How to test Windows 7 without modifying the computer ?

Microsoft has started distributing Windows 7 pre-betas to some beta-testers (i.e. PDC 2008 attendees):

A friend of mine came to me and asked: I want to test this Windows 7 pre-beta but I can't install it on my computer, as I have my working system there, my tools, data, etc.


Well, I said, get a tool like "vmware" (www.vmware.com) and create a "virtual machine". He was new to vmware, so I helped him to do it (you can download a vmware trial version), and we already had some little troubles to solve, but we did it ;-)







But the real challenge was to make it run from an external USB harddrive, so his computer was not modified at all and he could try Windows 7 with its full speed. And after several days, we got it! :-)


From this blog we plan to comment how we did it, what problems we found and we invite everyone that wants to comment about it.







He used Windows 7 (build 6801) that he got from PDC 2008 (though build 6933 was the one shown on Microsoft presentation). As much more pre-betas and betas will be published by Microsoft, this task can be fun and challenging. You are invited to join us in this travel to test Windows 7 betas from an external USB harddrive :-)