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Question

Is there a Windows 7 emulator available for purchase?

Feb 1, 2012 5:42AM PST

My situation in a nutshell is as follows:

I teach a variety of basic IST courses at a local college. I'd like to be able to familiarize my students with more than the "canned info" available in the text. Is there a Windows 7 shell program (for want of a better term) that would enable me to perform (simulated) Control Panel functions?

The school IT Department has (for obvious reasons) restricted student permissions to most system features. However, if I were able to demonstrate tasks/functions of this type I'd be able to provide students with some "real world" knowledge that they could apply to their own PCs. Any assistance in this manner would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.
CFL

Discussion is locked

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Answer
Never seen such. However.
Feb 1, 2012 5:59AM PST

When we needed to do this we would set up a machine for that then restore the system from a backup image.

The sad thing is you explained why the IT schools are doing so poorly. No real practice.

I would not worry about this. At the offices I visit all IT functions are minimal to non-existent. It could be a sign of the times or that these offices are full of programmers. They don't need IT as we knew it a decade ago.

Just today I was reading http://www.whattofix.com/blog/archives/2012/01/programming-is-1.php and it brought home that right out of high school they should be programmers today.

"The new "middle tier" of the workforce looks something like this:
literate, able to use math and write well, able to read a manual and
instruct computers to take various actions depending on various
conditions. Note that I'm talking about entry-level work."

Is the classic IT class now a class on making buggy whips?
Bob

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Answer
Check these out ...
Feb 1, 2012 6:08AM PST
Microsoft's Windows 7 Test Drive website
http://www.microsoft.com/click/windowstestdrive/itpro/

This next link goes into some detail on what you need and how to go about logging into the Virtual Lab (it has the above link at the conclusion of the screenshots):
http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/13884/test-drive-windows-7-online-with-virtual-labs/

It includes Office 2007 and Office 2010 and it has to be accessed and run from Internet Explorer as it relies on some Active X components.

You can use it pretty much like you would any computer loaded with windows 7 but have to be aware that it will run slower and some features such as Media Center might be pretty bad depending on just how fast your Internet Connections are.

Hope this helps you out.