Installing Workstation on a Windows Host

1. Log on to your Microsoft Windows host as the Administrator user or as a user who is a member of the Windows Administrators group.

Note: To install Workstation on a Windows XP or Windows Server 2003 host computer, you must log on as local administrator (that is, not be logged on to the domain, unless your domain account is also a local administrator).Although an administrator must install Workstation on Windows XP or Windows Server 2003, a normal user — without administrative privileges — can run the program after it is installed.

Note: Keep in mind that you need one license for each user.2. If you are installing from a CD, from the Start menu, choose Run and enterD:\setup.exe, where D: is the drive letter for your CD-ROM drive.If you are installing from a downloaded file, from the Start menu, choose Run, browse to the directory where you saved the downloaded installer file and run the installer. (The filename is similar to VMwareWorkstation-<xxxx>.exe, where <xxxx> is a series of numbers representing the version and build numbers.)

3. Click Next to dismiss the Welcome dialog box.

4. Acknowledge the end user license agreement (EULA).

Select the Yes, I accept the terms in the license agreement option, then click Next.

5. Choose the directory in which to install VMware Workstation.

To install it in a directory other than the default, click Change and browse to your directory of choice. If the directory does not exist, the installer creates it for you. ClickNext.Caution: Do not install VMware Workstation on a network drive.Note: Windows and the Microsoft Installer limit the length of a path to a folder on a local drive to 255 characters. For a path to a folder on a mapped or shared drive, the limit is 240 characters. If the path to the VMware Workstation program folder exceeds this limit, an error message appears. You must select or enter a shorter path.

6. Select the shortcuts that you want the installer to create.

Choices include Desktop, Start menu, and Quick Launch toolbar. Deselect any shortcuts you do not want the installer to create.

7. If the installer detects that the Windows CD-ROM autorun feature is enabled, you see a message that gives you the option to disable this feature. Disabling autorun prevents undesirable interactions with the virtual machines you install on this system.

8. The installer has gathered the necessary information and is ready to begin installing the software.

If you want to change any settings or information you provided, now is the time to make those changes. Click Back until you reach the dialog box containing the information you want to change.If you do not need to make any changes, click Install. The installer begins copying files to your computer.

9. (Optional) Enter your name, company name and serial number, then click Next.Your serial number is on the registration card in your package. The user and company information you enter here is then made available in the About box (Help > About VMware Workstation).

Note: If you skip this step, you must enter your serial number later, before you can power on a virtual machine.

10. Click Finish. The VMware Workstation software is installed.

11. Some installations may require that you reboot your PC. Reboot now to allow VMware Workstation to complete the installation correctly

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new virtual machine is like a physical computer with a blank hard disk. Before you can use it, you need to partition and format the virtual disk and install an operating system. The operating system's installation program may handle the partitioning and formatting steps for you.

Installing a guest operating system inside your VMware Workstation virtual machine is essentially the same as installing it on a physical computer. The basic steps for a typical operating system are:

1. Start VMware Workstation.

2. Insert the installation CD-ROM or floppy disk for your guest operating system.

Note: In some host configurations, the virtual machine is not able to boot from the installation CD-ROM. You can work around that problem by creating an ISO image file from the installation CD-ROM. Use the virtual machine settings editor to connect the virtual machine's CD drive to the ISO image file, then power on the virtual machine.

3. Power on your virtual machine by clicking the Power On button.

4. Follow the instructions provided by the operating system vendor.

The next section provides notes on installing a Windows XP guest operating system.The screen shots illustrate the process on a Windows host. The steps are the same on a Linux host.

For information on installing other guest operating systems, see the VMware Guest Operating System Installation Guide, available from the VMware Web site or from the Help menu.