Vmware workstation not showing

[mknabster]

I have been wanting to put XP on my Dell for some time now, and I bought VmWare Workstation 8, and I went to create a VM with an ISO of XP Pro SP3, which it detected right off the bat. But when I went through all the custom options and pressed start the install, that window closed and went back to the home screen, and it has been that way ever since. Another thing as well, i cannot exit out of the home screen either. Is Vmware silently creating the VM? If so, how can i change this and see what it is doing? Thanks

[strollin]

No, the VM should remain open and you should see the install progressing there. When you say you told it to start the install, did you setup the XP ISO as the boot device?

If you can't exit out of the main VMWare application, you may have to kill it from Task Manager.

[mknabster]

Yea, i had the ISO set as the boot and it said it would go, but never started up. I had to kill the process too to get out of Vmware. Should i try reinstallation of the program?

[glc]

Instead of using VMWare, upgrade to Windows 7 Professional and use XP Mode. It's also a VM, but it's Microsoft's, not a 3rd party.

[mknabster]

Well I do have Windows 7 Ultimate, how do I go about enabling XP mode?

[jdeb]

You have to download it.

Download Windows XP Mode

[mknabster]

Alrighty, i'll go through it and see how it works, thanks

[mknabster]

As an update, I installed virtual pc and xp mode, but i'm trying to follow the directions on Microsoft's site, and it says there should be a start menu item named Windows virtual PC, but there isn't. I also can't find anything called XP mode anywhere on the machine. What could be the issue?

[jdeb]

You have to enable processor virtualization extension in the BIOS.
What CPU do you have in the Dell? if it is a P7350, it does not support VT.

Here is a link for the tip sheet

download.microsoft.com/.../Windows%20Virtual%20PC%20Tips.pdf

Windows Virtual PC requires a CPU with the Intel® Virtualization Technology or AMD‐V® feature turned on (enabled in the BIOS). Most modern systems ship with virtualization extensions disabled in the BIOS. You must enable these extensions, and the instructions to enable virtualization differ depending on the hardware vendor. AMD's virtualization is referred to as AMD‐V®; Intel's virtualization is called Intel® VT. In addition you need to disable TXT (Trusted execution technology in BIOS).

[strollin]

XP mode hasn't required VT in quite some time, it did originally but MS eliminated that requirement very soon after XP mode was released.

What XP mode does require is Win 7 Pro or Ultimate. @mknabster - What version of Win 7 are you running?

VMWare is a perfectly good VM environment (I personally feel it is superior to MS Virtual PC (XP mode)) so, since you purchased it, I would stick with that and figure out why it is giving you issues. First thing I would try is re-installing VMWare.

If you would like to try some other VM environments, there is the free VMWare Player as well as the free VirtualBox both of which are excellent and, I feel, more versatile than MS XP mode.

The best thing about XP mode is that it includes a licensed copy of XP, with the others you need to supply your own copy of XP.

[glc]

Originally Posted by mknabster Well I do have Windows 7 Ultimate, how do I go about enabling XP mode?

^^^