Preparing to Create a New Virtual Machine in VMware Workstation

You use the New Virtual Machine wizard to create a new virtual machine in Workstation. The wizard prompts you to make decisions about many aspects of the virtual machine. You should make these decisions before you start the New Virtual Machine wizard.

Selecting a Virtual Machine Configuration

When you start the New Virtual Machine wizard, the wizard prompts you to select a typical or custom configuration.
Typical Configuration If you select a typical configuration, you must specify or accept defaults for a few basic virtual machine settings.
+ How you want to install the guest operating system.
+ A name for the virtual machine and a location for the virtual machine files.
+ The size of the virtual disk and whether to split the disk into multiple virtual disk files.
+ Whether to customize specific hardware settings, including memory allocation, number of virtual processors, and network connection type.

Custom Configuration

You must select a custom configuration if you need to perform any of the following hardware customizations.

+ Create a virtual machine that has a different Workstation version than the default hardware compatibility setting.
+ Select the I/O controller type for the SCSI controller.
+ Select the virtual disk device type.
+ Configure a physical disk or an existing virtual disk instead of create a new virtual disk.
+ Allocate all virtual disk space rather than let disk space gradually grow to the maximum disk size.

Selecting the Virtual Machine Hardware Compatibility Setting

All virtual machines have a hardware version. The hardware version indicates which virtual hardware features that the virtual machine supports, such as BIOS or EFI, number of virtual slots, maximum number of CPUs, maximum memory configuration, and other hardware characteristics. The virtual machine hardware compatibility setting determines the hardware features of the virtual machine.

If you select a typical configuration, the wizard uses the default hardware compatibility setting configured in the Workstation preferences. By default, the default hardware compatibility setting is the installed Workstation version.

If you select a custom configuration, the New Virtual Machine wizard prompts you to select a hardware compatibility setting for the virtual machine. When you select a hardware compatibility setting, a list of the VMware products and versions that are compatible with your selection appears. Limitations and features that are not available for your selection are also listed. If a feature compatibility check box is available for your selection, you can select that check box to see a list of the additional limitations.

To deploy virtual machines to run on a different VMware product, you might need to select a hardware compatibility setting that is compatible with that product.

Selecting a Guest Operating System

The New Virtual Machine prompts you to select the source media for the operating system that will run inside the virtual machine. You can specify an installer disc inserted in a physical drive, an ISO image file, or you can instruct the New Virtual Machine wizard to create a virtual machine that has a blank hard disk.

If you select an installer disc or an ISO image file and the operating system supports Easy Install, the guest operating system installation is automated and VMware Tools is installed. If the installer disc or ISO image file contains a product key number and is already set up to perform an unattended installation, the only benefit of using Easy Install is the automatic installation of VMware Tools.

Read about Operating Systems that Support Easy Install