Windows 7 - VMWare and x64?

Alright, so this has been bugging me for some time, and I even called VMWare for help and nobody there was able to help.

Despite the installer from their site saying x86 and x64, it insists on installing to Program Files (x86) and always shows as 32-bit in task manager.

I thought, maybe it's because I'm emulating a 32-bit OS, so it was running in 32-bit... so I tested XP x64 (Didn't have a Vista 64 machine installed yet), and all but ONE of them is still 32-bit.

Screenshot:


Has anyone here gotten VMWare to run native in 64-bit? I've tried it several times, in both 6.5 and the newest version 7 (the screenshot is the newest, installed today) and it never acts like a 64-bit program, even though it's supposed to be one.

Hi there, the program install itself in Program Files(x86) folder because the installer is 32bit. The processes in taskmgr shows *32 because the processes are not coded fully with x64 architecture. But that doesnt mean that its not 64 bit compatible.

For example: My Vipre Anti-virus sits in Program Files (x86) folder and in taskmgr, its processes has *32 in the end. But its still supports 64bit OS.

I realize it *supports* 64-bit, but 99.9% of programs do.

I mean, it's not actually a 64-bit program.

You are right.

Actually not quite true -- otherwise how on earth could you run 64 bit guest OS'es.

The Player (and Workstation) UI is a 32-bit application. The virtual machine monitor, the services, and device drivers are either 32-bit or 64-bit, depending on your host OS.

Some genuine 64 bit calls have to be made so that 64 bit guest VM's can be run.

Provided the virtualisation feature IS enabled you can run 64 bit guests running genuine 64 bit programs on a 32 bit host quite easily. The only problem with this is that if you are running vmware on a 32 bit HOST you won't be able to allocate much more than about 3 GB to your GUEST OS.

To test that vmware DOES actually run genuine 64 bit architecture you need to have a machine with more than 4GB ram and fire up a GUEST VM

vmware server will allow up to 8GB per guest OS

vmware workstation now supports max 32 GB RAM . (WKS release 7).



Note that the new version of vmware player allows you to IMPORT and run an XP MODE VM.

VMware Workstation Documentation

cheers
jimbo

Heh, I've only got 4GB of RAM, no giving 32GB to a virtual machine. LOL

I just saw a separate Linux 64-bit version, I figured there'd be a solely 64-bit one for Windows too.