Creating multiple testing configurations

[Van S. Mabrito]

I am a software developer with a VB and Excel VBA app and need to test my
app on mulitple configurations of OS, versions of MS Office,etc. I saw a
newsgroup article that suggested Norton Ghost could be used to set up multiple
configurations of such on the same PC for testing purposes.
A fellow developer suggested Ghost as an excellent backup tool, but wasn't
sure for my other above need. Does anyone know if Ghost can be used to set
up different OS and other configurations on different partitions easily,
accurately and efficiently?
Thanks, and regards
Van S. Mabrito

[Patrick Marshall]

Hi Van,

Absolutely, Ghost is what we use here for multiple platform testing. We
set up two or three of the most common hardware configurations (be aware
that Ghost should be restored to an identical hardware setup from which it
was copied, or there may be problems). Therefore, if you have three different
systems, you should have three ghost configurations for EACH OS.

Establish what your "base" configuration is (e.g. with/without Office 97
installed, email set up, etc.) then Ghost this base configuration. Each
time you restore the base setup, you will be able to do a clean test for
your software install (un-cluttered with leftover files, registry entries,
dlls, etc.) This is by far the simplist method for doing this type of testing.

<Patrick>

"Van S. Mabrito" <SoftwareGuild@i4f.net> wrote:
>
>I am a software developer with a VB and Excel VBA app and need to test my
>app on mulitple configurations of OS, versions of MS Office,etc. I saw a
>newsgroup article that suggested Norton Ghost could be used to set up multiple
>configurations of such on the same PC for testing purposes.
>A fellow developer suggested Ghost as an excellent backup tool, but wasn't
>sure for my other above need. Does anyone know if Ghost can be used to set
>up different OS and other configurations on different partitions easily,
>accurately and efficiently?
>Thanks, and regards
>Van S. Mabrito
>

[Van S. Mabrito]

Thanks, Patrick for your response. IF I may ask a followup question as I am
not sufficiently adept in hardware now: you mention setting up with 2 or
3 or most common hardware configurations. Do you mean on different or the
same machines? And what are some of the basic components of the hardware
configurations you would set up to test under-what are are some of the variations
of the common hardware configurations?
Thanks again, and regards
Van S. Mabrito
"Patrick Marshall" <nospam@nospam.com> wrote:
>
>Hi Van,
>
>Absolutely, Ghost is what we use here for multiple platform testing. We
>set up two or three of the most common hardware configurations (be aware
>that Ghost should be restored to an identical hardware setup from which
it
>was copied, or there may be problems). Therefore, if you have three different
>systems, you should have three ghost configurations for EACH OS.
>
>Establish what your "base" configuration is (e.g. with/without Office 97
>installed, email set up, etc.) then Ghost this base configuration. Each
>time you restore the base setup, you will be able to do a clean test for
>your software install (un-cluttered with leftover files, registry entries,
>dlls, etc.) This is by far the simplist method for doing this type of testing.
>
><Patrick>
>
>"Van S. Mabrito" <SoftwareGuild@i4f.net> wrote:
>>
>>I am a software developer with a VB and Excel VBA app and need to test
my
>>app on mulitple configurations of OS, versions of MS Office,etc. I saw
a
>>newsgroup article that suggested Norton Ghost could be used to set up multiple
>>configurations of such on the same PC for testing purposes.
>>A fellow developer suggested Ghost as an excellent backup tool, but wasn't
>>sure for my other above need. Does anyone know if Ghost can be used to
set
>>up different OS and other configurations on different partitions easily,
>>accurately and efficiently?
>>Thanks, and regards
>>Van S. Mabrito
>>
>

[Willy Van den Driessche]

If you can afford it, buy VMWare. Allows you to test all your
configurations on one PC, without rebooting, inside a window of the host
operating system. You run Win95 inside Win2000, side by side with Linux !
It received a jolt award from SoftWare Development
Magazine(http://www.sdmagazine.com/) and its definitively affordable.
http://www.vmware.com/vmwarestore/pricing.html


This where you find the requirements for your PC :
http://www.vmware.com/products/deskt...specs_win.html

-Willy.

"Van S. Mabrito" <SoftwareGuild@i4f.net> wrote in message
news:3b2fa5f2$1@news.devx.com...
>
> I am a software developer with a VB and Excel VBA app and need to test my
> app on mulitple configurations of OS, versions of MS Office,etc. I saw a
> newsgroup article that suggested Norton Ghost could be used to set up
multiple
> configurations of such on the same PC for testing purposes.
> A fellow developer suggested Ghost as an excellent backup tool, but wasn't
> sure for my other above need. Does anyone know if Ghost can be used to set
> up different OS and other configurations on different partitions easily,
> accurately and efficiently?
> Thanks, and regards
> Van S. Mabrito
>

[Patrick Marshall]

Hi Van,

I was referring to different hardware configurations, e.g. here we use several
standard models of Compaq with the same size hard-drive, video driver's,
CD rom driver's etc.. Ghost works on the basis of restoring an EXACT duplicate
for a given hardware setup. All this means is that you should create your
blank OS configuration and record the image with Ghost, then restore the
"blank" setup to the same machine each time. For example, set up a system
with Win 98 then save it with Ghost, do a set of tests, wipe the system completely
then install the next blank OS (e.g. Win NT 4.0) then record it again with
Ghost, then do the tests for NT 4. At this point you have 2 "clean" Ghost
images (either on a network or recordable CD) without your test installs.
To bring a system back to the clean state, just run Ghost with the appropriate
image.

The various configurations depend on what you are doing. We are creating
in-house software here, so we are using Wise InstallMaster to create a setup.exe
for a given application, and installing it on a "clean" OS with the requisite
software (e.g. Office 97) for our normal users. This allows us to avoid
creating setups with missing dll's or other files which might be left over
from earlier installs. It is VERY embarrasing to send out a couple of hundred
install CD's and find out that you left out a critical file. This is something
you really want to catch during installation testing.

<Patrick>

"Van S. Mabrito" <SoftwareGuild@i4f.net> wrote:
>
>Thanks, Patrick for your response. IF I may ask a followup question as I
am
>not sufficiently adept in hardware now: you mention setting up with 2 or
>3 or most common hardware configurations. Do you mean on different or the
>same machines? And what are some of the basic components of the hardware
>configurations you would set up to test under-what are are some of the variations
>of the common hardware configurations?
>Thanks again, and regards
>Van S. Mabrito
>"Patrick Marshall" <nospam@nospam.com> wrote:
>>
>>Hi Van,
>>
>>Absolutely, Ghost is what we use here for multiple platform testing. We
>>set up two or three of the most common hardware configurations (be aware
>>that Ghost should be restored to an identical hardware setup from which
>it
>>was copied, or there may be problems). Therefore, if you have three different
>>systems, you should have three ghost configurations for EACH OS.
>>
>>Establish what your "base" configuration is (e.g. with/without Office 97
>>installed, email set up, etc.) then Ghost this base configuration. Each
>>time you restore the base setup, you will be able to do a clean test for
>>your software install (un-cluttered with leftover files, registry entries,
>>dlls, etc.) This is by far the simplist method for doing this type of
testing.
>>
>><Patrick>
>>
>>"Van S. Mabrito" <SoftwareGuild@i4f.net> wrote:
>>>
>>>I am a software developer with a VB and Excel VBA app and need to test
>my
>>>app on mulitple configurations of OS, versions of MS Office,etc. I saw
>a
>>>newsgroup article that suggested Norton Ghost could be used to set up
multiple
>>>configurations of such on the same PC for testing purposes.
>>>A fellow developer suggested Ghost as an excellent backup tool, but wasn't
>>>sure for my other above need. Does anyone know if Ghost can be used to
>set
>>>up different OS and other configurations on different partitions easily,
>>>accurately and efficiently?
>>>Thanks, and regards
>>>Van S. Mabrito
>>>
>>
>