Tag Archives: Virtual Machines

VMware WorkStation Pro 12 – My Thoughts

So a few months ago I finally got tired of MS Virtual PC inability to support multiple monitors (and yes there are way – I even have an article on this site explaining how it can be done, but they aren’t up to par) and purchased VMware WorkStation Pro 12 and must say I love this software application!!! Below are my findings this far.

Pros

Converter to convert MS Virtual PC VMs to VMWare format (so you can minimize to time spent switching!)
True multi-monitor support (high resolution)
Very quick OS installation
Very quick Clone VM creation
You can change most VM settings dynamically while in use (unlike MS Virtual PC which requires being shutdown and then changed and then restarted)
I can install games within VMWare VMs (for some reason they would not install in MS Virtual PC, yet there is no such issue with VMWare)
Allows full integration with the host while a VPN connection was running (this was not possible with MS Virtual PC, my post entitled Cisco AnyConnect – VPN establishment capability from remote desktop is disabled for all the details)
Supports multiple CPU cores
Support direct integration of printers (nothing to install just a check box to check off)
You can pause your VM (similar to MS Virtual PC’s hybernate function but I find VMWare’s to be much faster)

Cons

Does not auto-expand the Virtual Hard disk so you have to determine the size allocated when creating the Virtual Machine.

For instance, I created a 25GB VM and installed Windows 7 and a few very small utilities (NotePad++, Irfanview, installed an Antivirus, …), then I created a few clones based on this master VM so I could create isolated VMs for different versions of MS Office for my development purposes. When I installed Office, my 25GB was almost all used up and I started getting page file errors due to not having enough free space. So I then said to myself, no big deal, I’ll just expand the VM. WRONG! you can’t expand a clone and you can’t expand the master VM as long as clones based upon it exist!!! So I had to delete all my child clones, delete the snapshots, expand the master VM and then restart the entire clone creation process, Office installation, … countless hours lost. This is a MAJOR PITA. This is the only point I’ll say MS Virtual PC does, by far, much better since their VMs simply expand as you need them to. No configuration, no expanding, … it just takes more room as you require it.

Pro/Con depending how you like things

You have to mapped the host PC’s drives (unlike MS’ Virtual PC which they just appeared automatically). Some people will like this because it give them 100% control. For someone like me, I enjoyed Virtual PC’s way of working, but I am not used to VMWare’s so it is all the same to me.

I will post more as I get more experience with this application, but all of the above to say I should have made the move years ago as it would have made me much more productive.

Maintaining your Virtual Machines – Windows XP Mode

Did you know you can actually maintain your Virtual Machines? I sure didn’t! I have been using Windows Virtual PC / Windows XP Mode for a little while now and never thought remotely about maintenance. It worked, so why concern myself.

That said, over time I noticed that some of my Virtual Machine were bloating in size when I thought of the contents. These Virtual Machines were GB larger than what I thought they should be and thus hogging valuable Hard Drive real estate for no reason. As such, I started nosing around and discovered that you can in fact Compact a Virtual Machine.

Sadly, once again Microsoft has buried something useful under layers of menus. No clue why they chose to hide such a command under the Modify button, but if you dig a little, the option to regain a little hard drive space is indeed there.

Below are the instructions on how to do so.

Open your Virtual Machine Folder (typically found in %UserProfile%/Virtual Machines/)
Select the Virtual Machine you would like to compact
Click on the Settings button in the toolbar immediately above the Virtual Machine Listing (a pop-up dialog will appear)
Select Hard Disk 1 (right-hand side of the dialog)
Click on the Modify Button (Left-hand side of the dialog – another pop-up will appear)
Click on Compact virtual hard disk
Click on Compact
Wait for the the Compaction Success Confirmation (this can take more or less time depending on many factors)
Click Close

Now, I’m not saying you need to do this every week, but after deleting a large amount of data, removing sizeable programs, … from a Virtual Machine, it may be a good idea to perform a quick compaction.

Virtual PC on Multiple Monitors

Ok, I finally decided to write my own post on the subject of how to configure Windows Virtual PC, and/or Windows XP Mode, to run in multiple monitors. Why another article. Simple, I searched high and low and managed to find bits and pieces, but no one seemed to give all the information, and certainly not clearly. I thought I’d share a simple, visual, step by step illustration of what I did to make it work for me.

As I have found out, it can be done, and it isn’t very hard to accomplish, but it does come at a little cost. Why Microsoft does not have a span multiple monitors setting directly in the Virtual Machine Settings beats me and based on the number of posts, why they still have not come out with an update or new version, bloes my mind. Regardless, we have a round about way to make it happen, and here is how to implement it.

The process involves using Remote Desktop to connect to our Virtual PC/Virtual Machine. Since Virtual PC/Virtual Machine does not allow multiple monitors we will benefit from Remote Desktop’s ability to do so instead.

Before being able to use the remote desktop, we first need to configure our Virtual Machine to allow a Remote Desktop Connection. Go to your Virtual Machines folder, select the Virtual Machine that you wish to configure to work using multiple monitors and click on the Settings button in the nav bar
Select the Networking heading and then ensure that your network adapter is one of your computer’s physical network adapter and not ‘Shared Networking (NAT)’ (for instance). By doing so, when your Virtual Machine is launched it will take an IP address, thus allowing us to make a Remote Desktop connection.
Select the Logon Credentials heading and click on the Delete Saved Credentials (first ensure you have this information somewhere username and password otherwise you will not be able to log back into your Virtual Machine).An alternative to this is to leave the logon credential as is, and open your vitrual machine normally and then log out of it immediately.
Start Windows Run Command
Start Remote Desktop by issuing the mstsc.exe /span command
On the General Tab -> Logon Settings, enter the computer name of your Virtual Machine in the Computer control and then your Virtual Machines’ logon username in the User name control. Notice how I also include the computer name in the User name control to enure that the proper domain is used for authentication.
On the General Tab -> Display Configuration, ensure the Use all my monitors for the remote session checkbox is checked.

Finally, click Connect.

A few things to keep in mind for this to work

Your monitors must be configured to all be using the same resolution! Furthermore, I have read that the combined resolution of all your monitors must not exceed 4096 x 2048 pixels.
You must set your Windows Firewall to allow Remote Desktop Connections as an exception (by default it is not allowed)
You must be actively connected to your network for the Virtual Machine to take an IP address to be able to connect to with Remote Desktop. There is a mean to not be required to be connected to a network by using the ‘Microsoft Loopback adapter’. I will investigate this in the near future and post back with the results.
This may not need to be explicitly stated, but your Virtual Machine needs to be running when you initiate the Remote Desktop session.

Drawbacks to this method

Beside having to take these extra steps to accomplish what I deem should have been a normal feature to include in Microsoft’s Virtual PC, this solution does present 3 distinct drawbacks:

You have to have to be connected to a network. This isn’t too big a deal since I doubt your travel with a second monitor! As such, you will typically be using this technique in office, so you should have network access.
Your monitors have to have the exact same resolution.
The computer will consider the 2 monitors, 1 giant monitor. So this means, windows snapping will no longer work and maximizing an application will make it span both monitors. So you will manually have to resize your applications within your screen.

Alternative Solutions

So what other solutions are available, instead of jumping through all these steps… to enable a make shift dual monitor functionality with Virtual Machines. Well, the solution is to switch Virtualization Software. For Instamce, VMWare supports multiple monitors at the click of a button ‘Cycle multiple monitors’. If you need true multi-monitor support, perhaps you need to look beyond what Microsoft is currently offering and hopefully they will update the application to support it natively in the future (One can hope!).

I hope this article saves you some of the time and frustrations I had trying to get this to work!

Below are a few links that helped me figure everything out, along with a few helpful posts in the Virtual PC forum:
Using Virtual PC with Multiple Monitors, Sort Of
Virtual PC on two monitors without additional software
VPC 2007 Dual Monitor support