Opening a vpc image with vmware? - vmware

I have found articles saying this is possible, but what are the issues? Is it 'always' straightforward as shutting down your vpc and then opening it with vmware?
From this link which is nearly 3 years old it says you can but you have to copy some windows files into the vpc before shutting it down, is that still valid?
Update 1
Found this link which goes through the mouse driver issues

I'm the guy who wrote that article. I hadn't tried converting any images recently (once I moved off Virtual PC, I never looked back), but I tried again tonight to see if anything had changed. It turns out that not much has changed at all.
I grabbed a virtual disk that Microsoft published to test IE6, tried to concoct a VPC to go with it, and ended up using VMWare's converter to convert this virtual disk to a VMWare disk. It opened just fine in VMWare Server, and when I powered up, the machine discovered some new hardware devices and asked for the drivers from the XP disk, just as I'd seen before. This, I believe, is due to the emulation differences between Virtual PC and VMWare.
I haven't gone and tracked down the drivers this VM is looking for, because I don't plan to keep it around for long, but my recollection is that once these are set up, the VM will work just fine.

Just use the VMware Converter.
The one thing that you'll probably want to do is uninstall all the VPC drivers before shutting down. The VPC and VMware mouse drivers conflict and it gets all ugly and degenerates into a bunch of registry hacking to get the mouse working again if you don't do that.
Otherwise, yep. It's that simple. I converted a whole bunch of VPC machines last year (not knowing about the mouse driver issue at the time) and it was a pretty smooth process.

Once you convert your vpc to vmware you no longer need Virtual PC. VMware Workstation is much better. If someone only needs to use an existing image they can use the free VMware player.

I did this recently. Here is what you do:
Uninstall Virtual PC Add-ins from your Guest.
Create a new VMWare based image and when it comes to selecting or creating a new Virtual Hard Drive - Select your VHD File.
Works like a charm.

Related

WM_KILLFOCUS debugging is impossible

I have in my Win32 application WM-KILLFOCUS hanging procedure. If I try to debug and test them proper function, windows lost focus on each breakpoints. Because focus gets Visual Studio window. Is here some way, how debugging application without focus losing?
(The same problem is with mouse moving, etc.)
Sorry about the late reply - I've been v busy - but here's a brief writeup about how to debug in a VM (as per the comments above).
Download and install suitable VM software on your development machine. I use VMware Player. This is free for non-commercial use, but if you are using it in a commercial setting please buy a copy (it is not expensive).
Create a new Virtual Machine, configured roughly as follows:
memory 6GB or so (hopefully you can spare that much)
disk space 100GB (don't worry if this sounds overly large - the file that backs the virtual disk will grow as needed)
network adapter bridged (important!)
Install Windows in the VM - from an ISO image (you can use Microsoft's Media Creation Tool to do this). This need to be Windows 10, VMware Player doesn't support Windows 11.
Once that is up and running, install the Visual Studio Remote Debuggung Tools in the VM.
Copy your binary/ies (and maybe your .PDB file/s, I don't recall if these are needed) to the VM.
Launch your app in the VM and fire up the remote debugging tools there. Then configure these for 'no security' (this makes it easier to establish a connection, and, since you're presumably in a secure environment, it's safe enough).
Connect to the Remote Debugger running in the VM from VS on the host machine. You will need to know the VM's IP address (you can find out what that is by running ipconfig in the VM).
In VS, select the application to debug.
You should now be up and running and you should have all the awesome features of the VS debugger available to you. Any problems or questions, please feel free to ask (the last few steps are a bit hazy in my mind, but I've done my best and if you can't find your way through it I'll research this a bit more).
Good luck!

Can I run Dragon NaturallySpeaking on Amazon WorkSpaces?

I use Dragon dictation software including by using it over a remote access to my home computer. I also once had it set up on the network server computer at a client site which I could also access when logged in remotely. But now, I have a situation where my access to work info is over Amazon WorkSpaces. Does anyone know if Dragon Pro can be installed on and accessed through an Amazon WorkSpace desktop?
TIA!!
Your question was bugging me for a long time, finally I gave in and rented a WorkSpace and tried Dragon.
Recognition for me is totally fine as long as your local computer's standard audio input device is actually the one you want to use Dragon with. If your default input device is the built-in micro of your laptop, computer or screen, recognition will most likely be bad. I used a Sennheiser MB Pro 2 with a USB dongle on a Windows machine for testing, as well as a TravelMike with a USB MultiAdapter. Both work fine.
As for factors that influence recognition quality:
I know from other virtualization/remote desktop solutions that the codec that transfers your speech to the virtual/remote machine may work well for one microphone, and not for others. Try a different mike and see if that improves your recognition.
In order to rule out microphone issues, I suggest trying different internet connections (WiFi, Ethernet, tethering, different internet providers). Missing words from speech recognition over remote connections can indicate unstable or slow internet.
As far as I know, there is no way to patch a USB device through to the remote WorkSpaces machine. What you could try is install a VPN on the remote machine and use your smartphone as a remote microphone in Dragon. Your smartphone also needs the VPN. If you get that to work, recognition should be as good as on your local network, given that internet connection is fast and stable enough.

Xenserver - Access guest VM directly from host

I've got a decent PC that I'd like to install xenserver on, but it's also my primary workstation. Wondering if it's possible to access guests directly from the host machine -- meaning, can I use the monitor, input devices, etc that are attached to the host, to interact with the guests.
Currently setup as a dual boot Linux and Windows machine. I need them both running simultaneously while still being able to treat the host like a workstation. Already using Virtualbox, which is great but not what I'm aiming for.
I've searched high and low for an answer to this question. Maybe I wasn't searching with the right terms. I've found a package in the Ubuntu repos that adds an entry in grub along the lines of 'Ubuntu with Xen Hypervisor', but that was on a test machine that couldn't actually run Xen.
Normally, I'd just wipe this puppy and find out for myself, but there are really good reasons why I can't just jump into it this time, so I'm turning to the community.
Thanks for any and all info!
You can use a simple text console on the host to interact with the guests
xe console vm=guest
but I don't know of a way to access a graphical interface from the host.

Unable to power on VMware

I installed VM ware recently now whenever i try to power on VMware it shows the below message:
"Not enough physical memory is available to power on this virtual machine with its configured settings.
To fix this problem, adjust the additional memory settings to allow more virtual machine memory to be swapped.
If you were able to power on this virtual machine on this host computer in the past, try rebooting the host computer. Rebooting may allow you to use slightly more host memory to run virtual machines."
I am not able to change the memory setting .It just shows an option to resume the virtual machine, All other options are disabled. I have by mistake increased the VM ware memory in run time .Could any one help?
For anyone who encountered this problem recently, please visit this link:
http://blogs.vmware.com/workstation/2014/10/workstation-10-issue-recent-microsoft-windows-8-1-update.html
Go to Control Panel -> Programs -> Programs and Features,then uninstall the Windows 8.1 Update KB2995388 may help
--* Edit *--
The Optional Update for Windows 8.1 for x64-based Systems (KB2995388) published on 10/13/2014 may causes issues when running VMware Workstation on a Windows 8.1 host with it installed.
And a message saying "not enough physical memory" will be reported.
Because the VMware team hasn't fix the issue, you can follow steps below to uninstall the update to boot your virtual machine:
1.Go to Control Panel -> Programs -> Programs and Features, then select View installed updates at the top left corner.
2.Scroll down the list and locate Update for Microsoft Windows (KB2995388), select it and click on the Uninstall button.
3.Follow the steps to finish the uninstallation.
In the comment list, someone also reported a fix from VMware communities:
Open the config.ini file located at C:\ProgramData\VMware\VMware Workstation.
Add this line:
vmmon.disableHostParameters = "TRUE"
Save & reboot your PC
It sounds like your VM machine is in a suspended state. What you need to do is follow the steps outlined here in this help ticket. Do these steps while vmware is not running. And once you do this, start vmware again and then you should be able to edit your memory settings.
Run it in Administrator mode in Windows 8.1. Probably a Windows Update... Deleting the suspended state didn't work for me.
Before proceeding with any alternative solutions/workarounds, please always double ensure you have updated to the latest version of VMWare Player.
My machine was running VMWare Player, Version 6.0.*, and this issue was occurring (my local machine's Operating System is Windows 8.1). The relevant error(s) were resolved after updating to the latest build currently available, VMWare Player, Version 7.0 (Please note: I did not have to remove/uninstall any Windows Updates/Features)
Just spent a few hours trying to get my VMware to boot. Power flickered off enough to shut down the computer while the VMware was in suspension and recieved this message.
Make sure the update isn't installed. Make sure to follow the accepted answer. What made it work for me was:
Right click on your development name tab
Click on "Manage" and then "Clean up disk"
It worked for me. I'm not sure why it worked, but it was able to fix my issue. Didn't need to restart.
Follow these steps:
Close the VMware.
Select VMware icon.
Run VMware as Administrator.

Which Desktop Virtualization software runs most smoothly? [closed]

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Background:
I'm running a full-time job and a part-time job in the weekends, and both my employers have supplied a laptop for me to work on. Of course I also have my powerful workstation at home to work from, and sometimes when I'm at the office at my weekend job (it's in another city) I'm working from yet another workstation.
Problem:
That makes a full 4 PC's I'm maintaining (software versions, licences and settings) just to do my work, and believe me, my list of prefered software is way too big.
I want to setup a Virtual Desktop on my VMware server, so I can work from the same installation and same session no matter which PC I'm working from.
Now I don't have the time and money to go through a full test of each setup, so I'd like to hear your experiences on the subject.
Question:
Should I use a VMware virtual workstation with some remote logon software (like realVNC, teamviewer, logmein, whatever...) or should I invest in a full VDI system like Sun or VMware provide?
Edit:
I'm programming in Adobe Dreamweaver on Windows XP - but I run my servers on Debian and sometimes do quick edits in VIM too. First I intend to virtualize a WinXP with base installation, to see how it runs.
I am a consultant and tend to work in a variety of environments. I carry a Thinkpad running VMWare Server over Ubuntu64 with 4GB of RAM. I've got a 320GB secondary hard drive that I use just for VM's and have 25 or so different virtual machines that I boot up as the circumstances demand.
They're a mix of Linux servers and workstations, Vista workstations and XP Workstations. I rarely use the VMWare server console. I access every one of them via one of the remote access methods.
For Linux, I usually install FreeNX or NXServer for desktop access and just SSH for commandline. On Windows, I always use Remote Desktop (RDP), but, on XP, that only works on the "Pro" versions, not the "Home" versions. If all else fails, I install VNC and use that. VNC is at the bottom of my list because it really is a last resort. The only thing it's better than is not actually being able to use the machine.
However, NX on Linux and RDP on Windows work WAY better than VNC. Other than little things like font smoothing and fancy desktop effects, the only big glitch would be if you are doing much with video or audio or DirectX-based stuff. Things like YouTube or other video do NOT like to work with any remote desktop protocol that I know of.
As far as performance, using Linux as a host for VMWare provides really good management of system resources. The Windows-based VM's aren't able to just gobble up memory, but still get it when they need to.
I do C# development all day in a virtual Vista workstation on Visual Studio 2008 and have absolutely no problems having 3-4 different solutions all open at once along with the normal stuff alongside over RDP on another machine, connected via wireless VPN.
I can flip over to the host OS and it won't even be touching swap space at all. As far as I'm concerned, it's a great way to work.
If you want to work with the same installation, you should seriously consider the Remote Desktop Server/Client solution, bundled into every windows OS from XP. Basically, this app displays the view from your remote desktop to your local one, using highly compressed images; this works even via low-bandwidth internet connections
While the XP version can only handle one user simultaneously, the one in Windows Server 2003 (and in Windows Server 2008, I presume) can handle multiple users (up to a certain limit).
Disadvantages, and side-effects include:
virtual pc via RDC is slow
anything using the 3d acceleration will be slow (at least using XP/2003)
Personally, I would go down the route of using a virtual workstation with some remote logon software. The network performance of VMWare has always been good in my experience, and depending on the OS, there may be a decent remote logon provided.
I guess you can live with Logmein Free. [Or Pro if u want those features]
Well, you don't say what OSs are involved, so.....
For windows, I find that Remote Desktop works as well or better than anything else, although if you pay for the RealVNC version with the mirror driver, that's supposed to be as good.
For off site access for windows, www.logmein.com (the free version) works very well.
If Unixes are involved, then VNC is definitely the way to go, there are various solutions for doing this remotely. Everything from redirection servers, to just forwarding a port in your firewall to an ssh server and setting up the various tunnels.
Performance of VMWare is very good, and I can run a SQL Server slice, a web server slice and develop on my laptop simultaneously. The VM slices reside on a USB 2 portable drive and make it easy to port between my laptop and desktop.
VM Console works well for accessing each environment, and depending on the configuration you set up with NAT vs. Bridging you can UNC to shares on slice.
The nice by-product of this is that should you host machine take a nose dive you can quickly recover your development environment.