Organizations use Workstation Player to deliver managed corporate desktops, while students and educators use it for learning and training. The free version is available for non-commercial, personal and home use. When you use a Windows 8. Its Easy Install feature simplifies the task of creating Windows 8 virtual machines.
Its Unity mode will intelligently scale windows with Metro applications and multi-touch support will ensure you get the true Windows 8 experience in a virtual machine. While VrtualBox is a good option as a free virtualization software, VMware applications have better virtualization features which are even good enough to create virtual machines for professional and enterprise use.
The initial builds of Windows 8 have seen a lot of issues on earlier VMware applications and installing Windows 8 on VMware Workstation, the VM Player and other platforms belonging to VMware was quite difficult due to compatibility issues, not anymore. Before buying that shiny Microsoft Surface tablet, it might be worth test driving the operating system first, perhaps as a virtual machine.
The latest VMware Workstation 9 has now made it easier to install Windows 8. In this post I will show you the process involved in creating a Windows 8 virtual machine with the help of VMware Workstation 9. Make sure go through the entire guide to avoid running into any issues during the installation process. For more details, you can also refer to the video given at the end of this post. Step 1: Needless to say, you will require VMware Workstation version 9 to be installed on your computer.
Step 2: From the virtual machine creation wizard, select Typical settings and hit Next. Step 4: In the next step, you can optionally enter a Windows 8 product key in case you wish to use the virtual machine as a regular machine , along with the username and optionally a password for your machine.
Note: Do not keep the Administrator username as it will not work. You can avoid entering a Windows 8 product key and password by entering a preferred username and hitting Next. Step 5: You can optionally change the destination of your virtual machine and the virtual machine name. The default location in Windows is the C drive, which means that you can easily lose your virtual machine if the C Drive is formatted which is often the case when repairing the Windows OS.
To change the destination folder for your virtual machine, click Browse and select a folder on your computer e. Step 6: Select the Hard Disk Space for your virtual machine.
If you are installing Windows 8 for testing purposes, then 25GB of disk space should be more than enough. Make sure that the selected disk space is at least 20GB and the host Drive e. C Drive has enough space to accommodate the virtual disk. In case you end up consuming too much space of your C Drive, you can end up with low disk space and might find it hard to access your system.
You can also choose to split the virtual disk in multiple files or save it as a single file. Step 7: You can verify your virtual machine settings from the log given in the last phase of the wizard. Click Finish to close the virtual machine wizard.
Step 8: Now, open the virtual machine in the VMware Workstation, where a new tab with the name of your virtual machine will be present. It is advised not to proceed as some settings still need to be configured and you will simply get an error if you proceed with the installation process. Step 9: In the virtual machine settings, make sure the following options are set. Any tips for making VMware 3d support work better? If you are not using compatible GPU cards in your VM host to offload the 3d workload , then you are consuming additional CPU resources to "Emulate" 3d support via software.
This is not going to be a good solution for a CAD or Inventor type environment. You could assign more resources to the Guest OS , but you are not going to get the same level of performance as a dedicated GPU. So you will need to research carefully to see if this is the best solution to your issue.
As a side note, I manage a large manufacturing operation. We don't do any of the machine operations directly from virtual environment. It seems like I can adjust the resources to the VM and it doesn't effect anything. I agree that it needs its own video card, which I did have one here that I put in it but I think VMware never accepted it or didn't have a driver for it from what I can tell.
I will have to do some research on that how to load the drivers. As per the cnc's yes ours all have pc's on them as well with the software. We have product development people in the office that work up the drawings before they send it out to the floor where it goes into production.
I was trying to save some resources by providing a VM where it could be accessed anywhere, and all this happened. But this does create several restrictions for that machine. You will need to research the specific hardware you are trying to use, but I found this example of someone using passthrough for hardware accelerated streaming.
If you haven't already done so, I'd update your vmware tools up to the currently available version. It is likely a version number much beyond what 6. Though from what people have written here so far, I'm not sure it will accomplish much for you than to let you eliminate that layer being on older version as a contributing fact. I am looking to do a passthrough but the device does not show up in the list to select it.
I am thinking the card I have is not compatible with the version of exsi. It is a radeon pro wx You can also take a look at the Documentation site for 3d Graphics support in 6. Also, to Jim's point, newer versions of ESXi Host might provide better support for what you are trying to do.
Consider upgrading to 6. To continue this discussion, please ask a new question. Get answers from your peers along with millions of IT pros who visit Spiceworks. Best Answer.
