Microsoft VM or VMware

I had started a networking class at school and to practice some networking tools the teacher showed us MicrosoftVM which i must say was pretty awesome. So i passed that class and moved on but since i am striving for a career in Networking and Penetration tester i thought i would download Virtual Machine for myself since its free and all. So i did and it doesnt work for some reason, when i start a OS during the post i get a message about a boot problem. I have downloaded that program on two different computer and the same problem keeps happening. Then i met someone who told me about VMware so i downloaded it and i cant find any windows Os for it everything seems to be geared towards linux Os which isnt bad since i want to learn that too but you get my point. So my question is, how to fix my Virtual PC to boot completey through the post and start any windows Os and does VMware do microsoft OS. need advice.

I use both Microsoft Virtual PC and VMWare Server and I think they both work very well. I personally prefer Virtual PC because it is a Workstation VM product which has similar features to VMWare Workstation (which is not free).

I can also confirm that VMWare Server definitely does Microsoft OSes, and actually does them better than Virtual PC does Linux. In conclusion, I tend to use Virtual PC for all Microsoft and Linux OSes. I then use VMWare Server for any Linux Oses that Virtual PC cannot handle.

Re: your boot problem in Virtual PC
Can you post the exact message?

well i did not know that i appreciate it. the message during the boot process that posts is "Reboot and select proper boot device or Insert Boot Media in selected Boot Device". Im not a expert at this program but i would not imagine that VM would have any serious connection to my machine because if it did my computer boot hard drive first and there is nothing in the cd-rom so i find that a little wierd. thanks for the help.

Sorry can't help with Virtual PC. I futzed around with it, but found little help when there are problems. VMWare isn't a "better" product.. But I found way way way more help, guides, how to's and the like for it.

VMWare's site has free VM's you can download and just start zero config or messing around.. But they are all linux os (or other freely available OS) But I can say i have never had any problem installing any MS OS on vmware.

TW

I have only used VMWare for my virtual machines. I have not heard much about M$'s version. I guess I see no reason to switch.

the message during the boot process that posts is "Reboot and select proper boot device or Insert Boot Media in selected Boot Device".

Have you checked the VM's BIOS?