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Installing and configuring a virtual machine using VMware Player

This article will talk about working with virtual machines(virtual operating systems) via free program VWWare Workstation Player.

Let me start briefly with what a virtual machine actually is. I already touched on this topic once, but now I’ll repeat myself a little so that you are immediately aware of everything that this article will be about. Virtual machine- it's kind of virtual computer with an installed operating system (hereinafter referred to as “OS”), which runs on your real system through a special program in a separate window. It turns out that you can work with any other OS through a special program without interrupting your work, without restarting the computer and without performing any other complex operations to switch work from one OS to another.

What is this all for? You can use a virtual system to test some programs and services. For example, I often use a virtual machine to record video lessons, since my virtual OS is clean, without any personal files and folders, and this will allow me not to expose anything important to the whole world in my video :) I also use a virtual machine for testing all sorts of things Windows settings, so as not to experiment on a real system, as well as to test any new programs.

Also, working in a virtual OS is good for those who earn money in axleboxes. Why is it suitable? If you work in a bookstore, you've probably come across a ton of tasks where you need to install some small game or program on your computer, register in it, log in, and possibly perform some other actions. Can you imagine what will happen to your real OS in the near future if you often perform such tasks, installing just a shitload of programs and games? :) Nothing good will happen! And sooner or later you’ll catch some kind of virus. And when working in a virtual OS, all this installed rubbish will remain there, without affecting yours in any way real system and all the virus (if you grab it) will also remain there.

This is what a virtual OS looks like running in a separate window:

As you can see, the same OS, only in a window :)

Previously in articles I talked about a way to work with virtual machines through a free program Oracle VirtualBox. At first I used it myself, but then I tried an alternative - VMWare Workstation Player (previously called simply VMWare Player) and realized that this program would be simpler. There are not so many settings in it, they are not so cloudy and incomprehensible and everything, in my opinion, is much more convenient. For beginners, this option is, in my opinion, better suited than the VirtualBox analogue.

Let's begin to figure out in order how to install WMWare Workstation Player to work with virtual machines and then how to install and configure the virtual OS itself through this program!

I recorded the whole process on video, where I show what to download from where, what and how to configure. If it’s not very convenient for you to perceive the information from the video, then below the whole process is described in text and graphic form.

Attention!
VMWare Workstation Player only works with 64-bit operating systems! Also note that to work with virtual machines, you must have powerful computer, With modern processor(For example, Intel Core i3, i5, i7) and a recommended amount of RAM of at least 4 GB. Better yet, even more! If you don’t know what RAM, processor and other computer components are, then I recommend reading the article. Otherwise, the virtual machine will be very slow, or your real system will slow down and not work stably.

You can see the bit depth of your OS and system information (processor, amount of RAM) as follows. Press the Win+R keys and in the “Run” line that appears, enter the command: msinfo32.exe. Click OK:

In the window that opens, on the “System Information” tab, you can find the necessary information:

The “Type” line indicates the bit depth of your system (x64 – 64-bit, x86 – 32-bit).

In the "Processor" line - information about the processor, and in the "Installed RAM" line - the amount of RAM on your computer.

Installing the WMWare Workstation Player program to work with virtual machines!

The program can run on both the Windows and Linux operating systems, so you can download it for any OS. Click the “Download” button next to the one you need operating system and the download will begin:

I will show using Windows as an example.

The WMWare Workstation Player installation wizard will open. Wait until the first installation window appears. Click “Next” there.

Further, the installation process is the same as in most programs (I talked about how to install programs), so I will only focus on those stages where it is necessary to perform some special actions.

At one of the installation stages, check the “Enhanced Keyboard Driver” checkbox and click “Next”:

Enabling this option means that an extended keyboard driver will be installed for virtual machines and it is better to install it just in case.

In one of the installation windows, uncheck the “Help Improve VMWare Workstation 12 Player” option, and leave the first option enabled:

The first option means that the program will automatically check for updates and if there is a new version, you can immediately update to it. The second option is to provide assistance to program developers by sending anonymous information about the operation of this program from your computer. This is the option I recommend turning off.

That's it, installation is complete! The next step is to install a virtual OS through this program.

Launch VMWare Workstation Player and install a virtual operating system!

After the VMWare program for working with virtual machines is installed, launch it using a shortcut on the desktop or from the Start menu.

When you launch the program for the first time, the following window will appear:

Here you need to select the first item, as in the image above and indicate your Email address. This is only necessary so that you can use the program for free. I inserted my real email and then I didn’t receive any spam, i.e. there is nothing to be afraid of :)

After entering your email, click “Continue”.

In the next window, click “Finish”:

The program window will open. Immediately after the first launch, in a separate window, a proposal may appear on top of the main one to upgrade to the extended “Pro” version. We don't need it because it's paid. Click the "Skip this Version" button:

Now in the main program window click “Create a New Virtual Machine» to create a new virtual machine (OS):

Now we have reached the stage where we need to choose where, from which file or disk the operating system will be installed as a virtual one. The window will have 2 options: install from a CD/DVD disc (Installer disc) or install from an image file stored on your computer (Installer disc image file). Choose the first option if you have your own CD/DVD with the OS that you want to install as a virtual one:

For example, you have a disk with Windows 7 and you want to install this system as a virtual one. Then insert the disk with this system into the computer and select the first option.

But operating systems for installation can also be stored in a special file on your computer called an “image”. Then you can install the operating system as a virtual machine directly from this file. Here is an example of an image file with the Windows XP operating system:

VMWare Workstation Player supports image files in the “.ISO” format, so if you have an ISO image file with the operating system, then the easiest way to install a virtual machine is from there. And then select the second option in the current window:

Using the “Browse” button you can select exactly required file image with the operating system.

Having selected the desired option, click the “Next” button below.

Note!
Any operating system can be installed as a virtual one, i.e. any Windows system, any Linux or any others! Those. not necessarily just Windows.

In the next window, we are asked to specify in advance the key for installing the operating system, specify the user name and password:

After all, installing an operating system in a virtual machine will be no different from installing a real OS on your computer :) The only difference is that the system will be installed in a window virtually, and not on your real HDD. But in that window, I recommend leaving only the username, which will most likely be set automatically (taken from your real OS). It is easier to specify the key and other parameters, if necessary, during OS installation. So in that window, just click “Next” to continue.

A window will probably appear warning you that you did not provide a key. Click Yes:

In the next window, in the first field you need to indicate the name of the virtual machine you are creating, and in the second field - the location of the virtual machine files on your computer.

You can call it whatever you want, it’s usually called the name of the OS that you will install. The main thing is that you yourself understand where your OS is, if you suddenly install and work with several virtual OSs in the future. Those. don’t call it like this: “1234”, because then you yourself won’t understand what kind of virtual machine you have with that name until you launch it :)

You can choose any location of the virtual machine on your computer – i.e. any folder or drive on your real system. It is in the selected folder that the files (there will be many of them) responsible for launching the virtual machine will be located. Please note that the virtual machine will take up a lot of space (a minimum of 10 GB is typical, but 20-30 GB is most common), so be sure to have enough space on your hard drive to store the virtual machine.

When you specify the name and location, click “Next”.

In the next window you need to indicate the volume of your hard drive that will be allocated for the operation of the created virtual machine. This is a very important step!

As I already said, a virtual machine is practically no different from your real OS. She will also have her own hard drive, only a virtual one. And the volume of the virtual OS hard disk will be equal to the volume of your real hard disk that you allocate for the virtual machine. Everything here will depend on what operating system you are installing as a virtual one. If, for example, Windows XP, then it does not require much space on the hard drive and somewhere around 10-15 GB will be enough. But modern Windows OS: 7, 8, 10 require a decent amount of space for their work free space on disk, at least 20 GB, and preferably 30-40 GB.

And in the first field of the current window, you need to specify how much of your real hard drive you will allocate for the virtual machine being created. As I already said, for example, I will install a 30-day trial Windows version XP. For this system, 15 GB will be enough. virtual disk volume. Please note that your real hard drive must have at least as much free space as you allocate for the virtual machine!

By checking that option, we indicated that there is no need to divide the virtual hard disk on which the virtual OS will run into several files; let it be in one file. If we selected the second option “Split virtual disk into multiple files”, then the virtual hard disk would be divided into several files. I personally don’t find any sense in this, so I always choose the mode – virtual hard disk in one file.

In the next window you will receive information about the settings of the virtual machine being created. We can “Finish” right now to start installing the virtual machine, but we won’t do that now. Let's move on to additional settings virtual machine to understand another extremely important setting!

Click the “Customize Hardware” button:

Will open additional window with a bunch of settings on several tabs. We are only interested in the “Memory” tab, where you configure the amount of RAM on your computer allocated to the virtual machine.

RAM - essential component every computer, without which it simply will not work. This is temporary memory where everything that is running on your computer is preloaded - programs, processes, etc. In the article I provided a link where you can learn in more detail about all the main components of a computer.

So, in this window you need to indicate the amount of your real RAM that will be allocated for the operation of the virtual machine. Everything again depends on what operating system you will install. If this is Windows XP, then it will be able to work with only 128 MB of memory, although it will be very slow. It is better to allocate 1-2 GB for it. RAM. If you install Windows 7, 8 or 10 as a virtual machine, then I recommend allocating at least 2 GB. RAM (preferably 3-4 GB so that the virtual system works stably and does not slow down). But there is one more point. If your computer already has little RAM, then you cannot allocate much for virtual system:)

If the computer has only 2 GB of memory (such a computer is very weak today), then you are unlikely to allocate more than 512 MB (megabytes) of memory for the virtual machine, because if you allocate more, your main system may begin to slow down severely. Take this into account!

In general, if your computer is weak, it’s easier not to bother with virtual machines, as I already mentioned at the very beginning of this article.

You will be returned to a window with information about setting up your virtual machine. Well, it’s time to proceed directly to installing the virtual machine! Make sure that the “Power on this virtual machine after creation” checkbox is checked so that the installation begins immediately and click “Finish”:

The installation of the virtual OS you configured will begin. First, windows will appear notifying you that some of your real computer hardware is connected to the virtual machine, as well as windows with various non-essential information. Just check the box “Do not show this hint again” in these windows and click “OK”:

Also, a window will then appear asking you to install additional tools for a virtual machine. We’ll post them a little later, so click “Remind Me Later.” Alerts on a light background at the bottom of the VMWare Workstation Player window can be closed by clicking on the cross:

Well, then the installation of the virtual OS will begin. I install Windows XP and the installation looks like this:

No different from the actual installation process on a computer. If you bet more modern Windows, then the installation process will of course look different from the Windows XP installation process. Since the installation process for each OS is different, I will only briefly discuss it below. I talked about installing Windows 8 and 10 in a separate article:

As for the duration of installation, it depends on the OS being installed and is practically no different in time from the duration of installing a real system on a computer. Windows XP installs in about 20 minutes, Windows 7,8 and 10 - about the same. This largely depends on the power of the computer.

The installation process has reached the point of entering the license key:

Now, for full-fledged work with a virtual machine, we will install additional tools for it. This is necessary primarily so that you can easily drag and drop files from the real system into the virtual OS window or vice versa. This is just an awesomely convenient feature!! And this big advantage VMWare Workstation Player before its analogue for working with virtual VirtualBox machines, because in the second I couldn’t directly drag and drop files, no matter how much I tinkered with the settings... Also, installing additional tools is necessary for correct operation some other virtual machine functions.

Open at top panel tools in the “Player” menu, select “Manage” and then “Install VMWare Tools”:

A window will appear in the virtual OS window where we click “Download and Install”:

A window for downloading additional tools will appear for a few seconds. Then you need through explorer virtual Windows open the “My Computer” section (also called “Computer” or “This Computer”) and start installing additional tools, which are displayed in the form of a connected CD/DVD disk to the computer:

The system will ask you to reboot. This must be done so that the installed additional tools start working. Click the “Yes” button to reboot the virtual machine:

After the reboot, the additional virtual machine tools will take effect. Firstly, you will be able to drag and drop files and folders from a real system to a virtual one and vice versa. Just pull and hold left button mouse, one or more objects directly into the virtual machine window, then release the left mouse button. Files/folders will be moved:

Secondly, you will be able to quickly resize the virtual machine window by simply dragging the left mouse button outside the window borders. This way you can make the window with the virtual OS larger than it was originally, so that it is more convenient for you to work in it.

To switch to a virtual OS, just move the cursor to the window with it and that’s it, you will find yourself there and can perform any actions directly in the virtual machine. Getting back to the real system is also easy - just return the cursor from the virtual window to the real system window.

Another one useful feature– open the virtual machine in full screen mode. To do this, click the button as shown in the image below:

As a result, the virtual OS window will be stretched across the entire screen and outwardly it will no longer be distinguishable from the real system. You can return to windowed mode using the same button.

The virtual machine turns off just like a real one, i.e. go to the “Start” menu, click “Shutdown” and then the same button again. Or you can turn off the virtual machine by simply closing the VMWare Workstation Player window and clicking “Power Off” in the warning window:

In order to restart the desired virtual machine, open the VMWare Workstation Player program, select the virtual machine from the list and click “Play virtual machine” on the right:

And the last thing I would like to show you today is how to go to the settings of an already created and installed virtual machine. Please note that you can only configure a virtual machine if it is already turned off! To configure the desired virtual machine, select it in the main window of VMWare Workstation Player and click the “Edit virtual machine setting” button on the right:

A familiar window with virtual OS settings will appear:

That's all! Now, I think, you can independently create and configure a virtual machine with any operating system for your own tasks. I hope I made everything clear for beginners :)

Have a nice day and good mood everyone! Bye everyone ;)

By using virtual machine VMware Workstation you can install a virtual operating system on your computer.

The result is completely new computers, only virtual ones, and you can create an infinite number of them. This program You will need it if your computer is banned for hardware on any site. In our case, bookmakers ( I mean those who earn money from or are just going to join our ranks and become a financially independent person). When working with forks, there comes a time when any registered account is cut almost instantly, and some of the offices (not included in the list) basically prohibit the registration of several accounts from one computer and can even block it along with the money. And if you still want to work with such bookmakers, you definitely can’t do without VMware Workstation virtual machine.

vmware virtual machine You can download it for a fee on the official website vmware.com. But you can quite easily download its free version on the Internet. I can’t say that this is correct, since it violates the developer’s copyright, but this is a fact and since this is not an advertising article but a general educational one, I can’t help but highlight this aspect - to do this, just enter “vmware workstation torrent” into any search engine and voila, choose what you like... The only thing is, if you decide to go this route, be careful in choosing the source.

Virtual machine VMware Workstation 11 rus 64 bit

Installation for windows 7

Installing a virtual machine vmware should not cause difficulties even for the least experienced user PC. But just in case, I decided to post screenshots of most stages of installing the program. Moreover, without this, the article seemed incomplete to me, and I don’t like unfinished things... Vmware workstation 12 is installed in exactly the same way and more early version(10) too.

Setting up VMware Workstation and installing windows 64bit on it

Here we will pause and look at everything in great detail, at least enough so that anyone could do it. The capabilities of the program are very wide and we will not consider them all, but will focus on those that we need in order to stably And so on without unnecessary words let's get started...

Launch the installed VMware Workstation for example, I decided to take version 10, it’s no different from 11 and 12 in terms of settings, I think next versions will comply since publishers are distinguished by stable conservatism in terms of design and functionality (and this is good!!!). In addition, I use this version myself, it is already installed and ready for demonstration.

1. VMware Workstation After the first launch, it immediately opens the main tab.

Find in the middle “create a new virtual machine” and click.

2. In the window that opens, leave normal mode create a virtual machine and click Further.

3. At this stage, you need to indicate from which media we will install windows. Either it will be installation disk as shown in the example, or image file ISO settings . The latter option is more convenient, since it is convenient to store the image on a computer or on a flash drive; it will not get worn out or scratched, plus the installation speed will be faster. But to do this, you first need to create it in special program, I personally used UltraISO.

4. Here it is important for us to indicate the name of the computer, try not to repeat yourself, since the uniqueness of all the individual facts determines whether or not the Beech Sneakers and their bots will identify you.

There is no need to enter a product key or passwords; you can select the Windows version as desired. Click next.

5. You need to indicate the name of the virtual machine, this is not the name of the computer, but a name solely for your convenience, it will be displayed in the column on the left.

At the same stage, you can specify the location where the files of this virtual machine will be located on your computer.

6. Select the disk size. Windows will be installed on it and all programs can be divided, but I don’t recommend this, and neither do the developers. The default is 60 GB, you can leave this figure. But if you have enough memory installed on your computer, I advise you to increase it to 80 GB.

7. Click here - equipment setup.

8. In the window that opens, go to the memory section and by dragging the pointer or by pointing manually, select the size of the RAM of the future virtual computer. Please note that the RAM size depends on the configuration of your computer and the recommended sizes are indicated on the right. In any case, try to set a little less than the recommended size in order to avoid “brakes”.

9. In the same window, go to the section CPU and in the drop-down menu on the right, select the number of processors and cores inside them. There can never be too many of these 🙂 place as many as you can...

10. We remain in the same window and go to the tab network adapter , then press additionally and in the window that opens, generate a new MAC address (this must be done every time, since it is this that is used to track hardware on the Internet in the first place, at least that’s what many experts say, we won’t dispute it...)

Click OK and close the window equipment«.

11. Be sure to leave a checkmark and click Further.

12. At this point the setup is complete, all you have to do is wait for it to complete Windows installation And It is very IMPORTANT when the network location settings window appears, select HOME NETWORK.

When everything is installed and configured, I want to draw your attention to two useful functions:

  • Expand to full screen ( blue marker, fig. below) - I think everything is clear here.
  • Single mode ( red marker, fig. below) - This function allows you to display browsers and everything open source software and folders on your main computer. It will feel as if the browser is running not on a virtual machine, but directly on your computer, and this without loss of confidentiality. If the power of your computer allows, you can simultaneously run several virtual machines and open all browsers from them in a single mode.

If you start the machine and these functions do not work, do not despair; this sometimes happens and is usually solved as follows:

Open the tab " Virtual machine" and press install VMware tools...(picture below)

Now VMware Workstation virtual machine completely ready to work with, I remind you that the functionality of this program is much wider than described in this article, you can study them at your discretion. But since my site is aimed at teaching you, this information is quite enough!

P.S. Thank you for visiting my site. Enjoy your income!!!

The story about this virtual machine is a translation of an article from msfn.org.

Install VMWare and run the program. In the first window, select the option to create a new virtual machine

In the first step, click Next. When you see the following window, select Typical configuration and click Next.

Select the operating system you plan to install on the virtual machine.

On next step you can choose the name of the virtual machine and the location of its files. You can leave the default values.

The network configuration depends on your circumstances. I select "Use Network Address Translation (NAT)" because... I don't have a LAN; I connect to the Internet via Dial-up. With this option, if the host is connected, then the client can access the Internet. If you choose "Bridged Networking" it is equivalent to creating two individual computers with a unique IP address for each of them. In other words, you will need to assign the client its own IP address.

In the next step you need to select the size of the virtual hard drive. In fact, it is a file on your hard drive with maximum size which you point to at this stage. However, the client will immediately see it as you specify. In other words, if you select a size of 4GB, then the virtual machine will “think” that its hard disk size is 4GB. On a real hard drive, the file size will depend on the size of all files on virtual disk, but it will not be more than 4GB. I note that 4GB is more than adequate for testing automatic installation. I support Alanoll's recommendation to check the "Allocate all" checkbox disk space now" (Select all disk space now), because this will increase the performance of the virtual machine.

If you checked the "Allocate all disk space now" checkbox, then VMWare will ask you to confirm the decision. Click Yes.

This completes the configuration wizard, and you are taken to the main VMWare window. Configuration, however, does not end there.

All that remains is to do a couple of manipulations and configure the loading of VMWare from the ISO image. Click "Edit Virtual Machine Settings" on the left. You will see a window similar to this:

Click on "CD-ROM" on the left and select the "Use ISO image" option on the right. Find bootable iso image you created by following the article Create a bootable ISO/CD and click OK to return to the main window.

Click on the button with the green arrow at the top to launch the virtual machine. Now everything should work as if it were a real car.

The following situation is possible. You have configured to boot from ISO, but when you start the virtual machine, the message “Press any key to boot from CD...” does not appear, and the machine does not boot from the CD. In this case, you need to set boot from CD-ROM in the BIOS, just like on ordinary car. Restart the virtual machine and press F2. You must log in BIOS settings virtual machine, which look something like this:

Use the Right/Left arrows on your keyboard to go to the Boot menu

Use the Up/Down arrows on your keyboard to select the CD-ROM, and then press the "+" key until the CD-ROM is listed above the Hard Drive.

Now use the Left/Right arrows to select the Exit menu, then highlight "Exit Saving Changes" and press Enter. Confirm the request to change settings, and the virtual machine will reboot with the new settings

Good afternoon!. Surely many of you, due to the power modern computers have their way personal computer various programs for virtualization of all kinds of systems. In the corporate segment, this is the hypervisor ESXI 5.5 and higher, and at home, this is Hyper-V on Windows 10 or Vmware Workstation 14. It is the latter that will be discussed at the moment latest version is 14.1. Today I will tell you where to download and how it is done Vmware installation Workstation 14, step by step. So that you can create your own test site for testing or work.

What is Vmware Workstation 14

For people who are just getting acquainted with the Vmware Workstation product, I will tell you in a nutshell what kind of beast it is. Briefly and simply put, this is a program that is installed on operating systems of the Windows or Linux family so that separate, isolated OSes can be installed for further testing or work.

A simple example, I have Windows 8.1 installed locally, but this does not prevent me from using Vmware Workstation 14 to have installed Windows 10 that I can break or study without fear that I'll break the underlying OS. Since essentially a virtual machine is just a file on a computer. I advise you to read more about virtual stands at this link.

Where to download Vmware Workstation 14

Official website for Vmware downloads You can find Workstation 14 at the link below:

https://www.vmware.com/ru/products/workstation-pro/workstation-pro-evaluation.html

As you can see there is a version for:

  • Windows
  • Linux

Herself VMware program Workstation 14, of course paid and you will find the link trial version, this is enough to put it up and take a closer look.

What's new in Vmware Workstation 14

Let's quickly talk about the innovations in this version of the second-class hypervisor. Support now available:

  • Windows 10 1803
  • Windows Server 1803
  • ESXI 6.5

Of course, this version also improves system hardware support. Compatibility included with the latest processors, including Intel Kabylake and AMD Ryzen. UEFI support implemented Secure Boot for virtual systems, which increases security. Also included virtual controller Virtual NVMe for quick access to SSD (with vSAN testing support).

VMware Workstation 14 has improved network management. New network settings allow you to simulate certain situations that will be useful during testing. To the previously existing functions for adjusting delay and packet loss, adjustment of distance and network quality has been added. This is required to check the fault tolerance of the applications under test. Others have also been added additional options, for example, setting the names of virtual network adapters, etc.

Added the function of scanning virtual machines to update resources. Systems hosted on both local disks and USB drives, as well as remote ones. Added support for power and simple system power-on/shutdown operations for vSphere ESXi hosts. Remote control supports operations such as shutdown, reboot, shutdown, directly from VMware Workstation.

And that is not all. Among other things, in new version Many different improvements have been made: minor amenities have been added, automatic cleaning virtual system disk, updated GTK+ 3-based interface for GNU/Linux, bug fixes, etc.

How to install Vmware Workstation 14 on Windows

And so, for example, I will install on Windows 8.1, since I have it, but it is no different if you had Windows 7 or 10. After downloading the archive from Vmware Workstation 14, you will get this file structure. Launch VMware-workstation-full-14.1.1-7528167.exe.

The installation wizard will start, which will begin to unpack the exe file

At the first step of the installation wizard, click Next.

We agree with license agreement, checking the box "I accept the terms in the License Agreement"

You can install it later additional driver for the keyboard by checking the box:

Enhanced Keyboard Driver (a reboot will be required to use this feature). This feature reguires 10MB on your host drive

Improved feature virtual keyboard provides better job with international keyboards and keyboards with additional keys. This feature is only available for host Windows systems.

Uncheck both boxes:

  • Check for product updates on startup - check for updates after installation
  • Join the Vmware Customer Experience improvement Program - join the improvement program

In the next step, the installation wizard will prompt you to create shortcuts on the desktop and start menu.

Remained last step, to complete our installation procedure for Vmware Workstation 14 Pro, click the install button.

In a minute, the master will finish his work. Here you can exit it by clicking the Finish button, or install license key Vmware Workstation 14, via the License button.

Installing a license key

If you have your own key, then copy it, if not, then generate it from special file. Copy the key generated by the generator here.

If you skipped this step, don't worry, you'll have at least two more chances to do it. The first is when you launch the Vmware Workstation 14 hypervisor. The first window will require you to activate the product. As you can see, there is a trial, evaluation period for 30 days.

A virtual machine is a software or hardware system that emulates the operation of one or more operating systems (Windows, Linux, Mac). Since programs for creating virtual machines are equipped with different functionality, I would divide their use into home and for organizations. Homemade means using free software without technical support developers and with limited functionality (but often this functionality is enough), for organizations it is full functionality with the opportunity to ask a question to the developers, but sometimes paying a lot of money for it. In this article I will describe the installation and operation of one of the programs for home use (not for commercial purposes), VMware Player. VMware Player - free for non-commercial use software, based on the VMware Workstation virtual machine (which in turn is a paid product).

First of all, download the installer from the manufacturer’s website VMware Player (at the time of writing, the latest version was VMware Player 5).
Launch it on your computer. In the welcome window, click "Next".

In the next window, leave the default path or indicate the location where the program will be installed and click "Next".


Then if you don't mind submitting data for improvement VMware works Player, leave a checkmark and click "Next". The checkbox does not affect the operation of the program in any way.


After that, you will choose to install shortcuts on the desktop and in the Start menu or not. You can leave everything as it is and click "Next".


If you are sure about the installation options, click "Continue".


At the end of the installation, a window indicating the successful installation of the program should appear, click "Finish".


When the program starts, a licensing window will appear, read the license and select Yes, I accept the terms in the license agreement(thereby you agree to the license) and click “OK.”


After this, the VMware Player console will launch, now let’s create a virtual machine, to do this, click on the right “Create a new virtual machine”.


In the new window that appears, select what you will install the operating system from, you can specify DVD drive in which there is a disk with the system or indicate the path to ISO image operating system.


Then a window will appear in which you can enter the license key, select the version to install and specify the computer administrator login and password. You can skip everything except the login, but it is written down by default, after you have entered everything you wanted, click "Next".


After this, enter the name of the virtual machine, which will be displayed in the VMware Player console and indicate where the virtual machine will be located locally; I recommend leaving the default path.


After this, specify the disk size for the virtual machine, in in this example I'm installing Windows 7 on a virtual machine, so the default is 60 GB, if you are satisfied with the disk size, you can leave this value, otherwise enter your values.


After this, a window will appear in front of you with all specified settings, if you think that everything is indicated correctly, click "Finish", otherwise with the button "Back" go back to the step where you would like to change the settings and make the changes.

After pressing the button "Finish" The installation of the operating system will start. It is worth noting that the installation will take place in automatic mode unlike VirtualBox.


If you want to make changes to an installed virtual machine, you need to select the virtual machine in the main VMware Player console (after turning it off) and click “Edit virtual machine settings”.

In the window that opens Virtual Machine Settings in the tab Hardware You can change the hardware, in particular add or reduce the amount of RAM, change the number of processors, add or remove a disk, change network settings or add a network adapter, etc.

In the tab Options, you can change the name displayed in the console, do shared folder etc.