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Sunday, January 18th, 2009

Windows 7 & VMWare Workstation Problems

Posted in Random Stuff  |  Comments


Having had some really high hopes with the VMWare Workstation 6.5 running on Windows 7 things have gone down hill.  I have a number of problems and have spent most of Sunday trying to resolve them without success.  Some people are using this without problem, I am only reporting the issues I have encountered.

Running Windows 7 64bit  (Build 7000)
VMWare 6.5.0 build-118166
Guest Windows 2008  32bit (not R2)

Problem 1 – Networking

Using a wireless connection generally forces you to use the NAT service as  bridged connections don’t work.  Under Windows 7 the NAT service crashes almost as soon as the guest OS try’s to hit the network.  If you have a wired connection bridged networks seem to work ok.

Problem 2 – Reinstallation

This is the biggest problem.   I had messed with the networks settings so much and following another tweeters suggestion (and it worked for them @spietrek) I uninstalled VMWare.

VMWare workstation 6.5 installation launcher failed!

Reboot, clean out registry nothing would make the installation work again!

The only way to get it back was a System Restore and then a Repair from Add/Remove programs.    However this is going to be a big issue for VMWare as the only way to upgrade your system is to Uninstall/Reinstall – so VMWare / Microsoft are going to have to resolved this or you will be stuck with the version you installed!  Other people have reported similar problems

Solution?

I don’t have one,  what I would like to see if Microsoft sort out the Client Virtualisation story for Windows 7 – I need 64bit guests (observant will see I used 32bit above) s0 please bring Hyper-V to Windows 7 :)

And VMWare please consider Windows 7 as something that needs support now,  not in 6 months time.

This entry was posted on Sunday, January 18th, 2009 at 10:44 pm and is filed under Random Stuff. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

  • mostafa_said_eg16
    i have problem in vmware with win7 ultimate in first time i install win7 it work very good then after that when windows make updates the program not started and not install when i press double click don't take any action with yes no and if i try more times that error was say:Windows cannot access the specified device,path, or file. You may not have the appropriate permissions to access the item. and need a solution for this problem please
  • Pride Grimm
    I had the same issue, I thought my computer was toast, and I was going to have to do a clean install. I have windows 7, 64-bit. Installed vmware player, rebooted, and all my user accounts were disabled. any word on a solution?
  • I've not tested this but I understand this has been fixed in a later release and in VMWare 7. I know of a few people now working with NAT on a Windows 7 box with no problems.
  • FrustratedJP
    I have similar problems. Laptop 1 with Win7Pro x64 host and two guest Win 2008R2 x64 and laptop 2 with WinPro7 x64 host and two Win7Pro x64 guests. Using Linksys WRT160N wireless router with DHCP disabled and a Linksys RV016 with DHCP enabled. I configured VMNet0 for autobridge and disabled VMNet1 and VMNet8. Everything runs fine EXCEPT each host cannot see it's guests and those guests cannot see their host - but everybody sees everything on the opposite laptop.

    With suggestions from another site I moved to wired connections and "almost" everything works OK. The only thing that doesn't work is that each host does not see their own guests in the Windows Explorer Network folder, but it is possible to Map drives without problem.

    I can go back and forth between wired and wireless and the problem follows repeatably! I have diligently checked/upgraded drivers, firmware, etc in both laptops and in the routers - all to no avail.

    My resolution after a week of playing/crying was to go out and buy a $40 small switch and bypass the wireless altogether -- pretty crappy solution, but it happens to work for my lab/test environment right now!
  • Found a solution, you need to manually select the wireless adapter for the VMnet0 connection.

    Also to get NAT working you need to manually add the DNS entry to the NAT config based on the current host configuration. Not an ideal situation but it does at least work.
  • D Last Born
    Am using win 7 and insatall Vmware 6.5, and install xp in it and its wireless is working..

    Steps:
    1-At the Menu bar of the Vmware select edit>>Virtual Network Setteing
    2-At Virtual Network Editor select Host Virtual Network Mapping
    3-Change the Vmnet1: or Vmnet2: and select you wireless device, then apply and ok then close.
    4.Before starting starting the Virtual Machine, under devices>>Ethernet edit it and select cutom then select which Vmnet represent your wireless drive>>then ok. and start the wm..


    Best of luck thu its wrks for me...if you dont understand..add me ml_junior1@yahoo.com
  • Rookie
    Could you perhaps elaborate a little more in what you actually had to do to get this to work?
    I can't find anyway to set anything for WMNET0 at all.
    Also, what NAT config are you refering to?
  • Dan T.
    In terms of your networking issues you can work around this using a usb wireless adapter connected to the image through VMWare. I have tested this and confirmed it to work.
  • Hi ,

    I also hitting the same problem , vmware 5.6 guess with Window 7..

    Wireless not working , hence i try to plug a long cable to my Wireless route which is on other side of the room..

    Any fixes ??
  • Windows Installation problems look to have been resolved:

    All down to the SQM Client which is part of the Customer Experience Improvement Program and HKLM\Software\Microsoft\SQMClient\Windows\DisabledSessions.

    http://www.mydigitallife.info/2009/01/20/fix-ms...

    http://chris123nt.com/2009/01/18/sqm-client-cau...
  • Jason,
    Back in the office I have found Windows 2003 server VM connected using bridged network is working fine. The problem with the networking is the NAT service looks flakey in Win7 and this is needed for wireless working.

    I'd be interested to see if you can uninstall and reinstall VMWare.
  • This is interesting because I have been doing sharepoint development in Server 2003 - 32bit on Windows 7 64-bit with no issues at all. I am running vmware workstation 6.5.1. All I did what install vmware and open my vm. I have not created a new one yet so I don't know if there is a problem there. I have been running Windows 7 like this for about 10 days working in my vmware machine about 4 - 6 hours each day.
  • Agreed that Hyper-V needs to come to Windows 7, but from the looks of it we will have to wait until (at least!) the next version. Hopefully there is an update to VMWare and VirtualPC/Server over the coming months to improve performance and stability with Windows 7 both as a Guest & Host
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