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What I hate about using MS software in a VM

BenBurch

Gatekeeper of The Left
BenBurch
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:hb:

When you have a VM that you use only every few months, and you turn it on you go through just an incredible amount of pain with things that want to upgrade and all of them want to reboot you. I have to figure on an hour to do that before I can get moving whenever I turn on a VM that has been silent for 3-4 months.

Meh.
 
BenBurch said:
:hb:

When you have a VM that you use only every few months, and you turn it on you go through just an incredible amount of pain with things that want to upgrade and all of them want to reboot you. I have to figure on an hour to do that before I can get moving whenever I turn on a VM that has been silent for 3-4 months.

Meh.
Click to expand...

Turn off auto-updates. Then it will stay pretty static.
 
I don't know which MS software you're referring to, but I wonder if it would help to run OpenOffice--might be less annoying than MS? Plus maybe you could run it natively...
 
And this is different from any other software developer who frequently releases updates?
 
Could you arrange to autostart those VMs weekly or so with Windows Update set to automatic so they wouldn't go stale?
 
I usually just skip all the updates in the VM, when I need to do something. Then, sometimes I remember to apply them, later. But, for what I do, updates are hardly important for most of my VMs. (Though, I will try to apply all the latest ones after a fresh install, if I have time.)

Sometimes, its handy to keep a VM specifically assigned NOT to have any updates applied. Testing software on base installs only can sometimes reveal interesting things.
 
BenBurch said:
Good idea. I could put in a cron job for that.
Click to expand...

Using virtualbox? Check the vboxheadless command. Script around that, cron it for once a week or every other day or so. To verify updates have been put in place, you could use powershell to remotely hit the windows VM and check versions, etc.
 
Windows 7 doesn't need to reboot as much for Windows Updates. Only if they're integral changes.

For 2000/XP, I'm sure there are still ways of installing all the requisite updates from an offline installer? Third-party wrapper, of course. I haven't used either OS for a while, so I dunno offhand.

But yeah... Linux is still the best for this sort of thing.
 
BenBurch said:
:hb:

When you have a VM that you use only every few months, and you turn it on you go through just an incredible amount of pain with things that want to upgrade and all of them want to reboot you. I have to figure on an hour to do that before I can get moving whenever I turn on a VM that has been silent for 3-4 months.

Meh.
Click to expand...

You aren't forced to update, but I do understand what you mean! I have a VM with XP & IE 6 set up for testing stuff and XP is adamant that I shouldn't be running such old software! You can alter the settings to turn off automatic upgrades to get rid of the nagging.

Mind you my Ubuntu VM set-up also keeps nagging me to upgrade stuff but the award for sheer annoyance should go to FF - it is forever going "I've found an update...."
 
Darat said:
You aren't forced to update, but I do understand what you mean! I have a VM with XP & IE 6 set up for testing stuff and XP is adamant that I shouldn't be running such old software! You can alter the settings to turn off automatic upgrades to get rid of the nagging.

Mind you my Ubuntu VM set-up also keeps nagging me to upgrade stuff but the award for sheer annoyance should go to FF - it is forever going "I've found an update...."
Click to expand...

You shouldn't be using such old software. It's dangerous.

At least whoever you're testing the software for shouldn't be using it...
 
BenBurch said:
:hb:

When you have a VM that you use only every few months, and you turn it on you go through just an incredible amount of pain with things that want to upgrade and all of them want to reboot you. I have to figure on an hour to do that before I can get moving whenever I turn on a VM that has been silent for 3-4 months.

Meh.
Click to expand...


I run several versions of Windows in VM's and I never have to restart them more than once. I don't know what you're doing there.

If you have other software that wants to restart Windows after it's updated, update it all before you restart that way you only have to restart once.
 
ARRGHHH!!!

I hadn't noticed my VM had downloaded the IE 8 update in the background - so now I've got to zero that VM and reinstall a vanilla XP to get back to IE 6!!!
 
Darat said:
ARRGHHH!!!

I hadn't noticed my VM had downloaded the IE 8 update in the background - so now I've got to zero that VM and reinstall a vanilla XP to get back to IE 6!!!
Click to expand...
Google sent an email recently to say that they'll soon be dropping support for IE6 in their apps (Mail, Maps, &c), so I imagine the percentage using it will drop to some degree then.
 
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