Can A Virtual Machine Be Shared by multiple Accounts?

[aceplace57]

I've been struggling with this for two weeks.

I have five user accounts on a Windows 7 pc that runs virtual XP mode. They all want to log in and use the software installed in the virtual machine. (log in individually. Not all at once. )

I copied the virtual image file into a common folder that all the accounts can access.

At first things worked great. But within 2 days we started getting errors in the registry. Virtual mode would take forever to start. We'd get messages saying it had repaired itself. I've restored the virtual image file several times. It always gets corrupted.

I signed into the different accounts and the status of the virtual machine was different. Some places hibernated, others powered down. This is for the same virtual machine file. The status should be the same everywhere. No wonder I'm getting errors.

I beginning to think you can't share a virtual machine among accounts.

Has anyone gotten this to work??

I'm getting fed up. I'm ready to copy my virtual machine image file to each user account and let them run their own individual copies. That may be the only option that works. It will waste a lot of hard drive space. The virtual engine image is 2.5 gig. That's 12.5 gig to copy it 5 times.

I hate to do that. Am I missing something? Do you think there's permission problems with the virtual machine?

 

[jimbo45]

Hi there
An INDIVIDUAL SEPARATE Virtual machine can have multiple accounts -- however unless your Virtual Machine is a server such as Windows 2003 server only ONE user will be able to access it at a time.

XP mode is not really a "separate entity" so there isn't a "separate" machine for a user to logon to.

My advice if you want to have Virtual machines with multiple user accounts is to run VMWARE SERVER (it's free) on your host machine so users can connect to the relevant Virtual Machine on your LAN.

Done this way a "remote" user doesn't even need to have an account on the HOST machine.

The restriction of course is still that if you have virtual non server type Virtual machines then only ONE user can be logged in at a time on to the machine.

I like vmware server as you DON'T need to give access to the HOST mqchine to users who just need to use the Virtual Machines.

Cheers
jimbo