Minimum VM Space To Dedicate for Limited XP Professional Use

[chamlin]

First time using VMWare Player. About to install it and put on XP Professional. Will only be using two legacy programs in XP:

• PageMaker 6.52
• Quickbooks 2007

Don't want to dedicate more space than necessary. What is the minimum I should dedicate in the setup?


Thanks,
Chamlin

 

[jimbo45]

Hi there
1 GB RAM would be MORE than sufficient. - I'd start with say 768MB for those apps -- remember you can always alter the amount of RAM you allocate to a VM from the vm settings. Don't go bonkers with that parameter though or you'll have to re-activate windows again (unless you are running XPMODE a windows VM is installed and operated just like a REAL physical machine).

As for total disk space required - probably 4 - 8 GB might be enough -especially if it's a fairly minimal VM you are creating. If you use VMware the default settings that are shown when you use the create Virtual Machine wizard are good for a first pass.

Don't activate the final XP machine until you are satisfied with the configuration -- you get 30 days before requiring activation unlike W8 which requires you to enter the code at install time.

IMPORTANT : Don't forget after ist boot of the VM that you MUST install VMware tools (from WITHIN the VM). It's on the menu. This will ensure proper video / audio / mouse etc for your VM. If you don't install the VMware tools you might have problems with decent screen resolutions and your mouse will not work smoothly.

Cheers
jimbo

 

[chamlin]

Thanks, Jimbo. Good advice that wasn't on my newbie radar! Gonna' try to install it now.

 

[chamlin]

Player installed. VM Tools installed. XP installed. Now downloading XP SP3.

Is there anything else I need to do in setting the player up?

I see my network noticing the VM. When I click on the VM in the Network section of Explorer, it asks for a computer name and password. I didn't set a password up when installing but see that it might allow me to connect it to my network.

How does one set up the machine's password?

 

[chamlin]

Attempting to "see" the VM drive folders from my Win 7 Pro system. The VM shows up on the network, but when I click on it, I get this: 2014-01-14_1735 - chamlin's library

I think the first time I clicked on it it asked me for a username and password and I didn't know what to input so I tried the VM name as it shows up on the network and the password for the Host system...which I know doesn't make sense. When I installed the VM Player, it asked if I want to put in a password and I didn't. Might've been a mistake as the rest of the network shares the same password and networks seem to like passwords.

Addl. Screenshots: of the Options "manage" section.
2014-01-14_1740 - chamlin's library
2014-01-14_1741 - chamlin's library

Is this recoverable?

 

[chamlin]

UPDATE: Okay, muddling my way through this...

GOAL: To be able to be in the VM (XP), using Quickbooks, and access via the netword, the Quickbooks .qbw file. I want the file to reside in my data drive so it's backed up regularly.

CHALLENGE: In Control Panel's "Windows Credentials" section, I see the VM drive. These are the settings:

• Internet or Network Address: BODHI-CJHMV091E
• Username: ??????? Not sure what to use

My Laptop is setup like this:

• Internet or Network Address: WHALE-LAPTOP
• Username: WHALE-LAPTOP\Whale

So I'm thinking the username needs to be: BODHI-CJHMV091E\?????????? How would I figure this out?