VMs and Docker are great for isolating things. Also now with Windows 10 being able to do a 'refresh' (leaving all your documents and source files etc alone) combined with something like Boxstarter (or even just Chocolatey), being able to rebuild your machine can be done relatively painlessly (eg. a few hours, or overnight). I do like the idea that recreating my development environment is pretty straight forward.
Do watch out for having too many versions of SQL Server installed - it can end up making your PATH environment variable too big and then "bad things" start happening. David On 4 February 2017 at 10:16, Preet Sangha <preetsan...@gmail.com> wrote: > Your VMs take a long time to load? I've been using SSd for about 4/5 years > now and don't find VMs take that long at all, esp. since there is not need > to power down. You can just pause them. > > For my dev box I have SQL server (2 versions), VS 2010 (C++) and VS 2015 > (complete) , though the 2010 is now no longer needed. Plus I have git and > and few tools like beyond compare and git UIs + office software. > > I tend to use VMs (Hyper V) for testing where more than PF5 is needed. > > > regards, > Preet, in Auckland NZ > > > On 4 February 2017 at 12:30, Kirsten Greed <kirst...@jobtalk.com.au> > wrote: > >> I have a chance to upgrade my development box. >> >> Over the years multiple programs have crept on to my box including 3 >> versions of SQL Server Express. >> >> I am wondering how to be more disciplined in keeping my environment clean >> >> Although I have some VMs installed I haven't been using them because they >> take so long to load. >> >> For trying out new things - like VS2017, are VMs still the way to go? >> Or is there something else now ( like Docker? ) >> >> What programs should be "On the metal" ? >> >> >> > >
