To get the most out of a Windows guest system, install the VMware Tools described in section 4.1. Don’t put off the Tools installation. You’ll make up for the time you spend installing the Tools almost right away.
As with other VMware Tools sets, there are two main components: a graphics driver to enable SVGA and full−screen video modes and the VMware Tools Properties. The graphics driver is of particular importance with Windows because your full−screen mode options are severely limited without it.
Note A further incentive for installing the VMware graphics driver is that Microsoft embellishes almost every dialog box and menu action with some sort of animation. Your guest system takes much longer to perform animations in the default VGA16 graphics mode—and they get excruciatingly more tedious with every new release of Windows. For example, while Windows NT didn’t have much in the way of bitplane−scrolled menus and alpha blending, Windows 2000 uses these effects heavily. Although you can turn off most of this stuff under the Effects tab on the Display control panel, there’s little you can do about the animations.
The Tools Properties described in the next section and in section 4.11 offers a number of handy features, such as the ability to move the mouse pointer out of the VMware guest operating system window by pushing it off the edge of the VMware screen. The VMware Tools software set for Windows is not large; you should be able to find its relevant files by searching for vm*.
To install the VMware Tools for your Windows guest system, follow these steps:
If the control panel window is open, close it.
2.
Select VMware Tools Install from VMware’s Settings menu. This temporarily replaces your virtual machine’s CD−ROM drive with an image of the VMware Tools.
3.
If your virtual machine has AutoRun enabled, the install program starts automatically. If it does not, then open My Computer on your desktop and double−click the VMware Tools CD−ROM icon.
4.
Click Next numerous times to go through the installation process. The installer gives you the option of changing the install directory. Depending on your version of Windows, you may need to reboot your guest system after the installer completes.
Note If you’re upgrading VMware Tools from a release prior to Workstation 3, see Appendix B for information on upgrading virtual hardware for information on how to upgrade the display drivers.
5.4.1: Windows NT Only
If your guest operating system is Windows NT, you must perform some extra steps in order to use the new VMware graphics drivers. Do this just after step 4 (above):
4a. Click the Display Type button, and a new Display Type window appears. Click Change.
4b. A new window, Change Display, should appear. Click Have Disk and then type d:\video\winnt and press enter.
4c. The dialog disappears, and the Change Display window should now contain VMware SVGA II. Click OK and then Yes in the warning dialog box that follows.
4d.Close the Display control panel and reboot your NT guest system.
5.
Your display should be noticeably faster now, and you’re ready to tailor the display to your taste.
Open the Display control panel again and select the Settings tab. Choose the resolution you want with the Screen Area slider. VMware sets the number of colors automatically from the host system.
5.4.2 VMware Tools Properties for Windows
When you install the VMware Tools on a Windows guest system, the Tools Properties go in your Program Files\VMware directory, and a VMware Tools item appears on your control panel. This brings up the VMware Tools Properties, described in section 4.11. However, you normally won’t have to look for it here, because the installation process tries to put a shortcut in the system tray—it’s a picture of the VMware logo.
When you double−click this icon, the VMware Tools Properties window appears.
5.4.3 Dual Configurations and Hardware Profiles
If you choose to set up a Windows NT, 2000, XP, 95, 98, or Me guest system installed on a raw disk to boot both under and outside VMware, you’ll need to set up different hardware configurations. Windows calls these hardware profiles. The idea is to have one profile for VMware that includes the VMware Tools graphics driver, and another profile suitable for your real hardware. When you boot your machine, you select the proper hardware profile. (Unlike with the dual configurations on Linux and FreeBSD, VMware Tools for Windows can’t select a configuration for you at boot time; you must choose one manually at boot time.) Note If you’re not quite sure how PCs boot, or if you have LILO on your boot block but don’t know what it
does, see section 2.4 for a brief explanation.
Because some hardware and drivers are picky, you should create the new hardware profiles for VMware before you try to boot Windows as a guest system for the first time. To create the new profiles, follow these steps:
1.
Open the System control panel. If you’re using Windows NT, 95, 98, or Me, select the Hardware Profiles tab (Figure 5.4 shows the panel under Windows NT). If you’re using Windows 2000 or XP, select the Hardware tab and click Hardware Profiles to bring up a new window with the same name.
Figure 5.4: Windows NT hardware profile settings 2.
Select Original Configuration (Current), then click Copy.
3.
When the dialog box for the new profile appears, name it real. You’ll use this profile when you boot the system natively, and it can also serve as a backup for your original configuration.
4.
Select the original configuration and click Copy again, but this time, name the copy virtual.
5.
Click OK to close the Hardware Profiles window. When you bring up this window again, the new
profiles appear.
Now is a good time to learn how to boot with a different hardware profile. See if you can boot from the virtual profile as follows:
Windows NT
After you select the default mode (not VGA mode) from the first boot menu, a screen appears for a few seconds that says “Press spacebar NOW for Hardware Profile/Last Known Good Menu.” Press the spacebar before this screen disappears to see the Hardware Profile/Configuration Recovery menu. Move the cursor down to virtual and press enter.
Windows 2000/XP
At the initial text boot screen (the screen that says “Starting Windows 2000/XP”), press F8 to bring up an Options menu. Move the cursor down to Last Known Good Configuration and select it to activate the Hardware Profile/Configuration Recovery menu mentioned in the preceding section. Choose virtual.
Windows 95/98/Me
Windows should inform you that it doesn’t know which configuration to use. Select the option number corresponding to virtual.
5.4.4 Setting Up Your System for Dual Configuration
Now that you know how to start Windows with a different hardware profile, it’s time to set up your system for use under VMware:
1.
Boot into your host system and start VMware Workstation.
2.
Run the VMware Configuration Wizard to create a new VMware configuration, and when the disk options appear, select Existing Physical Disk. (You’ll need read−write access to the devices; in particular, on a Linux host system, you must be able to read and write to the device file in /dev. If you don’t have read−write access, the wizard complains about it, and you must click Cancel, fix the permissions, and rerun the wizard.)
3.
Verify that your dual−boot system works properly. If LILO is your boot manager, turn off the linear option, if present (see the discussion on page 222 in section 12.2.10 for more information). Also, consider losing any graphic shown by the message keyword in your /etc/lilo.conf file.
4.
When the partition table appears in the wizard, each partition should be marked Read Only. Choose Read Write for the guest system’s partition, but leave the rest alone (you may want to mark any non−Microsoft partitions with No Access).
5.
Complete the Configuration Wizard as usual and power on the virtual machine.
6.
When the machine boots, go to the Hardware Profiles menu and choose the virtual profile, just like you did when you tested the profile earlier.
7.
As soon as the guest system boots, install VMware Tools for Windows. Windows may open the Display control panel for you, and if the guest is Windows 95, 98, Me, 2000, or XP, you may have to do some of the next step before installing the VMware Tools.
8.
Configure and install any other drivers necessary for the guest Windows system under VMware, such as an Ethernet driver. With the exception of sound, Windows 95, 98, 2000, and XP automatically detect VMware’s virtual devices.
You’re now ready to use the system as either a VMware guest or natively. Just remember that every time that you run Windows as a guest system under VMware, you should use your virtual hardware profile. When you switch between real and virtual configurations, the boot loader may open the profile option screen for you because it detects that the hardware has changed.
Note To use the virtual hardware profile as the default, go to the Hardware Profiles tab on the System control panel again (see Figure 5.4 on page 86), select virtual, and then click the up arrow button a few times to get to the top of the list. Unless you change the profile options, your virtual profile should now be the default.