I have been using VMWare Workstation 4.02 for quite a while, and am pretty happy with that until recently I tried to install the new Windows Vista RC1 on it by following the trick found on Joel's Installing Vista in VMWare Workstation, and was successful.? However, the VMWare Tools couldn't be loaded on the virtual machine whatever the settings I tried.? The installation wizard didn't even show up.? After googling a bit, and found the earliest version that supports to run Vista is 4.5.? So mine is too out-of-dated.
After another poked around in VMWare website trying to find if there is free upgrade package available to upgrade my version to at least the version that supports it, surprisingly I found VMWare offers even a better products, VMWare Server, for *FREE*.? I think that's probably because Microsoft offers its Virtual Server RC1 for free.? So I quickly downloaded it and loaded it on my XP machine first and replaced my old VMWare Workstation.? The installation ran quite smoothly other than a warning saying there might be some issue because the server version is supposedly running on a server platform, but I ignore it.? The program runs perfectly fine except that you can't monitor the status of the virtual machine remotely through web browser.? I opened the previously loaded Vista virtual machine, and successfully installed VMWare Tools on it.? Now I am on Beta and evaluating this version...and enjoying the moment both VMWare Server and Vista brought to me.
The trick on Joel's post is to set svgaMaxWidth and svgaMaxHeight in .vmx file to bypass the hung in the first phase of installation.? And this Guest Operating System Installation Guide?from VMWare website provides more details on how to install Vista on VMWare platform.? Here is the steps I took to get my Vista loaded:
1. Created a new virtual machine, and picked Windows XP as the guest.
2. Edited the .vmx files to add these two lines mentioned on Joel's post.
3. Turned on the virtual machine, and started loading the Vista.
4. Once it's done, loaded the VMWare Tools after the Vista was fully booted.
5. Then added the another following line to the .vmx file because the network driver didn't work this time.? This trick was also mentioned in that Guide document.
Ethernet0.virtualDev = "vmxnet"
6. Then after another couple of updates were loaded, my Vista was fully functional on my VMWare Server machine.
Also, I am very happy with the performance that VMWare products brought to me.? Personally, I think it's better than the two virtual products Microsoft offers.
Joel's Installing Visa in VMWare Workstation
Guest Operation System Installation Guide from VMWare