[UserNameGoesHere]

Originally Posted by Reincarnate

How exactly does a virtual machine work in this context? Does it partition off part of the HDD that is only accessible via virtual machine or something?

Not at all. In fact, your entire OS-installation within the VM itself will look to your host OS (the one within which the VM is installed) as files within its existing filesystem.

Have you ever used an emulator of any kind? That is exactly what this is. It's basically an x86 and x86_64 emulator. You then install your OS within the emulator. Warning: These can be tricky to set up sometimes. Also, if you're planning on using a VM anyway, is a good idea to have lots of RAM, which you opted for.

There are also many ways to run Linux from within Windows itself. VM is not the only option, but if you have the RAM for it (and that machine does), is probably the best option. May want to check that the computer supports certain VM options as well (they don't all).

Still, if you only occasionally need the UNIX-Y thing, Cygwin won't have the overhead a VM would.