How do I turn my old computer into a virtual pc?

[Mr Hate Coffee]

So I've got this old desktop that's running Vista and taking up space I need. At this point I want to keep it for some of the legacy programs.

My goal is to turn it into a virtual image and upgrade to a new PC with Windows 10, while still being able to access that virtual image as needed. I know this is possible, and I've read a couple of tutorials, but I wanted to see The Coli brehs opinions on it.

So a few questions...

Is this a good route to go? Has anyone ever tried it before?

On a separate note, I'm thinking I'd cop a high-end Surface pro as my new computer. This would solve a few issues for me (new OS, smaller size) while giving me pen to screen support.

Thoughts?

 

[Dat Migo]

Surface Pro is a great choice. The 2017 model just came out.

I looked at this tutorial and seems like a headache: Converting Physical Drives or Partitions to Vmware vmdk (P2V) « .ultrageek.

Would it be easier for you to get a blank copy of Vista, install it in Virtualbox, and then install your programs?

 

[Mr Hate Coffee]

Surface Pro is a great choice. The 2017 model just came out.

I looked at this tutorial and seems like a headache: Converting Physical Drives or Partitions to Vmware vmdk (P2V) « .ultrageek.

Would it be easier for you to get a blank copy of Vista, install it in Virtualbox, and then install your programs?

What's a virtual box?

 

[Dat Migo]

What's a virtual box?

It's an emulator for operating systems. Like you can have Vista running in one window, and linux on another window, etc. Virtualized hosts.