Virtual voice for Yahoo on Vista
Vista, Virtual PC 2007, Windows 98
Getting ready to install

Preparing to install

On the previous pages we described virtual PCs, what they do and briefly discussed the items we need to create a Virtual PC running Windows 98.

On this page we'll talk about safety and security issues, and what to expect from the forthcoming install guide.

When we are done we will have Windows 98 running in a window on Microsoft Vista.

We'll also install into that virtual Windows 98, a Yahoo chat program with voice .

You will be able to connect to Yahoo chat (Yahoo willing) and use Yahoo voice and webcam.

You can also install and run other programs in the virtual Windows 98 that you want, not just Yahoo chat.
The virtual PC is a useful 'self-contained' virtual Operating System container for testing out new programs without polluting your main PC with install files and drivers etc.
Files and programs that are installed into the Virtual Windows98 hard disk image are nicely 'sandboxed' and isolated from your main PC.
When you install programs into your virtual Windows 98 PC they are installed only in that virtual PC and not your main PC.

Virtual PCs can be a valuable safety tool too.
If you were to install and run a 'badly behaved' program into your virtual Windows 98 PC the effects of it might damage your Windows 98 virtual hard disk image (which you can easily fix with a backup copy, it's only 1 file). By running the program on the virtual PC the chances of that badly behaved program damaging your main PC is *much* smaller than if you installed and ran it directly on your main PC.

Important You should know that this is more of a guide than a step-by-step tutorial.
For example, we'll show the steps to preparing the setup for installing Windows 98 onto the virtual PC, but we don't describe the entire Windows 98 installation process in detail.
Similarily when we get to the state that the virtual Windows 98 is installed and running we'll point out that you can install your own programs and utilities and chat programs into the new virtual Windows 98, but we don't get into detail on how to install them.

If you are comfortable with this, and want to continue, let's put it together now.