VMWare: Running in a Window

The advantages of using virtual workstations on a computer outweigh many of the disadvantages. I have been running Lightroom 2.1 now in a virtual machine for over a month with no adverse effect. The virtual machine, however, uses both processors and 2Gb of the 4Gb of machine memory. There is one trick to help keep the speed of the interface up.

The viewing mode of the virtual machine is important. We easily get used to windows around our desktop and the ability to switch between them easily. When using a virtual machine, a window is a resource hog. The machine should be running and the windows should be within the virtual machine.

The best response in the virtual machine is had when the view is set to Full Screen. This is found on the View, Full Screen menu. Using Full Screen there is no part of the host machine visible. This means the computer will not have to spend as much time keeping up with the host and can focus on your virtual machine.

The next tip I will publish is regarding the screen size in a virtual machine. When using VMWare on a laptop, sometimes the docking monitor is square and the laptop screen is wide. I have an easy method to switch between the two resolutions in Windows. ... Read More!

Don't forget to visit my photography web site where we sell museum quality black and white prints framed to last up to 175 years - Outdoor Images Fine Art.

VMWare: Synch with Blackberry at Last!

In my searching the past week I found many articles about how using VMWare and trying to synch a Blackberry using the Blackberry Desktop Manager failed. Many of these articles were 2006 and before - nothing more current. Well, I found the solution and present it here for others that are looking.

The best I can tell is that using any VMWare Workstation before version 6.5.x uses a very different method of attaching USB devices which is not direct. The Blackberry Desktop Manager uses a direct connection for security and other measures.

The good news is that I was successful 'out of the box' with Blackberry Desktop Manager 4.6 (current as of this writing) and VMWare Workstation 6.5.0 Build 118166.

I use Windows XP SP2 to run VMWare Workstation and I am running Windows 2000 with SP4 to run the Blackberry Desktop Manager.

Have at it! ... Read More!

Don't forget to visit my photography web site where we sell museum quality black and white prints framed to last up to 175 years - Outdoor Images Fine Art.

VMWare: Booting From a CD or DVD

There are many cases when you need to boot from a CD or DVD with VMWare Workstation machine. Booting is easy when you have a brand new machine with no operating system. However, when you have a live operating system, how do you keep the machine from booting the OS and skipping the CD Rom? Forcing the CD Rom boot in that case isn't so easy! Here's the trick.

First Things First

Before I tell you the secret, I need to give you a quick blurb on using CD's and DVD's in VMWare Workstation. While it isn't difficult to use an actual CD or DVD by placing it in your CD Rom Drive, there are better ways to use CD's and DVD's with Workstation.

If you are using an Operating System CD or DVD, then my recommendation is to burn an ISO to disk first. An ISO file is simply an image of the CD or DVD. This means you cannot use it on your computer with normal software, but you can use it in place of a CD or DVD drive. Roxio and Sonic both have software packages that burn CD's and make ISO's. I use WinImage which has the added benefit of making images of floppy disks (those really outdated tiny square things you used to put into a disk drive, and yes the really old ones were floppy and not stiff like the more recent ones). There is a trial version available, but I recommend supporting the developer and purchasing one.

Why go to this trouble? Because, you will most likely never get it the way you want the first time around. It's kind of like the old video games. If you loose all your players, you just restart the game - it's too easy. Well, with VMWare Workstation, creating a machine is so easy you can make them until you get one you like. I use a 4gb USB drive to store disk ISO's for Windows and Linux as well as storing my program setup files.

Booting Within a VMWare Machine

Ok, now to the good part. When the bios screen starts on VMWare Workstation, you have to move fast. If you have a slow computer and you can read the bios screen, your PC is too slow to use virtual machines! To select a boot mode, press the ESCAPE key when the bios screen is showing.

However, the first part is to make sure that the window is accepting your key presses! Be sure to click the window or set your machine to accept mouse and key presses when using the keyboard.

Sometimes it takes me two or three attempts to get the key press accepted, so keep trying. Yes, that means you may have to use CTRL-ALT-DEL some more, but be sure you are rebooting your virtual machine and not your PC!

Hope this helps. I have a whole group of articles planned, time is the constraint!
... Read More!

Don't forget to visit my photography web site where we sell museum quality black and white prints framed to last up to 175 years - Outdoor Images Fine Art.

Virtual Machine List

After getting a few tests and trials to run with VMWare Workstation and ending up with acceptable execution speed, I began to plan the types of machines I needed. This is how my list ended up:

Operating System Machines - Base Class

• Win2k Base - Windows 2000 with Firefox, Thunderbird, Acrobat, Flash and Spybot
• Win2k Plus - Win2k Base with Open Office
• Win2k Enterprise - Win2k Base with SQL and IIS
• WinXP Base - Windows XP with Firefox, Thunderbird, Acrobat, Flash and Spybot
• WinXP Plus - WinXP Base with Open Office (or MS Office)
• Suse Linux Base - Base Suse Linux Install
• Suse Linux LAMP - Base Suse Linux with Apache, MySQL and PHP

Machines

• Win2k Plus - Finance Programs
• WinXP Base - Lightroom and Photography
• Win2k Plus - Writing
• Win2k Plus - Hobbies
• Win2k Plus - Visual Studio Programming
• Suse Linux LAMP - Test Web Site for Publishing

These machines all have varying disk sizes, memory requirements and settings to allow for fast execution. I will address each of these items and the workarounds I discovered in future posts.
... Read More!

Don't forget to visit my photography web site where we sell museum quality black and white prints framed to last up to 175 years - Outdoor Images Fine Art.

VMWare Workstation

I have been working on ways to create separate machines on my pc using VMWare Workstation. The concept is to create the minimum operating system necessary to run a group of programs related to a specific area or task.

Benefits?

What are the benefits? I see several benefits. First, Microsoft Windows is known for getting corrupted over time with extra items in a registry, failed installs left over, incompatibilities with hardware and other programs as well as an inability to perform testing of new programs without mucking up the existing install. Thus, a separate machine for separate tasks can potentially leave the operating system working quickly and efficiently over a longer period of time.

Second, what about those legacy programs you have, but cannot afford to update or no longer carry updates. I have several financial programs I use that work well in windows 2000 and have not been updated for 32 bit operating systems. I also have some old DOS games (who doesn't?) that I can easily pull up and play for stress release. Finally, I keep visual studio separate from everything else because there are way too many programs loading at startup.

Finally, how about portability? Hardware seems to last less than software. THe proof is here: how many of you are still using some DOS, Windows 98, Windows 2000 or Windows XP programs (Windows Vista is the current operating system)? I know I am. However, I am not using the same laptop I was two years ago, nor the same desktop. It will be nice with the next hardware change to move some of these virtual machines to a new computer and keep working.

Pitfalls

How about the pitfalls? There are many, I won't lie to you. First, the operating system can be slower. You have to have good strong processors and as much memory as your system can take. Second, with Windows XP forward, you have to reauthorize your computer if you move a virtual machine around because of the change in hardware. Prior versions of windows do not require this. That said, it is your responsibility to comply with the licensing agreement and only use operating systems you have valid licenses for.

Also, disk space needs increase with the use of Virtual Machines. You have repetitive updates and installs to keep up with. This takes time.

Conclusion

My personal feeling is that taking the time to setup an operating system, be it Windows 2000, Windows 98 or Windows XP, with all the specific tweaks I like, and then cloning that machine for different tasks takes less time than worrying about having to reinstall with the next hardware change.

I believe backing up individual machines and knowing that it will work on any hardware platform that I can get VMWare Workstation on, is a lower risk than keeping cd's made from a backup software that becomes obsolete.

Going Foward

I will be posting a series of articles on using VMWare Workstation for this type of individual application. The focus of these articles will all be on creating separate machines on one pc for performing various related tasks. To find these articles, use the VMWARE tag on the list to the right.

Feel free to leave comments!
... Read More!

Don't forget to visit my photography web site where we sell museum quality black and white prints framed to last up to 175 years - Outdoor Images Fine Art.