I am experimenting with different open source projects just to see which one I can work with since I am a beginner. Of course, many projects have different dependencies and programs that you must install. I want to keep things organized and I don't want to pollute my main windows account, since I use this machine for everyday computing also.
Will creating a seperate windows account on my computer help separate the dependencies for the projects? Are there any better alternatives (other than using virtual machines)?
Thanks
Although you mentioned other than them, but virtual machines are actually the best option if you're planning on working with a lot of different projects and you don't want to pollute your environment too much. If you build them right, you can have a baseline VM that is simple to revert back to if you want to start from scratch because the environment got too polluted.
The problem with only using a separate account is that many installable tools and libraries means they're still going to be made available for all users on the machine, so it doesn't keep things cleaned up. For example, if Visual Studio tools typically apply to all users on the machine. COM dependencies aren't user specific. Some things install Windows Services that need to be running most of the time, but you don't use unless you're developing for them (like SQL Server Reporting Services).