VMware vCenter Converter Lets You Convert Physical Machines to Virtual Machines in Minutes for Free.

Just the other day I was using my laptop doing some important work when suddenly it just shut down on it's own. I then rebooted and it worked fine and has so far. However, it made me think...What if I had to rebuild everything on this laptop all over again? I could do it but it would take a lot of time, time I really don't have to spend on something like that. I then decided to "virtualize" my laptop and store the virtual version of my laptop on my server and then run my virtual laptop from any of the connected computers on my network. You can do this also with VMware vCenter Converter and VMware Player, both are free from VMware.

VMware Player is the easiest way to run multiple operating systems at the same time on your PC. With its user-friendly interface, VMware Player makes it effortless for anyone to try out Windows 7, Chrome OS or the latest Linux releases, or create isolated virtual machines to safely test new software and surf the Web. VMware Player can also be used to run a virtual copy of an old PC (like my laptop) so that you can recycle the old machines you have under your desk or stored in the closet.

VMware vCenter Converter can run on a wide variety of hardware and supports most commonly used versions of the Microsoft Windows and Linux operating systems. With this robust, enterprise class migration tool you can:  

• Quickly and reliably convert local and remote physical machines into virtual machines without any disruption or downtime.
• Complete multiple conversions simultaneously with a centralized management console and an intuitive conversion wizard.
• Convert other virtual machine formats such as Microsoft Hyper-V, Microsoft Virtual PC and Microsoft Virtual Server or backup images of physical machines such as Symantec Backup Exec System Recovery or Norton Ghost to VMware virtual machines.

VMware vCenter Converter is available in two different versions – Standalone Converter and Converter integrated with VMware vCenter Server.

Automate and simplify physical to virtual machine conversions as well as conversions between virtual machine formats with VMware vCenter Converter. Use the intuitive wizard-driven interface of VMware vCenter Converter to convert your physical machines to virtual machines.

• Convert Microsoft Windows and Linux-based physical machines and third-party image formats to VMware virtual machines
• Complete multiple conversions simultaneously with a centralized management console
• Easy to use wizards to minimize the number of steps to conversion

So you see virtualizing you computers is easy with these two tools. However the PC or server you run the virtual machines on needs to be a pretty good machine with a fast processor and lots of RAM. Have you had any experience with virtualization? What do you think of it?