Software

Virtual Machine Applications For Windows 10 | Best 17

Before anything else, let us start by understanding what exactly are Virtual Machine Applications? If you put it in simple terms, a virtual machine application lets you run two operating systems on the same system simultaneously. For example, you can run the Apple OS and Windows OS simultaneously on your Windows PC with the help of a virtual machine application. If you have a Windows 10 and would like to run any other OS along with your Windows OS in your system for any reason whatsoever, you can download a virtual machine applications for your Windows 10.

What Is Virtualization?

As times have changed now and we can quickly switch between various OS on our PC. We, no more need to worry about buying new hardware, we can just download some software or buy them and install it to our computer in order to make partitions of our hard drive which will allocate some specific memories to each of the operating systems.

As a result, we can quickly run any OS depending on our necessity or mood. This technique is known as virtualization and there is software that you can find and run on your computer in order to make this partition without hampering any of the programs.

17 Best Virtual Machine Applications Of 2021

Today in this article, we are going to discuss some of the best virtual machine applications that is available in the market and is useful for you.

You will find a wide range of software, both paid and free. Therefore, to reduce your effort we have shortlisted sound the best free and paid virtual machine applications that you can use for your PC.

VirtualBox

VirtualBox is one of those virtual machine applications that does not have too many pre-requisites for it to Run on your PC. If your PC has a pretty good enough Intel or AMD processor, this software will work just fine for you. The best part about Virtual Box is that it is free. It is available on all major platforms.

The navigation is really easy. The software works well irrespective of the host platform. 3D virtualization, multi-screen resolutions are some of its cool features. Sharing of files between the host and the guest platform has been made very easy for people using Virtual Box. For free software, it does a really good job as Windows 10 virtual pc.

Oracle VirtualBox is a free and open-source host hypervisor for x86 virtualization, developed by Oracle Corporation. It enables us to set up one or more virtual machines (VMs) on a single physical machine, and use them simultaneously, along with the actual machine.

Each Virtual Machine Applications can be operated under its operating system, including versions of Microsoft Windows, Linux, Berkeley Software Distribution, and MS-DOS. Easy to install and run as many virtual machines as the user’s choice. The only practical limits over parallels desktop software are disk space and memory.

Visit: VirtualBox

Boot Camp (software)

It is software developed by Apple for mac users. The mac users who want to use windows on a mac by simply allowing them to switch between the two would love this! It is already present in the mac so it’s not required to install it superficially. But, can also be installed in Windows easily.

It is one of those virtual machine applications that enable you to use of the same keyboard for Apple and Windows. It enables to running of thousands of Windows programs on Mac. After downloading boot camp icons looks sharper and the text appears to be more clear. Users running windows don’t have battery longevity but Mac running macOS have longer battery backup. It is very helpful in turning a PC into MAC.

Visit: Boot Camp for iOS

QEMU

QEMU is one of the most popular and free Virtual machine applications available on the Internet today. It is a short form for the quick emulator and is open-source software. It will work well on any version of Windows which is after Windows XP which is, sadly, no longer supported.

This software was the go-to choice for Linux users, but its popularity reflected up on the Windows audience as well, so they decided to make a version for Windows users too.

QEMU makes use of the native hardware of your computer system by optimizing it for the operating system so that you are virtualizing. This makes sure that the system performance stays optimal, and almost makes you forget that you are using virtual machine applications at times.

More About QEMU

It supports virtualization when executing under the Xen hypervisor or using the KVM kernel module in Linux. When using Kernel-based Virtual Machine applications, QEMU can virtualize x86, server and embedded PowerPC, and S390 guests. Here QEMU has two operating modes one is full system emulation and another one is User mode emulation (Linux host only).

You will have to enable virtualization from your BIOS settings, in case you are using slightly older Intel chipsets suggest the 4th generation core i5 that I have on my laptop. Once you have that enabled, it will allow you to run 64 bit ISO without any issues.

These virtual machine applications might require administrative privileges in certain places such as if you are trying to mount other logical drives onto this virtual machine or maybe you are trying to access your USB devices within this virtual machine as a guest.

Don’t worry; it will not misuse your administrator privileges to plant bugs or some unwanted junk in your system. Besides, this is a virtual machine application for windows 10. You can always rip it off of your logical drives if you don’t want it. That’s one of the upsides of using your favorite operating system as a virtual computer system.

Visit: QEMU

Microsoft Hyper-V

Followed by names like Viridian and Windows server Virtualization, the best rebrand launch of this Virtual machine application happened in late 2008. It has some cool features like an extensible virtual switch, dynamic memory, the ability to clone VMs, and the ability to create checkpoints. You can also remote control Hyper V and automate almost anything using Power Shell. This software is available for Windows 10 Pro and enterprise users.

This type of virtual machine application enables you to operate on the softwares which runs on older operating versions of Windows or non-Windows-based OS.

Experiment and play with as many virtual systems as you want, as the process to create and remove different virtual systems is simple. The experimented virtual machines can be easily imported or exported to any other Hyper-V virtual machine application, including Azure!

You won’t be able to utilize this software if you are using a home version of Windows 10. This software is also available for pro and enterprise versions of Windows 8.

A lot of the present-day computers run Hyper-V. However, each virtual machine runs an entirely separate operating system. You may run one or more virtual machine applications on a laptop with 4GB of RAM. But you’ll require more resources for added virtual machines or to install and run powerful resource software like games or engineering design software.

You can download it by signing up or logging in after visiting this link

Visit: Microsoft Hyper-V

VMware

VMware is one of the oldest players in the virtual machine applications business. It has been on the scene since 1998. VMware is one of the most trusted ones amongst all the virtual machine applications software out there. VMware has three virtual machines applications-based software. The three of them are as follows-

VMware Workstation
Fusion
VMware Workstation Player

The price of VMware Workstation is 250USD. It is the most advanced virtual machine application software among the three. This software is for any person trying to run multiple programs in multiple host OS at the same time. Workstation Fusion is a slightly simpler version of VMware Workstation. The cost of VMware Fusion is 90 USD. This software is suitable for a person who wants to run Windows OS on his Mac.

Visit: VMware

VMWare Fusions

It is an application that allows Intel-based Macs to run virtual machines along with other operating systems. Developed for modern application developers, it is very simple for users who are working from home and very powerful. Businessmen and IT professionals, use it optimally.

It enables macOS, Windows Linux to run as virtual machines. Furthermore, it is very easy to switch between software development environments. It is a very good-performing software that makes PC utilization simple. You can easily run Windows on Mac and VMWare is the best option for that.

Visit: VMWare Fusions

VMWare Workstation

VMWare Workstation is a virtual machine applications package for Windows. It’s very simple yet very powerful. Being the most stable solution for local desktops, it can safely run multiple operating systems on a single PC. It helps a lot to learn about operating system applications and the way they function.

For educators, businesses, and organizations, it really is a big help. Also helps the students and educators to use it for training while organizations use it to deliver management for corporate desktops. It is available for Mac, Windows, Linux, and Solaris.

Visit: VMWare Workstation

More About VMware

VMware Fusion is software that allows Intel-based Macs to run OS such as Microsoft Windows, Linux, NetWare, or Solaris on virtual machines, parallel with their macOS using a combo of paravirtualization, hardware virtualization, and dynamic recompilation. And about VMware Workstation, it is for Windows/Linux while Fusion is for Intel-Based Apple Computers only

This is a pretty decent software for its price. VMware Workstation Player is available for free. This software is the most basic version amongst the three. This software can be used for running virtual machines in Windows and Linux.

Parallels Desktop 11 ($80)

Parallels Desktop 11 is probably one of the best virtual machine applications for Mac OS and works with maximum efficiency when integrated with Windows OS on your Mac.

You can run both the program at the same time without rebooting your computer; this saves your time and enhances the file-sharing process between the Mac OS and Windows OS. You can also directly launch programs from the Apple cloud server without hampering the virtualization.

If you are a beginner in Mac OS, you must go for this software as its controls are super easy and simple to customize and handle. It supports the Apple trademarked Retina display, along with 3D graphics.

You can also use Linux or other OS as a guest program but only for light use, even its output would lack compared to Mac with Windows.

Visit: Parallels Desktop 11

Parallels Desktop 14

Virtual machine applications like Parallels is usually associated with running Windows on Mac, but virtualization can also be used to run other versions of MacOS. Currently, Parallels Desktop 14 for Mac is now available and is fully optimized for MacOS Mojave.

And recently version 14 focuses less on Whiz-bang new features and instead wisely focuses on where it counts that is under the hood performance improvements. Windows VMs now start up to 35 percent faster, this is the closest to running windows 10 on actual PC hardware I have ever seen.

Visit: Parallels Desktop 14

Citrix XenServer

Oddly, Citrix XenServer began as an open-source Virtual machine application project, and now it remains free to download. Or instead, the primary version is free, but superior features come in paid releases.

Sophisticated management tools include the ability to automate and group live environments at will. It also consists of GPU pass-through and virtualized GPU capacities, enabling it to provide virtualized CAD.

The remaining drive of XenServer formulates virtual data centers that can manage planned and unplanned outages smoothly, and maintain the extraordinary levels of availability that the business anticipates.

A standard license costs $763 for an individual CPU socket with one year of support, and the premium enterprise version is $2,288 having the same maintenance period.

Visit: Citrix XenServer

Citrix Hypervisor

Citrix Hypervisor is a really well-known virtual machine application. This software is free for the basic version. For using the advanced features of this software you will have to pay. Don’t worry lots of features are covered in the basic version. If you want to run more than one OS on your machine then this is the perfect program. Many business people also use it but of course, they use the premium version.

This software even authorizes live environment automation and distribution. You can do this on your accord. You don’t even need a high specification computer to run this software. So what are you waiting for to try this virtual machine application right away?

Visit: Citrix Hypervisor

Xen Project

Xen Project is an open-source VMM (virtual machine monitor), designed to serve as a type-1 hypervisor for various operating systems utilizing the equivalent hardware. Initially grown by Cambridge University, the staff who built it turned it into a company that was acquired by Citrix lately. The Xen Project presently works with The Linux Foundation in developing open source applications.

It mainly works for high-level virtualization, not limited to servers, in both business and open-source environments. It can operate even in Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) applications, desktop virtualization, and protection-based virtualization. Xen project comes in handy in many places like virtualizing desktop and security. It is also used in airplanes and other automobile machines. It also supports Hyperscale cloud making this software really useful for Amazon Web Services, Oracle, IBM Softlayer, and many more.

Xen Project is also applicable for Hyperscale clouds and one can implement the utility with AWS, Azure, Rackspace, etc. Fundamental importance is on protection by practicing as short of a codebase as possible. Hence presenting it is not just secure but uniquely flexible.

Visit: Xen Project

V2 cloud

V2 cloud is one of the best virtual machine applications out there. The application makes it very easy to position cloud-based Windows desktops. It is very fast and cost-efficient. V2 cloud is very easy to use so it doesn’t require training or certification to use it. It makes the works easier for business owners who want to enable the employees to work from home without compromising safety and the IT managers who are looking to move their desktop infrastructure to the Cloud and simplify management.

It provides a fully managed desktop as a service. There’s no hurdle in making business advancements and it provides a true web-based experience.

Visit: V2 Cloud

Kernel-based Virtual Machine

Better known as KVM, this is open-source software for virtualizing Linux. KVM is software that is processor-dependent. Earlier it was capable of running with x86 processors. An ARM port was also supported by this software. KVM supports a lot of operating systems like Linux, Windows, Solaris, etc.

You can guess by its name that it is one of the Linux Based Virtual Machine applications. This software is comes integrated into the mainline Linux. The software is free to use and many professionals recommend it.

Visit: Kernel-based Virtual Machine

Red Hat Virtualization

RHV is an x86 virtualization product produced by Red Hat, based on the KVM hypervisor(Kernel-based Virtual Machine is a virtualization module present in the Linux kernel that allows the kernel to function as a hypervisor). Red Hat Virtualization uses the SPICE protocol and VDSM (Virtual Desktop Server Manager) with a Red Hat Enterprise Linux(RHEL)-based centralized management server. RHV can benefit an enterprise it is an important feature in software development.

The KVM hypervisor is a highly efficient software that enables the workload performance to rival the performance of that same application. KVM’s low resource requirements add on a special advantage from which one can also facilitate greater levels of workload consolidation than some other hypervisors.

It can fit more VMs onto fewer hardware systems. HMV can support enterprise-class environments with hundreds of host systems and thousands of Virtual Machines. The foremost feature of RHV is, it helps in establishing or expanding a virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI).

Visit: Red Hat Virtualization

Azure Virtual Machines

This is Microsoft’s version of paid Windows virtual machine applications. Azure virtual machines offer you a lot more features and support as compared to the freeware available out there, but then again, even if you get some issue in your free virtual machine software, you can fix it just with a simple Google search, as other normal humans do. The pricing for this software and other information are listed in detail over at Microsoft’s website.

Azure Virtual Machines do not take payment from you at once. It’s more of a pay-as-you-go service where you need to pay for the amount of time the service was running and nothing more. So if you only need this premium Virtual Machine Applications for a couple of days, you can only pay for those days where you used it, and then you need not pay any longer. So I guess it makes up for the fact that you have to pay to use simple freaking Virtual Machine Applications.

On their website, they say that you get up to 72% price savings with this payment method as compared to traditional pricing methods. I still think it’s better to save 100% of your money and get free software for yourself from the above options, what if you are someone who values quality over quantity then you will appreciate what Microsoft Azure has to offer.

Visit: Azure virtual machines

Windows Virtual PC

Want to run 2 Operating systems in one easily without including the complicated steps? Then you must download Windows Virtual PC. This is freely available software that is utilized to run two operating systems on your PC, especially Linux and Windows. The only disadvantage of using this software is that you cannot run this software on Windows version prior to Windows 7. This virtual machine application is capable of virtualizing an IBM computer and all its hardware to support Windows OS.

This can make an IBM PC capable of running a Windows OS provided the Windows version is above Windows 7. You can also install Linux in a Windows system using this freeware. If you want to download it then click the link below that will redirect you to Microsoft’s website.

Conclusion

So, these were some of the best virtual machine applications that you can download for your Windows 10 system. Among all these, I highly recommend trusted ones such as the virtual box or VMWare (VirtualBox alternative), because I have personally used and loved them for a long time now but I am sure that based on my short research that others are just as good as well. Go ahead with any of them, and you will be equally satisfied.