to run another operating system on your computer, without
having to reboot your machine or having to leave Windows. The options are
endless. You could purchase a copy of Windows Vista and use it within a virtual
environment, getting used to the new features and testing it with your hardware,
before you decide to implement it on your work system.
Another option would be to install Windows XP on top of Windows XP, purely as
a test bed for software you plan to install on your system. This has a number of
advantages – you’re less likely to get spyware on your computer as software has
been installed within a virtual ‘closed box’ environment. Your Registry is kept
lean as software isn’t installed on your regular computer, unless absolutely
necessary. Also, you can install just about any software title, uninstall, and
then decide whether it meets your requirements, before you install on your work
machine.
If you’re a software developer or tester, you can also install multiple
operating systems. For example, you could have an old copy of Windows 98SE,
Windows XP and the new Windows Vista, to test whether your software works
successfully across each operating system.
VMware Workstation is desktop virtualisation software that is designed to
allow people to run multiple operating systems, simultaneously, on a single PC.
You’re not restricted to Windows-based operating systems, either. Why not use
VMWare Workstation to host a Linux-based operating system? If you’re nervous
about installing Ubuntu on your machine, why not first test it within your
virtual environment.
This new VMware Workstation 6 supports Windows Vista, USB 2.0 devices under a
virtual environment, multi-core CPU systems, multiple monitor display and much
more.
Note that this is the beta preview of the forthcoming major release. New
features include Unity, where you can show guest software on your existing
operating system, as well as improved 3D graphics support and more. You need a
temporary beta serial code to use Workstation 6.5, which you can obtain from
http://communities.vmware.com/community/beta/workstation6.5