Running Ubuntu on a Windows Virtual Machine

The following describes one way of running Ubuntu on a virtual machine on a personal Windows computer. If you are using the lab computers, you don’t need to do anything of this — all the necessary software is already there.

1. Save a copy of the latest Ubuntu ISO to a convenient folder on your computer.

2. Download and install VMware Player 6. This version is free for personal use.

3. Run VMware and create a new Ubuntu virtual machine using the ISO file you downloaded from step 1.

   For me, I sometimes run into problems installing VM Tools, and so do it from the Ubuntu Terminal in the virtual machine like this:

   $ sudo apt-get update
   $ sudo apt-get install open-vm-tools open-vm-tools-desktop
   

   I also install git, g++, and make with this terminal command:

   $ sudo apt-get install git g++ make
   

   I also like to install DropBox (for easily sharing files), Fish (a better interactive terminal shell), and Sublime (a fast, easy-to-use programming editor).

4. When you have the virtual machine running, see Running C++ Programs at the Command Line to install the software you’ll need to compile and run C++ programs in this course.

Unfortunately, it can be tricky to install virtual machines on some computers. If VMware doesn’t work for you, you could try using VirtualBox, or read about other ways install Ubuntu on Windows in another.