Opening office 2007 file in XP in VMWare workstation 9

[hummer7]

I recently installed windows xp pro in VMWare Workstation 9/Windows 7.
Everything works nicely.
But, under XP mode, it does not open any files associated with MS Office Suite 2007 (e.g., docs, xlsx, etc.). Any suggestion?

 

[Indianatone]

Do you have M$ Office installed on the virtual machine? If not then no it won't.

 

[Kari]

As Indianatone told, Office needs to be installed on virtual machine if you want to open Office files on it.

What is quite often forgotten is that a virtual machine is like any other individual computer. It can and will not use the software, applications and AV protection of its host system. If you want to / need to open, create and edit Office files on both your host system and guest virtual machine, Office must be installed on both. That also requires two licenses.

My recommendation is and has always been to use free alternatives on virtual machines to avoid any license issues. For instance, if you have let's say licensed Norton AV and Ms Office 2010 on your host, use free MSE and OpenOffice on your virtual machines.

Kari

 

[hummer7]

Kari,
Your post provides a very usesful information.

My computer has two physically separate drives and is run by Windowx 7 professinal.
As described earlier, windows XP SP2 was installed onto VMware Workstation three days ago.
So far, evrything looks good. Here is a question.
The virtual XP shows and recognize two drives (Local Disk C and DVD drive D). It does not see D-drive.
The main quesiton is the status of D-drive, which is DVD drive. In order to install a XP-program (CD disk) in the CD/DVD-drive (in Win 7 computer). I clicked the DVD drive D. It prompts "Please insert a disk into drive D:}. How can I make DVD-D drive in the virtual XP work?

 

[Kari]

Here's VMWare's own support page regarding your question: Adding DVD or CD Drives to a Virtual Machine

I can not help you more, I only use Hyper-V and VirtualBox virtualization platforms and do not know VMWare. Hopefully some of our VMWare geeks will see this thread.

Kari

 

[Indianatone]

The local disc is the Virtual machines C drive. The Virtual machines D drive will most likely default to you first DVD drive in the machine and then map it to D. You have to think of it as a separate machine. All you need do is place the CD in the DVD drive and run the setup from the virtual machines drive D. Best thing to do is fool around explore the settings.

 

[hummer7]

Here's VMWare's own support page regarding your question: Adding DVD or CD Drives to a Virtual Machine

Kari

Kari,
Thanks for the reference. It worked nicely.
So I can use either virtual D drive or host (Win 7) DVD drive.

It's perfect.

I am still trying to figure out other problems. It seems that mose of problem solved but I just found out that there is a problem with updating IE and WinXP. Right now, IE 6.0.2900I runs in virtual XP (but IE 9 in host Windows 7). The error with updaitng both Windows XP and IE was not specific. I wonder how high I could go up for IE. I wonder whether I could update them or not. If so, please advise me how.

 

[Kari]

You should always think a virtual machine, in your case the XP on VMWare, as any other computer on your network. It needs to be protected (AV and firewall), it needs to be kept up to date (Windows Updates, service packs, software updates).

Run Windows Update on virtual XP as many times as needed to update it, install IE8 on it (IE9 &IE10 wont work on XP).

Kari

 

[hummer7]

At this moment, the virtual XP works nicely just like the way the host runs on Win 7. Here is another question. During installation of XP Pro, I selected 20GB disk size instead of the recommended 40gb. Initially, when 40 gb space was selected, my computer seems to be unstable. That's why I decided to go for 20GB. My question is how high can I set the size for virtual XP space? I wonder what determine the size of guest XP system. I thought that it is depending on the C-partition of my computer. Please advise me.

Secondly, if 20GB is not sufficient for virtual XP, how can I increase the space to 40 G? When I looked at Disk Managment of the virtual XP, I do not see how to increase the space. TIA.

 

[Indianatone]

Hi,
The good thing about virtual hard drives is they only use the space they actually need to store the files. To adjust the size of the virtual hard drive shut down the virtual machine. Click on Edit Virtual Machine Settings in Workstation on the relevant machine. Click on hard disk utilities. Then select Expand. Type in a size you need to make the drive. You can also defrag and compress the virtual hard drive form this menu. Whilst we are on the subject if you need to adjust the memory of the virtual machine use the memory tab. Check out the screen shots.

 

[Indianatone]

Memory Adjustment on VM Ware

If you are using 32 bit windows there is no need to increase the memory above 3092 MB (3GB) as Windows 32 bit will not be able to see it. Leave that ram for the main host system to use.

 

[hummer7]

I am wondering about memory setting. My windows 7 is 64-bit but the virtual win XPS is 32 bit (for both home and office computer). My home computer has 4GB Ram and my office computer, 8GB. What memory would you recommend for win XPS for my home and office computer?

Feliz Navidad!

 

[Indianatone]

I am wondering about memory setting. My windows 7 is 64-bit but the virtual win XPS is 32 bit (for both home and office computer). My home computer has 4GB Ram and my office computer, 8GB. What memory would you recommend for win XPS for my home and office computer?

Feliz Navidad!

Go with 3GB on your 8gb system and maybe try 2GB on your home system. If it slows down the host too much try 1.5GB.
**********Happy Christmas!!!*********