Windows 7: Bios

Frank1 · 15 Jan 2011

Since there is no such thing as a dumb question, I have one that might come close.

My OS is WINDOWS 7 Home Premium. I installed VMware, made a virtual machine and installed Win XP. Everything is working great. My question is: Does the virtual machine have a BIOS of it's own? I'm going to guess that the answer is, "No" but I'm not sure. Thank you.

Brink · 15 Jan 2011

Hello Frank,

I'm not sure if it's the same with VMware, but in Windows Virtual PC you would keep tapping the Delete key while the active VM is loading to enter it's BIOS. It is a very limited BIOS though. The tutorial below can give you an example of this.

Windows Virtual PC - Boot from a CD in Virtual Machine

Hope this helps,
Shawn

Kari · 16 Jan 2011

When booting a vm in VMware, press F2 to enter BIOS.

If splash screen disappears too quickly, enter this line anywhere in the settings file <virtual_machine_name>.vmx:

Code:

bios.bootDelay = "DELAY"

DELAY = milliseconds, for instance value 5000 gives you 5 seconds to get to BIOS.

This works both in VMware Workstation and Player.

Kari

Frank1 · 16 Jan 2011

I've tried it but can't get it done. There is no reason why I really need to get into the BIOS. I was just curious as to weather or not a VM had a BIOS of it's own. Both of you answered the question for me. Since both, my host machine and my guest machine are working with no problems, I don't think I'll mess with it. As they say, "If you car ain't broke, don't fix it." Thanks for the information. Maybe someday if I feel more confident, I may give it a try.

Kari · 16 Jan 2011

Frank, I forgot something very important from my post: normally when you close a VMware vm, it's not shut down. Instead, it's kind of hibernated.

If you edit the .vmx as I told you, the vm must first be completely shut down, for instance in Windows vm's from Start Menu > Shut Down. If you edit .vmx when hibernated it's not going to work.

It should work. It works on every vm I have, both in VMware Workstation and Player.

Kari

Frank1 · 16 Jan 2011

When I click on "Virtual Machine" everything is grayed out. So I can't get to settings.

Kari · 16 Jan 2011

Try this:

Shut down the virtual machine using its own shut down procedure. Do not shut down by just closing the vm window:
.

.
Go to folder where virtual machine is stored. By default, if you have not created the vm in another location, this is in VMware %USERPROFILE%\Documents\Virtual Machines\Virtual_machine_name\
Right click the .vmx file, open it with Notepad:
.

.
Add the line bios.bootDelay = "DELAY" somewhere in .vmx file. Change DELAY to milliseconds you want to, 1000 milliseconds is 1 second:
.

.
Save .vmx, close Notepad
Run vm, and you should now see this:
.

Kari

Frank1 · 16 Jan 2011

Problem solved! Thanks, Kari--it worked! As Brink said, it was a limited BIOS, but it was there. Now if I do need it, I know how to get to it.

Thanks again!

Brink · 16 Jan 2011

That's great news Frank. I'm happy to hear that you got it sorted. Thank you Kari.

Kari · 16 Jan 2011

You are welcome. Problem with VMware is that the splash screen disappears so quickly you have to modify the delay to be able to get to BIOS.

Kari

Windows 7: Bios

Bios problems?