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I have a relatively powerful computer used for playing games in Windows, not too demanding games but with definite need of the GPU card (NVIDIA GeForce GTX 760). I would like Windows to run in a VM, without the users (my kids) having a password to the host machine, and without any video problems. I want to be able to snapshot the Windows VM, back it up, and run other VMs on the machine that would not use the physical keyboard or screen, all without interfering with the Windows VM. Running VMPlayer or similar means that the user of the VM can also delete the VM or simply forget about using it and use the host machine.

I was thinking that it might be possible to configure ESXi, KVM or Xen to recognize the serial port or the built-in VGA + a specific USB port as primary console, and dedicate (hardware pass-through?) the GPU and other USB ports to the Windows VM.

Does any one know if this is usefully feasible, and which virtualization solution would be my best bet?

Hennes
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Law29
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    So I got the Tumbleweed badge for this, that wasn't the goal actually. – Law29 Mar 21 '16 at 05:48
  • Are you on Windows 10? Do the kids use the physical computer or do they have computers of their own? – harrymc Mar 21 '16 at 06:30
  • Nope, Windows 8 (but that's of course upgradeable if there's a compelling reason). The kids do use the physical computer, since they need/want the GPU, but it isn't a user-security problem, I just want to be able to start and run other VMs on the computer and to be able to snapshot and rollback the gaming Windows if need be. – Law29 Mar 21 '16 at 07:19
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    Probably the easiest solution is to create the virtual machine for the kids as a VHD. Since Windows 7, one can use the [Boot into VHD](http://blogs.technet.com/b/haroldwong/archive/2012/08/18/how-to-create-windows-8-vhd-for-boot-to-vhd-using-simple-easy-to-follow-steps.aspx) feature for dual-booting the host and VM. The kids will then have a login for the VM, but not for the host. A reboot will be needed to pass from one to the other. – harrymc Mar 21 '16 at 08:17

2 Answers2

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Probably the easiest solution is to create the virtual machine for the kids as a VHD.

Windows 7 has introduced the Boot into VHD feature for dual-booting the host and a virtual machine that resides in a .vhd file.

The kids will then have a login for the VM, but not for the host. A reboot will be needed to pass from one to the other.

Here are some references :

harrymc
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  • Interesting, I didn't know about VHD. I would really like to be able to run other things simultaneously on the machine though. – Law29 Mar 22 '16 at 09:33
  • On most VM products one can configure the VM to grab and release focus with a keyboard shortcut. If you wish to have two sessions on the computers with the second one via an external computer, this isn't possible on Windows 8 - only on Windows Server (at least without some fiddling with Windows of the kind that Microsoft doesn't like). – harrymc Mar 22 '16 at 09:43
  • You could define a non-standard grab-focus shortcut and keep it a secret from the kids ....... – harrymc Mar 23 '16 at 17:25
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So, I had some time to explore, and I tried out ESXi, which I usually use in a professional setting (vSphere vCenter with all the bells and whistles and hardware bought according to the compatibility list). No luck, my RealTek network card is not supported by ESXi, ESXi will not install at all. There might be a way around that.

So I found Debian VGAPassthrough and tried the KVM way. While looking for the network driver (my RealTek network card is not supported out-of-the box by Debian either, but it is by Ubuntu) I found Multiheaded NVIDIA Gaming, which describes exactly the kind of setup I am looking for, both with ESXi and Ubuntu, and helpfully notes that the setup is not possible when combining ESXi and the GeForce card I have. I won't have to waste time on ESXi, and I'll go the KVM route.

Law29
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