03. Creating A Virtual Machine With VMware Workstation
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Having two operating systems on your PC can be advantageous,
particularly when, like Windows Vista, applications will run on say
Windows XP but not Windows Vista. If you have purchased Windows
Vista and found that a majority of your current software will not
run on Vista, even though it runs perfectly well on XP, then you
basically have two options.
- Option 1: Create a dual boot system by partitioning your
hard drive into two separate partition and installing Windows
XP on the first partition and Windows Vista on the second
partition.
- Option 2: Install Virtual Machine software such as VMware
Workstation. (You could also use Microsoft's Virtual PC 2007
if you wish, however, for this tutorial we will be using
VMware Workstation.)
Preliminaries
The first thing you need to do is install your copy of VMware
Workstation. You install VMware onto Windows Vista (or whatever
operating system you are using as a host operating system) This is
pretty straightforward and doesn't really need any explanation.
Once VMware has been installed then you need to create a
virtual machine onto which you can install your copy of Windows
XP. There are two terms you need to keep in mind here.
The virtual machine Host is the operating system that you have
installed virtual machine on. The virtual machine Guest is the
operating system you are going to install on the virtual machine.
It is important that you know the difference between these two
terms.
Creating The Virtual Machine
Once VMware WorkStation has been installed, Click the VMware
Icon on your desktop to launch the application. Once VMware opens
you will see the following screen (see fig:3-1 below)
Fig: 3-1 VMware's Home Window
The Home Window contains three options:
- New Virtual Machine
- New Team
- Open Existing Virtual Machine
Because you are creating a virtual machine for the first time,
Select the New Virtual Machine option and click on it. The Virtual
Machine Wizard will now start and will guide you through the
creation process.
Configuration
For simplicity it is wise to select the default configuration
which, if you look at figure 3-2 is Typical. This, as you can see,
is already selected for you. You should only use the Custom option
if you need to create a virtual machine which requires additional
devices to be added or requires a specific configuration.
Fig: 3-2 Virtual Machine Configuration Window
As we are going to be using the Typical option for the virtual
machine you can now click the Next button.
Guest Operating System
The next window to appear allows you to select the operating
system that you are going to install on the virtual machine as
guest. As you can see from the screenshot (fig:3-3) the Windows
operating system is not the only operating system you can actually
install on a virtual machine. However, if you are currently using
a Windows operating system as your Host then VMware will
automatically select an appropriate version of Windows for the
Guest operating system. If the operating system that VMware has
automatically selected is not the correct one, then choose another
from the drop down list of operating system versions. You can do
this by clicking the down arrow to the right of the Version
dialogue box. Once you have selected the operating system you are
going to use as Guest, press the Next button
Fig: 3-3 Selecting the Guest operating system
The next thing you need to do is give the virtual machine a
name and also specify the location of the virtual machine files
(fig:3-4) VMware, as with VPC 2007, has its own folder where virtual
machine files are stored. This is situated on the Host drive. This
means that the Guest operating system files will also be stored on
the Host drive unless you specify otherwise.
While the screenshot below (fig:3-4) shows the location as the
Host drive you can, by clicking the browse button, place the
virtual machine files on another drive or partition if you so
wish. The choice is up to you.
Fig: 3-4 Name The Virtual Machine And Select Its Location
Because the guest operating system will be using the hosts
Internet connection you now need to select which type of network
you are going to use. If the Host machine is not connected to a
network then I would suggest you do as I do and select the Use
network address translation (NAT) option. If you intend giving the
Guest operating system its own internet connection (obviously you
will need to install your modem software etc) then select the do
not use a network connection option. The NAT connection option
works fine for me using a DSL modem. After you have selected the
network option you need, Click the Next button
Fig: 3-5 Network Connection Options
Now we come to specifying the disk capacity for the virtual
machine. The default is 8GB, but remember 8GB is not a lot when
you start installing other programs to your virtual machine. Once
the disk capacity is set it can be difficult to change it. There
is a command prompt command line for changing disk size but it has
never worked for me, so make sure you allocate enough space the
first time around.
You should also remember that, if the virtual machine files are
to reside on the host machine's hard drive/partition then you must
have enough space for your host to run and the guest files to
grow. Currently I have create a separate partition of around 15GB
and installed my virtual machine to this partition.
Once you have allocated the disk space you have three options
(see fig: 3-6)
- Option 1: Allocate all the disk space now
- Option 2: Split the disk into 2GB files
- Option 3: Do nothing
Fig: 3-6 Disk Capacity Allocation Window
If you allocate all of the space right away there will be a
performance enhancement, but it will take VMware longer to
actually create the virtual machine files.
If you don't like the idea of allocating all of the disk space
right away you can always opt to split the disk into 2GB files
instead.
Should you decide to leave well alone and not tick any of these
options then the disk will start off small and will enlarge or
decrease as you add or remove programs or data.
Once you have enabled the option you want to use, Click the
Finish button. VMware will now start to create the disk and all
the necessary files for the virtual machine. This may take a
while, especially if you have checked the allocate all disk space
now option.
After VMware has created the necessary virtual machine files
you should see the Virtual Machine created successfully window
appear (see fig:3-7). Now click the Close button
Fig: 3-7 This window will appear once VMWare has created the
virtual machine.
After you have clicked the Close button on the last screen
(fig:3-7) the screen will change to display the details of your
current Guest operating system. In the left hand pane of this new
window (fig:3-8) you will see a list of commands and in the right
hand pane you will see the details of devices from the new guest
operating system.
Fig: 3-8 Guest virtual machine details window
From this window (fig:3-8) you will not only be able to Start the
new virtual machine but also edit the devices. Before we continue
let us just take a look at the edit options. To edit the virtual
machine setting, Click the edit virtual machine settings option
(fig:3-9)
Fig: 3-9 Virtual machine settings window
From the settings window you can change certain aspects of the
virtual machine. For example, you can change whether the floppy
drive is auto detected or not, whether sound is available (the
default for all of these setting is auto detect). You can even
change the Ethernet options. However, the most important, at the
moment, is system memory. The virtual machine will use its default
settings for memory depending upon how much system memory you have
and also which operating system you are using as the guest. The
more system memory you have on the host, the more you will be able
to allocate to the guest.
For example, if you look at figure 3-8 you will see that the
recommended minimum for Windows XP is 128MB, while the recommended
memory is 256MB. If you have, say 2GB of memory on your host
machine, you can easily increase the memory to your guest machine
to say, 512MB or 1GB, simply by moving the memory slider to the
desired memory allocation.
You should ensure that you have allocated the necessary memory
you feel happy with prior to actually activating the guest
operating system. If you decide to increase the memory after the
guest operating system has been activated the new settings will
trigger the windows activation option, and you will be required to
go through the activation process one again.
You can go through the different settings on your own (fig:3-10)
to see exactly what options are available. Incidentally, clicking
on the hard drive option and then clicking the utilities button
will bring up the option to defragment the virtual machine; this
actually is a useful addition.
Fig: 3-10 Virtual machine hard drive settings
After you have viewed the available settings, Click the OK
button to close the window. You are now returned to the Home
window (fig: 3-1)
Installing Guest Operating System
Now comes the most important part, installing the guest
operating system. Before you touch anything relating to the
virtual machine, place the Windows XP CD (or other operating
system CD) into your CD-ROM.
One major downside to virtual machine software is that the
Windows Auto Run feature can play havoc with the installation. For
this reason the virtual machine software will suggest that auto
run be turned off. Where VMware virtual machine is concerned I
have actually found that Auto run/Play is turned off regardless of
whether you have the turn off auto run option enabled or not.
Turning the auto run option off does however have repercussions
with Vista in that, regardless of whether you are installing
software or simply playing music CDs, the relevant CD/DVD will not
automatically run, so please be aware of this and don't think that
something is wrong with Vista when you insert a music CD and it
doesn't play. The reason is because auto run/play has been turned
off.
Once the CD/DVD has stopped spinning, Click the start the
virtual machine option on the Home page. You will see the virtual
machine BIOS information, just as you would with any standard
physical PC. As soon as the virtual machine has gone through the
BIOS test and started, the CD-ROM will spin and the Windows
installation will start. You install Windows (or any other
operating system) on a virtual machine in exactly the same way
that you would a normal PC. The virtual PC will also restart
periodically just as a normal PC would do during the installation.
After the installation has completed the virtual machine will
restart once more and then your guest operating system will load
(fig: 3-11)
Fig: 3-11 Windows XP loading
Once your operating system has loaded you will need to double
click your mouse in the virtual machine window to give the virtual
machine focus. To move back to your Host operating system simple
click the Ctrl + Alt buttons together and the mouse pointer will
be released so that you can go about your business in the Host
operating system.
You will find the mouse pointer a little sluggish after you
first install the operating system to the virtual machine. This is
because a special set of tools still needs to be installed. To
install the VMware tools, Click the VM option tab on the main
toolbar and the following drop down menu will appear (see fig:3-12)
Fig: 3-12 Installing the VMware Tools
From the drop down menu, Click on the install VMware Tools
option. The VMware tools will now be installed, after which your
virtual machine will be more responsive to your mouse and
keyboard. VMware tools is basically a set of utilities that will
greatly enhance the virtual machines' performance and also
generally improve the management of the virtual machine.
Once you have installed the VMware Tools you are ready to start
using your new virtual machine and installing programs of your
choice. Figure 3-13 shows the virtual machine guest (in this case
Windows XP) in the foreground and the host machine (Windows Vista
Ultimate) in the background of the desktop.
Fig: 3-13 Display Guest and Host desktops
Installing Programs
Installing third party software on the virtual machine is just
as easy as installing it on a stand alone PC. Just launch your
virtual machine and then, once everything has loaded and the
desktop appears, insert the software application's CD into the
CD-ROM and let it auto run. Then proceed just as you would if you
were installing the same software onto your main PC.
Anti Virus and Firewall
Even though the virtual machine is technically networking with
the host machine and sharing the host machines internet
connection, the virtual machine still requires its own anti virus
and firewall. It is, therefore, important to install anti virus
software prior to using the virtual machine with the hosts
internet connection. If you are not using Windows XP's built in
firewall then I also suggest that you install a third party
firewall for added protection.
Sharing Files
You can share files between the guest and the host operating
systems by enabling shared folders. This can be done by selecting
the edit virtual machine settings option on the virtual machine
details window. When the virtual machine settings window opens,
Click the Options tab and then click on the shared folders option.
You then have the options of 'Always Enabled' or Enabled until
next power off or suspend.
Shared folders can, of course, be a security risk. An
alternative is to simply copy the desired document/data from the
host machine to the guest virtual machine and visa-versa.
Shutting Down
Shutting down a virtual machine is no different to shutting
down your main PC. After you have finished using the virtual
machine, simply click the Windows Start button and select the Shut
Down option, it really is as simple as that!