Comments: Creating an XP Pro VM for the free VMware Player

Is there a switch to make it boot and then run a linux distro CD instead?

-Daniel

Any thoughts on how I can get the VM to see my DVD-ROM drive rather than my CD-ROM drive? I want to try to install Vista.

Excellent, thanks for sharing this great tip.

Everything worked great. The only question I have is should I activate this copy of XP Pro or will that cause me problems with MS.

Is it normal for this to want to network-boot every time (and then promptly fail)? Followed instructions to the letter. Not working for me. :(

If you want your vmware machine to start in full-screen mode on start up, add this to your vmx file:

gui.fullScreenAtPowerOn = "TRUE"

You can't switch it back to (true) fullscreen mode once you have it in window(?) mode, however. This is probably a deliberate limitation of the player.

Hi,

Just to let you know : it's possible to boot directly from the CDs under Linux (for me, it didn't work at first) : comment out the line :

#ide1:0.autodetect = "TRUE"

Change the IDE file name to something like "/dev/cdrom" ... here you go :)

Cheers

For John.

I have the same problem. It is because vmware don't find the right cdrom when it starts. I use Daemon tools, and it found a DT virtual drive as cdrom. I've invalidate drives in DT (set number of devices : disabled) and I launched again vmware, and it detects one of my hardware cdrom, and accept to boot from it....

I hope this will help you...

I wonder what is the meaning of some of the configuration in the wmx files. In there any link where I can find this information? For instance, what is MemAllowAutoScaleDown? Is this the option to let vmware change memory allocation "on the fly"? If yes, why is it disabled?

I sucessfully load Windows XP installer, within vmware player, thanks to this tutorial here, i just have one question I have not gone further because the Windows Installer ask me to create a partition on my drive, rigth now I only have linux on my drive and it gives me a non partitionated space of 2047 MB in MBR (If i create a partition there, am i going to screw up my MBR, i'm using FC4 and i'm a linux newbie thanks in advance.

Ohhh, ok now I get it, that's why we generated a blank 2 GB file with qemu-img, so I guess if I wanted more space i should re run the qemu-img and put the desired space. Thanks for everything i successfully installed WXP and now running perfectly. Just another questions, does vmware has good 3D support i'd like to run some games but it runs kinda slow.

I got qemu-img.exe is not a valid win32 app error. Re-download the file from different sources, same issue. I ended up create the image using the qemu-img in linux.

Does the virtual CD-ROM point to a real device? You can edit this in the vmx configuration file.

ide1:0.fileName = "auto detect"
ide1:0.deviceType = "cdrom-raw"

If it still doesn't boot from CD-ROM, but it recognizes the drive once the virtual machine starts it might be that you have to turn booting on in the BIOS of the virtual machine. Start the virtual machine, press Ctrl+G (it now accepts input), press F2 and you should end up in the BIOS.

Select the Boot entry, which looks as follows on my machine:

Hope this helps.

(Continues from previous post) I also disabled the cd-rom from my actual OS, and in the VM it said to re-enable it when i tried to start up. I re-enabled, but it still won't boot to it. What could be wrong?

Should I try to get the VM to look on my actual machine for an OS to install? If so, how do I specify the folder where I copied Knoppix or another OS?

Thanks for the great step-by-step. I've struggled with this for a while now but finally sorted it thanks to your help.

@Usul:

Your post is a little old, so there's a chance you might not see this, but in case you do, I stumbled on a website tonight that shows what each of the commands for the .vmx file mean. Here it is:

How to create virtual machines using VMware Player

@Dio. The easiest thing you probably can do is download the evaluation version of VMware Workstation and create the virtual machine using this program. It lets you install the VMware Tools which as far as I know includes a better video driver.

I ghosted (norton) my laptop, then tried to restore the ghost on VMWare image on a *different* laptop. the restore worked great, but XP won't boot -- blue-screens at the beginning suggesting that a hardware change has occurred. How can I get past this?

Yes, i have tried safe mode... same issue. i imagine if i try to run the image on the laptop that i created the image from, it would work. if that's the case, i'll just assume that you can't create an image of a PC and expect it to work in VMware on a totally different machine. is this correct logic?

Fantastic guide, thanks very much! I will be using this to test out some other linux distros.

I was able to load vmware tools on XP by downloading the windows.iso (found via google search), and adding the following lines to my vmx file so that it adds the image as another cd-rom (secondary/slave):

ide1:1.present="TRUE"
ide1:1.filename = "d:\windows.iso"
ide1:1.deviceType="cdrom-image"

Then I restarted vmware player, and the windows.iso file showed up as a secondary cd-rom drive.

Next I browsed to the setup folder on the virtual cd and ran the setup.exe file. Everything installed ok (clicked continue anyway on the driver signing warnings) except for the video driver which reported an error. I had to open device manager and force the video driver to install using the video\winnt2k\vmx_svga.inf file. A few seconds after the driver started installing, everything froze. I did a reset in vmware player and the video driver must have installed just fine because it shows up in device manager. Video is noticably more responsive and the mouse can drag off the screen.

To run windows 2000 in the player, guestOS setting should be:

# type of guest OS
guestOS = "win2000pro"

and NOT "windows2000pro" as mentioned in an earlier post.

any ideas on how to run VMware on a new machine with a new sata hardrive so that it boots off an older ide hardrive both conected inside? I just want to run two machines at the same time on one platform. Both currently have windowsXPPro installed, I just can't access the old harddrive pls help!

qemu,s black screen disapears on me after typing in the first part

cd C:\Program Files\Qemu

that part works then when I attempt type in.....

C:\Program Files\Qemu>qemu-img.exe create -f vmdk WindowsXPPro.vmdk 2G
Formating 'WindowsXPPro.vmdk', fmt=vmdk, size=2097152 kB  ..

the black screen goes ...

Any help appreciated thanks

I'm new to this so forgive me if I sound stupid. I just started to create a Windows2kPro VM but got to a point in the installation where paranoia took over and I backed off. The thing that stopped me was the following message:

Setup has determined that your computer's startup hard disk is new or
has been erased, or that your computer is running an operating system
that is incompatible with Windows 2000.

If the hard disk is new or has been erased, or if you want to discard
its current contents, you can choose to continue setup.

I have installed many versions of windows many times and never seen a comparable message so I was surprised. My gut feeling is that VMware player can not actually re-format a hard drive or wipe out an existing OS but I'd like to hear that from someone who has more experience with this than I have. Is such a message as the one I received a normal thing?

Thanks for any help.

If your computer is running an operating system that is incompatible
with Windows 2000, continuing setup may damage or destroy the existing
operating system.

Could someoone please tell me why the image created using qemu is so small compared to the size of the sourrce ?

I have tried on a windows NT machine with a 2Gb boot partition and the resultant image is aboutr 800kb !!!!!.

The image was a vmdk format.

Any ideas explanations are welcome and thanks in advance.

Hello I just installed Linux,Win 2003, And Win98 (older games) and I have no problem all you have to do is look at your computers ram and put less than that in the vmx code "memsize = "64"" to mem size whatever. Since I have 2024Gb worth of ram 512 should do for running all of the os's. I use 2003 for network hosting, Linux just for the heck of it (win user) and win98 because some of the old games need win98

-KIWIDOGGIE

Cecil, that message is normal. To Windows 2000 the virtual disk you created is new, and empty, and hence the warning.

Wanted to share what also is possible to do with this setup. Using the same files and modifying the .vmx file slightly I was able to load Windows 2003 Enterprise.

config.version = "8"
virtualHW.version = "3"
ide0:0.present = "TRUE"
ide0:0.filename = "Windows2003.vmdk"
memsize = "64"
MemAllowAutoScaleDown = "FALSE"
ide1:0.present = "TRUE"
ide1:0.fileName = "auto detect"
ide1:0.deviceType = "cdrom-raw"
ide1:0.autodetect = "TRUE"
floppy0.present = "FALSE"
ethernet0.present = "TRUE"
usb.present = "TRUE"
sound.present = "TRUE"
sound.virtualDev = "es1371"
displayName = "Windows 2003"
guestOS = "winxppro"
nvram = "WindowsXPPro.nvram"
MemTrimRate = "-1"

ide0:0.redo = ""
ethernet0.addressType = "generated"
uuid.location = "56 4d 01 35 f8 8c 54 53-6f 53 e1 89 17 1c 4e bd"
uuid.bios = "56 4d 01 35 f8 8c 54 53-6f 53 e1 89 17 1c 4e bd"
ethernet0.generatedAddress = "00:0c:29:1c:4e:bd"
ethernet0.generatedAddressOffset = "0"

tools.syncTime = "TRUE"
ide1:0.startConnected = "TRUE"

uuid.action = "create"

checkpoint.vmState = ""

I had to leave some of the files the same as WinPro in order to get it to load otherwise it gives an error message upon trying to use it.

I don't know if that has been discussed before. I haven't found it, but I may be blind...

My problem: I'm able to beginn installation of XP in vmplayer under Ubuntu breezy, choose a partition, and some files are copied into that partition. Then, the system reboots, but apperently, it does not boot from harddisk then, but again from the iso-file, trying to overwrite the first part of the installation. The vmdk-file has grown up to some 400M by then.

Hope my problem is not too utterly stupid...

I've created a webpage with some tools to make creating virtual machines very simple.

Easy.vmx

It's got two forms to generate the vmx file, one simple and one for experts.

The simple form gives you the following benefits, by filling in only four configuration fields:

* All possible choices of guest operating systems. 
* Fine grained RAM selection, from 4MB to 2GB. 
* Selection of one or two CPUs. 
* Free text fields for annotation, long name and URL. 
* Access to one or two disk images. 
* Access to one or two network interface cards. 
* All choices for network mode and device. 
* Unique hardware addresses. 
* Access to physical floppy. 
* Access to physical CDROM drive. 
* Optional CDROM ISO-image. 
* USB support. 
* Serial port support with hardware flow control. 
* Parallel port support (bidirectional). 
* Sound support. 
* Hide startup hints. 
* Logging. 
* Full interaction between the virtual machine and your computer.

I've included necessary tools, a range of pre-built virtual disks and a tutorial.

Hope you like it!

Thank-you Chris for the link, it worked perfectly for creating my *.vmx and *.vmdk files and gaining access to my cdroms, *.iso images and other hardware...no muss, no fuss!

For the D.I.Y.'ers - Qemu has a new version 0.8.0 which doesn't require an install and actually works to create the *.vmdk file in WinXP sp2...0.7.2 wouldn't run right no matter where I downloaded it from!

I'm another newbie. I am trying to create a XP Home environment within an XP home environment as a test bed. Followed you XP Pro guide. Install started, asked me to create a partition. Did that. Restarted, started smartdrv and then the install bombed because setup couldn't find enough disk space. I upped the 2G to 4G with the same result. I'm baffled and don't have enough experience to try any other trouble shooting. I did not have much luck with web searches so I thought you might be able to help. Thanks in advance for your input.

JJ

the vm works great for me. the only problem is how to have more space? right now i have 2GB and it's not enough. should i restart the process all over again or i could just set the config ???

is there any way to play 3D games ?? when i see the graphic adapter on the system of VM, it's not installed yet. so i try to install by using my graphic driver but apparently the instalation is not connected to the VM. what should i do then ?

This is a nice article, but I'm not sure if it is dated or what. I go into detail on my blog about how to create a Windows VM the easy way including the VMware Tools package which includes nice things like the video drivers and a cool way to use your mouse and clipboard. No VM is complete without VMware Tools if you have ever used the VMware Workstation you know what I mean. BTW VMware Tools come with VMware Workstation, but not with Player. Read more about it at

(edit: broken link, contact me. Thanks, John Bokma)

By the way, for testing, we have set up Apache on an instance of WinXP, which is running on VMWare Player, which is running on Linux. This has opened up a range of possibilities for us, when we set up test scenarios - the possibliities are almost endless.

It is a pity that you can only have one instance of VMWare Player running at once (according to their documentation) - looks like we will need to purchase a copy of VMWare Workstation.

Hi,

I can install guest OS (WinXP Pro), everything look like okie but in the guest OS the driver for video card is wrong (I can see it in device manager). My guest OS have 256Mb of RAM. In guest OS, the screen is very slow. I can't install the video card driver for my guest.

My computer:

- CPU: P4 HT 3.2Ghz
- RAM: 1Gb
- HDD: 80Gb
- Video card: Gefore 6800 GS
- OS: WinXP Pro

Can you help me in this sistuation? Thank you!

If you want the functionality of VMWare tools for an unsupported OS this may help you:

http://minix1.woodhull.com/pcontrib/vmw-01.tar.Z

This is a port to Minix of a utility that gives some of the VMWare Tools functionality. C source is included, this can probably be adapted to other OSs.

Greetings Mr. Bokma:

I am interested in VMware as I play an online game called Ultima Online that is about to institute anti-cheat software called PunkBuster. PunkBuster has an unacceptable TOS (terms of service) which reserves the right to inspect EVERY file on the hard drive.

I thought that if I could install a virtual machine on my box, I might be able to install my game there and restrict PunkBuster's "domain."

I have followed your instructions at http://johnbokma.com/mexit/2005/10/26/vmware-player-windows-xp.html, but I keep getting the message "operating system not found."

You could make quite a name for yourself and become a sort of MMPORG saint by enabling thousands of people to play this game without sacrificing their privacy.

Thank you,

Marcus White LAN Administrator New Media & Extended Learning University of New Mexico

Hi,

I was wondering if you might be able to help me. I've tried your guide to get XP Professional to load in VMWARE but when i click on the WindowsXPPro.vx i get the following error:-

VMWARE PLAYER

File not found: WindowsXPPro.vmdk This File is required to power on this virtual machine. Use VMware Workstation to repair this virtual machine.

I would really appreciate your help

Regards

Tim

I have a serial ata hard drive will this make any diference to the .vmx file as i am having problems with ubuntu?

also i have an athlon 64 processor running Win Xp as the Host, can i run the guest os as 64bit?

Cheers

John

Really good info. I have an app running under Linux that uses the serial port(s). I assume that I can create the virtual machine, renaming the WindowsXP... to Linux but any ideas if the serial ports would need a separate line on the config file and what they need to be ?

Thanks Alan

I was wondering about 2 things.

Is there any way I can set the VMPlayer behaviour so that it is the focus of input without having to press ctrl+G. Even my 6 year old Athlon 1500+ is too fast for me to hit ctrl+g & F2 for going into bios setup. May be age is catching up with me.

Is there any way the notwork booting option can be disabled or removed entirely from the bios boot option.

Thanks.

I've used Mr. Bokma's tutorial and also easy vmx. Plus vmware workstation, to try and install winxp pro as a virtual machine. It all seems to work well and the install starts, but I can't proceed beyond the EULA acceptance as the f8 key won't activate to the next stage. I've tried with my 3 perfectly legal xp pro disks, but always the same result and the f8 key is fine as I've tested it; also I remember to use the ctrl-g key. Any idea as to what the problem could be. My platform is XP Pro. Thanks

Any way of resizing a VMware virtual disk? - I set mine to 4GB which at the moment is enough, but once I start installing stuff on it I'm in trouble.

It took a long time to create the VMware image so I'd prefer to resize the virtual disk if possible rather than re-create another entire image.

Any ideas??

@lemeip - Microsoft makes a version of Windows XP available with Internet Explorer 6 for testing. It works with Microsoft's virtual machine. I have no idea how easy their image can be converted to the VMware player (I gave it a try some time ago, but my first attempts didn't work so I gave up.).

The image has a time limit though.

aving an issue with an XP VM running on an XP host- using "My Network Places" I can browse the host machine from the virtual XP guest, and transfer some files, but some types result in an "Access is Denied" error. MP3's always get the error. What's weird is that some exe's will consistently error out, while others transfer fine; doesn't seem to be related to file size- transferred very large exe's OK, but some small files consistently error out. Anybody else seeing the same problem?

Thank you very much, very very helpful, nice to no someone cares about others and is willing to share information...

after install windows xp pro on vm player..it didn`t detect the pendrive which is using usb port.help me.

I currently dual boot between Windows XP and Suse 10. Is there a way to set up a virtual device to point from one to the other? I don't want to clone the other operating system, I want to run it and have all changes saved back to the hard disk. I can find tons of info on cloning one or the other OS, but nothing on keeping the current install.

Thanks for the helpful post. I'm setting up one right now. Being new to VMWare, I almost installed Windows XP on my real computer instead of installing it under VMWare. It was easy to cancel though.

I set up a VM to run WinXP and legacy software within Mandriva 2007 Spring.

I ran the vmware-config.pl first and configured two virtual ethernet connections (I answered yes to all the default options).

I used the EasyVMX site to create the basic files and then installed WinXP without incident in about 30 minutes. A lot faster than when I installed it for real several years ago!

Everything worked fine except that WinXP wouldn't connect to the internet. What finally worked for me was to change the ethernet setting from "es1000" to "vlance" in the vmx file. Then it worked perfectly. The "nat" option worked and I didn't need to try changing it to "bridged".

I hope this is helpful.

You rock! I have been reading up on VMs and wanted to give it a try but didn't know where to start. Did a google, found your instructions, and in less than 1 hour had a vm machine up and running on our LAN. Our DHCP server and domain controller both see the box as a machine on the LAN, like it really exists. Sweet, and easy to do thanks to your instructions.

Thanks again for the great tip!

I also get the "Not a valid Win32 Application" error for qemu-img.exe, and the command prompt tells me access is denied. I tried MD54Sum command but it said it wasn't a command.

Superstar, i have used this guide so many times, and thanks to it, have learned how to install pritty much anything that will boot from a CD, to such an extent i can run just about every windows and linux OS i can lay my hands on

:)

sweet thanks John

I followed your tutorial and now have XP Pro working in the Free player. Unfortunately the player locks up intermitently. Like every ten seconds or so i get about 5 seconds of access! Then it locks up again... and so it goes! I have tried making adjustments to memory allocation to no effect. Host machine is XP Pro, Intel core2 2.4GH with 2 gig ram. The host is networked. The free Linux Browser application works no problem. Many many Thanks in advance.

Hi, I have problem with my modem driver any op sys i install on vwware modem driver is not in device manager

Hi nasuta,

It sounds like your drive E is formatted as FAT16 which has a file size limit of 2 GB. Notice that the VMware player complains about the host file system, which is drive E.

The solution is to either format the drive as FAT32 (max 4GB - 1), or better, use NTFS.

If you cannot get F8 to work at the EULA of Win XP, make sure the "F Lock" key is on and it should work then.

@zeke: For clarity, I included in the article also the prompt. You accidentally copied this prompt, causing the above error.

I've added a note regarding this to the article, thanks for letting me know.

I'm using VMWare for the first time and using Ubuntu to launch the forensics Virtual Machine to boot up within the VMWare Player. How do I go about it using the command line in VMWare

I have created a VMX image of my running XP and i installed VISTA as my primary OS. Now i wanna be able to run XP on vmware as i use to be able to before but i am unable to install VMWARE TOOl. What is the problem associating with it? How can i fix this? When i do install vmare tool, nothing happens and i am kind of getting strechy about that now, please help!

FYI: New FREE vmware player can create VMX image