If you are planning to use and test Linux operating system, but you don't like to dual boot, you can actually test and 'run' Linux on top of your Windows operating system using virtual machines software. A virtual machine software will simply allows you to run a guest operating system in a virtual environment (in this case, Linux) on top of host operating system (Windows). In this post, I will show you how to install and configure Kubuntu in VirtualBox and how to install the VirtualBox Guest Additions. VirtualBox is a virtualization software and VirtualBox Guest Additions consist of device drivers and system applications for the guest operating system that optimize the guest for better performance and usability. I choose VirtualBox because it is fast, easy to use, freeware and small (installer only around 65MB).

1. Download and install VirtualBox. VirtualBox installer will install a few virtual hardware drivers, so make sure you allow Windows to install these drivers.

2. Run VirtualBox. Click 'New' (1) to create a new virtual machine in VirtualBox.

3. Press 'Next' (2) on the welcome wizard. On the next step, give your virtual machine a name. I will name my virtual machine 'Kubuntu' (3). Choose the nearest operating system type that you want to install on your virtual machine. In this case, we will choose 'Linux' (4) and 'Ubuntu' (5) (Kubuntu is derived from Ubuntu). Press Next to continue.

4. On the next screen, we will choose the memory (RAM) size for our virtual machine. You can leave it to its default value (384MB). If your system have lots of RAM, you can set the value to 512MB or 1024MB (1GB). This value can be changed later. Make sure you don't allocate more than half of your total system RAM for virtual machine memory, or your host operating system will slowed down. Press Next to go to the next screen.

5. Now we will create a virtual hard disk for the virtual machine. Select 'Create new hard disk' (6) and press 'Next' to go to 'Create New Virtual Disk Wizard'. Press 'Next' again to continue.

6. On the next screen, we will choose the type of virtual hard disk that we are going to create. You can choose the default option (Dynamically expanding storage). The file size of this type of virtual hard disk will grow slowly as the guest operating system uses more space. To avoid fragmentation, you can choose 'Fixed size storage'. Press 'Next' to continue.

7. Next, you can choose the location where you want to store the virtual hard disk file (7). You can specify the size of the virtual hard disk (8). I recommend you use a minimum 10GB virtual hard disk. Make sure the location where you store the virtual hard disk file have sufficient space. Press 'Next' and 'Finish' to create the virtual hard disk. Press 'Finish' again to create the virtual machine.