Re: [orca-list] Windows and vmware player

[Jason Miller <hobbgoblin79 gmail com>]

Hello,

Let's see if I can answer some of these to help out for you. I ran 
Windows inside of VmWare player for over a year, running inside of 
Vinux, based off of Ubuntu 10.04 on 2 machines.
Hardware:
late 2007/early 2008 Macbook
processor: 2.2GHz c2d
RAM: 4GB DDR2 pc2 5300
HDD: 250GB Hitachi at 7200RPM

Gateway M7301U
Processor: 2.16GHz core duo
RAM: 4GB 284 pin SODIMM
HDD: 320GB at 5400 RPM

I didn't transfer over the Windows partition I had on another computer, 
because I had lost it due to hardware failure, so I had to start from 
scratch. I was running the windows VM at 2.5GB of the system's RAM, and 
Ubuntu off of the other 1.5GB on both of the systems. I noticed a couple 
of things, as I've had Windows inside of VmWare Fusion inside of OSX 
before, and also as a dual boot on that machine, along side of OSX. I 
have to say, that Windows ran amazingly well on it, with Ubuntu as the 
native OS, and Windows in the VM. I could have both systems working, and 
neither getting bogged down. The stability was actually a little better 
than when I had it installed natively on most of my other machines, and 
it seemed to react and run quicker sitting inside the VM for me. All in 
all, I hadto say that I didn't notice much degradation in system 
performance, and that's comparing my VM at 2.5GB of RAM versus4GB on a 
native install. I started with the Windows VM inside of the Macintosh 
first, and then copied the folder over to the Gateway a while later. 
Here's a couple of tricks for you if you're interested.

This is all assuming you *can't* copy over your current OS partition. I 
know there are tools out there to do so, but I don't knwo if they are 
accessible, or free for that matter.

First, make sure you set aside a good amount of space for the VM. When 
you do that, try to choose the single block option, that way you don't 
have parts of your OS/VM spread all over the HDD when it starts to 
expand. Grant it, that will take more room at first, but it speeds up 
load times, and reaction times of your Windows system in the VM.

Second, after you've gotten the VM the way you'd like it, with things 
installed, configured, and system settings/program settings the way you 
want, but before you start using the machine, and loading it up with 
files, make a backup. With VmWare, there is no snapshot that I know of 
with the free player. A simple way to do this, is to simply make a tar 
or zip of the folder that has all the system info in it. Put this in a 
safe spot for backup.

Finally, for VmWare player at least, I would suggest changing the 
"remove focus from VM" key from just control + alt to control+shift+alt. 
I cound myself exiting my VM constantly at first when trying to do 
things like use control + alt + the arros for tables and so on. I don't 
remember the file that had to be edited though, and I apologize for that.

One last note, and this isn't always recommended, especially if you are 
using Windows as a typical production ma\\system, and not a throw away 
setup. I never ran any anti-spyware/anti-virus on my system after making 
it into a VM. Partof this goes back to the backing up the VM in a 
tar/zip. If I *somehow* lost windows to a virus, I could easily just 
delete the folder in Ubuntu, and spend a little while unziipping, and 
copying the folder to where I deleted it from. As I said, I wouldn't 
suggest this as something to do in a production system, but with me, 
windows was just there for the last couple of games I couldn't play, and 
that's it.

Hope that helps a little for answering some of your questions. Again, 
sorry I can't answer if the licenseswould carry over, hopefully someone 
else here can for you.

--
Jason Miller
Vinux PR Coordinator



On 09/22/2012 09:47 AM, Andy B. wrote:
> Hi.
>
> I am seriously considering moving my Windows install to a vmware 
> install, and leaving the rest of the setup be linux. The main question 
> is what would the performance of Windows look like, what would happen 
> to mi licenses/key codes for things like Windows, office, JAWS, and 
> the rest of that sort of stuff?
> Any advice on the matter of windows vms?
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