0

Does it make a difference? All I'll be doing (for the most part) is running different browsers. I would think the most stripped down one possible would be best.

Update: My dev box is a MacBook Pro (2010) with 8G ram, 2.4 GHz processor running Lion.

sprugman
  • 19,351
  • 35
  • 110
  • 163

1 Answers1

4

Ordinary Windows 7 installations are shipped with a full load of crap. Even the cleanest installs have a size of at least 10 GB. For that reason, I recommend to only use Windows 7 if you want to test IE9+ (which requires Vista+).

The following steps will take a maximum of ten minutes. Afterwards, you have a fully functioning Windows 7 + IE9 system, which takes only 2GB of physical space:

Getting Windows 7 Lite

  • I use this set-up in VirtualBox. I have not tested it in VMWare, but there should be no differences.
  • Get a Windows 7 Lite VM image.
    I myself use an image, created by ivankehayov:
    • Download name: Win7.SP1.IE9.lite.v2-IK
    • ISO size: 700 MB (after installing: less 2GB)
    • MD5: 094BE542B3F292726EF7F16619CACA9A
    • For more information, and the tools used to create this image, see this forum. More details (about the old image) can be found here.

Creating/Installing the Virtual Machine

  • Create an new VM, and put the ISO image in the virtual CD slot.
  • 2 GB RAM (Minimum of 1 GB, to ensure that your system doesn't crash).
  • Boot the Virtual Machine.
  • Install from the iso image

Decrease resource usage (4 steps)

  1. Install CCleaner, to wipe (temporary) (log) files.
  2. Disable System Protection:
    Control Panel > System Protection > Configure... > Turn off system protection
    Disable system protection
  3. Disable the page file (especially recommended when you've got a SSD).
    Control Panel > Advanced system settings > Performance [Settings..] > Advanced > Virtual memory [Change..] > No paging file - Set. Confirm and reboot.
    Disable Page file
  4. Disable all unnecessary services, to increase the booting speed.
    services.msc

Set your preferences (homepage? IE settings?), and save a snapshot of your VM. When you're done with using the VM, restore the snapshot. This will prevent Windows from hogging disk space over time, and keeps your VM image compact.

My virtual Windows 7 boots within 45 seconds.
Relevant details about my own environment:
- Virtualization software: Oracle VirtualBox
- Operating system: Linux-based
- RAM: 8 GB
- Disk: 60 GB SSD

Rob W
  • 341,306
  • 83
  • 791
  • 678
  • Note: I have also written a full guide on using IE6, 7 and 8, Opera, Chrome, Firefox and Safari in **a single Windows XP VM**. I prefer the WinXP image over Win7, because it boots faster. If you're interested, add an additional comment. – Rob W Mar 02 '12 at 18:07
  • Thanks for the great write-up. Yeah, I need to test IE9, so need to get Win 7 going, but I'd be interested to see your guide if you have a link to it... – sprugman Mar 06 '12 at 19:40
  • 2
    @sprugman It took some time (I was busy), but I've finally published [the guide on setting up a single machine containing all browsers](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/10541225/cross-browser-testing-internet-explorer-6-7-8-and-all-major-browsers-on-the-same-machine). – Rob W May 10 '12 at 20:23
  • Is this windows 7 Lite image still anywhere available ? – Willem D'Haeseleer Aug 21 '13 at 06:40
  • @WillemD'haeseleer It seems that the torrents are not active any more (latest version = v4, md5sum=44ad48a18f8ae747b7924747d95aeb4b). If you just want an image (regardless of size), get it from http://modern.ie/. – Rob W Aug 21 '13 at 08:33
  • @WillemD'haeseleer Found v4 (likely) here http://vozforums.com/showthread.php?t=2734985 (direct link http://up.4share.vn/f/3f0d0d080f0b0809/Win7.SP1.IE9.lite.v4-IK.iso.file) – janot May 07 '15 at 22:27