WhisperWhite
Steps to run Windows XP in VMware Workstation Player. No license or warranty is given with these instructions.
Download VMware Workstation Player from the VMware site and install it to your machine. It is free to use for non-commercial purposes so do not worry about buying anything or prompts to enter a license key. Also ignore the prompts for Workstation Pro. I selected to install the enhanced keyboard drivers. Restart after installation has finished. You will need to make sure Intel or AMD Virtualization is enabled through the BIOS.
Launch Player and Create a New Virtual Machine.
If you have an existing virtual disk file, select I will install the operating system later, else select Installer disk image file and run standard installation. I will be showing steps using an existing virtual disk file.
Select Microsoft Windows, Windows XP Professional.
Give it a name to show in Player and the location to store the virtual machine files.
The created disk does not matter with using an existing virtual disk file but I want to delete the Player disk file so I just selected single file.
Select Customize Hardware.
I raised the Memory to 1 GB because my machine has enough RAM. Remove the USB controller to prevent your attached devices from causing conflicts and you can remove the Printer too.
I chose to enable Intel VT-x/EPT.
I also only want to give the virtual machine one monitor, so I specified my monitor settings. All other settings can be left at defaults. Click Close then Finish.
The new virtual machine will be selected in the Player window, but you need to click Home at this point to unlock the files.
Open the folder where you selected to store the virtual machine files. I deleted the VMware virtual disk file (vmdk). Copy in the vhd file to this folder then edit the VMware virtual machine configuration file (vmx) in Notepad.
Look for the line ide0:0.fileName and change to the name of the vhd file. Save and close Notepad.
In Player, select and Play the new virtual machine. Run through the short setup. I left the administrator password blank to make login easier for myself. The resolution will be small but we can correct it later. The mouse worked for me but if you are unable to use it, use tab, space, and enter on your keyboard to navigate.
Once you get to the desktop, cancel any balloon message pop-ups and cancel any found new hardware wizard windows. Open Control Panel, Add or Remove Programs. Remove Virtual PC Integration Components then restart.
When back to the desktop, cancel any balloon message pop-ups and cancel found new hardware wizard windows again. There should be a yellow bar under the Player window to install VMware Tools, select Update Tools and run through the installation (hit ctrl-alt together on your keyboard to release the mouse from inside the virtual machine). Restart after the installation has finished.
Open Control Panel, Display and on the Settings tab raise the screen resolution to the size you desire. On the Appearance tab, click Effects then uncheck Use the following method to smooth edges of screen fonts and Show shadows under menus and click OK. Click OK to close Display settings.
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See Virtualization Advanced Performance Tuning topic for tips to help the virtual machine run better
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There should be a notice in the notification area that updates are ready to install. Select Express Installation, let Windows Update run for a while, then select Shut Down to install updates and shut down when finished. It should list 110 updates to install.
After the virtual machine window closes, open Player again. Select the virtual machine and Edit virtual machine settings. On the Options tab, set Enhanced Keyboard to Use if available.
Select Shared Folders. Choose Always enabled and Map as a network drive in Windows guests. Add the folder where you have or you will download The Realm Online installer to. Check the attributes Enable this share and Read-only in the wizard.
Select VMware Tools. Choose VMware Tools updates, Update automatically. Click OK.
Select Play to start up the virtual machine again. In the Player window, select the Player drop-down menu, Manage, Virtual Machine Settings. On the Options tab, select Autologin then Enable. Enter the user name and password for your virtual machine and click OK. Click OK to close settings.
Open My Computer (may be slow to open). You will see Shared Folders under Network Drives. This will contain the folder on your machine that you shared with the virtual machine. Install The Realm Online and enjoy!
