Scope:
This document is a placeholder for adding to our discussion about Virtual Machines.
Previous Article:
Here is an article I wrote about 10 years ago on how to use LabVIEW with Virtual Machines:
http://giawerx.com/15-marketing/news/25-using-virtualbox-for-discrete-labview-installations?
Virtualization Software
Virtualization software will focus on Windows/Mac hardware platforms including VMware Fusion/Player, and Hyper-V. A more comprehensive list can be found here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_platform_virtualization_software
A link to the free version of VMware Workstation Player:
http://www.vmware.com/products/player/playerpro-evaluation.html
Most Mac users I know use VMware Fusion:
http://www.vmware.com/products/fusion.html
And for the built-in Virtualization Software in some Windows Operating Systems, you can use Hyper-V
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/virtualization/hyper-v-on-windows/quick-start/enable-hyper-v
Guest Operating Systems
Presumably, most LabVIEW development is done on the Windows platform. The focus will be 3 poplar variants of Windows that span the entire LabVIEW release history from LabVIEW 7 to LabVIEW 2016: Windows XP, Windows 7, and Windows 10.
In most cases, you'll need your original installation disks (or ISO image copies of them) to install Windows onto a virtual machine. Here is a link to the WIndows 10 installation software:
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10
There are also many free and paid for "Appliances":
https://www.google.com/#q=vmware+appliances
01/06/2017 JGG Placeholder need to complete this document.