In the previous chapter, we started building our very own penetration testing lab. However, a lab environment is not complete without the installation of two of the most popular operating systems: Microsoft Windows and Ubuntu. As a penetration tester, it's always recommended to practice your skills on both Windows and Linux environments, since both are used in corporate environments by end users, such as employees and executive staff members, on a daily basis. Usually, system administrators don't always install the latest security updates on their employees' systems, which leaves the computers vulnerable to the latest cyber threats. A penetration tester should learn how to perform various attacks on Windows and Linux.

The following topics will be covered in this chapter:

• Installing Windows as a virtual machine (VM)
• Installing Ubuntu 8.10
• Troubleshooting Kali Linux