Software testing: Apple, Microsoft offer El Capitan and others

Get a sneak peek of what Apple and Microsoft are planning to unveil by offering yourself as a pre-release user.

Want to be a tech test pilot?

Don your helmet and clip on your goggles: you’re going to be a test pilot. You’re not flying a fledgling supersonic aircraft or crash-testing a prototype Porsche or Volvo.

Rather, Microsoft and Apple are inviting people like you to test incomplete and somewhat buggy versions of their latest operating systems, well before they officially go to market.

It is indeed the age of the software test pilot, or Beta tester. The benefits for consumers can be great (free test software) — but, if you are not careful, so can the risks.

Just like the restaurant patron who samples and sends back an off-tasting cabernet sauvignon, you can tell these giant computer companies if their software has an undesirable fragrance or an acidic aftertaste and needs fixing or ­revamping.

Since last October, Microsoft has offered Windows users who are part of its Insider program several test versions of its Windows 10 operating system. The final Windows 10 is due for release next Wednesday.

Apple, meanwhile, has offered prerelease versions of its next MacBook operating system, El Capitan, ahead of its forthcoming release.

The benefit for users is that they get to try out the latest ­features for free.

In the case of Windows 10, the tile interface has merged into the standard Windows desktop, Microsoft’s Cortana personal assistant understands everyday language, and there’s a new browser called Microsoft Edge.

Add a swag of enterprise and security features, and Windows 10 may prove a great success for Microsoft. And we can see that from these early versions.

El Capitan offers a split-screen work environment similar to Windows 8, a more sophisticated Notes app that approaches the concept of Evernote, improvements to Spotlight search, natural language processing with Siri, and improvements to the Mail and Photos apps.

But there can be downsides. Both companies warn users not to install test versions as their main computer systems. Any bugs could cause data loss or your computer to tank altogether.

It’s best to install test versions on a spare computer that’s not in regular use.

I didn’t heed this advice and faced the consequences. I had to reinstall Windows 8.1 after one of Microsoft’s test versions of Windows 10 proved impossible to upgrade. It took me the best part of an afternoon to do this, and that’s with a backup.

But many people don’t have a second computer, or at least a spare that is modern enough to handle these new operating systems. Apple users may not have a spare MacBook around, or at least one capable of testing El Capitan.

Luckily, it is possible to safely install these test versions on your regular PC or Mac.

Using these methods, you’ll be able to try the new Windows and Apple tryouts without affecting your regular operating systems.

The first step is to create a backup of your computer system. There is myriad backup software available for PCs, and Apple offers its Time Machine backup software for OS X.

Testing Windows 10

On PCs, the best way to test early versions of Windows 10 is to create what’s called a virtual machine. If you haven’t heard of a virtual machine before, it’s a gem. It’s a piece of software that lets you create and virtually run a computer from inside your actual computer. It’s a sandpit where you can test things without affecting your main computer operation.

I have been using virtual machines for years for all sorts of reasons. I used to use software for my tax returns called KMyMoney that runs on Ubuntu, a Linux operating system.

So I set up a virtual computer that runs Ubuntu Linux, and installed and ran my tax software from it — from a virtual machine running inside my PC Windows software.

Likewise, I have virtual machines with early versions of Microsoft Windows and the old Microsoft DOS operating system that predates Windows. They run programs that I wrote 10 or 20 years ago.

To start, you download a copy of VirtualBox VM by Oracle. Just Google it, download it and install it. It’s free for personal use. The next step is to get a test version of Windows 10. Until recently, Microsoft has been making available files that are images of the installation disk. If you can’t get this, seek to get it from a friend. You need the “disk image” version — a file that is the image of an installation disk.

You then run the VirtualBox program and ask it to create a Windows 10 style machine. VirtualBox these days is intelligent enough to set up a virtual machine for Windows 10, out of the box. You then press “start” to run your new virtual machine and select the downloaded disk image of Windows 10.

The virtual machine will install the test version of Windows 10 just as it would on a real PC. You can then run Windows 10 and enjoy all its features from inside VirtualBox. And when you’re finished, you can uninstall the virtual machine and even the VirtualBox program if you want, with your original computer system unaffected. If you get stuck, you’ll find plenty of tutorials and videos online to help you.

VirtualBox is not the only program available for this; others prefer VMware’s offering. Take your pick.

Testing Apple’s El Capitan

On the other hand, if you want to install El Capitan on your active MacBook, I’d go about it differently.

There are several reasons for this. Apple doesn’t provide its test operating system in a form that you can use easily in a virtual machine. Second, you need to install the test version on a currently running OS X virtual machine that you probably don’t have. Third, based on some past versions, running OS X in a virtual machine may breach Apple’s licence agreement.

The best way to test El Capitan is to partition the hard drive on your MacBook into two. First, make a full backup of your computer using, say, Time Machine. Then restart your MacBook by pressing CMD R and select the Disk Utility.

Select “partitions” and create a new disk partition of, say, 30 gigabytes on a 256GB MacBook. You may get away with less if you haven’t much free space. The disk utility will resize your disk partition and create a second, smaller one.

When you’re finished and exit Disk Utility, you’ll have the option of installing the current Yosemite operating system on the new, smaller 30GB partition. Do so. You’ll then have two ways of starting your MacBook: using your regular MacBook system or the new, small partition.

Restart your MacBook while pressing the Option key, select the test partition, and enrol your computer in Apple’s Beta program. You then install El Capitan in this second, new partition by following Apple’s instructions, leaving your original setup unaffected. Again, there are lots of tutorials online.