Virtualization
This section covers the pre-installation tasks, such as choosing the media option and how to partition the MS Windows disks.
Installation CD
Base Setup
Windows Setup
Add Disk
Add Partition
Move Data
Customize
Installation CD
A virtual machine’s operating system (Windows, Linux, Netware etc.) can be installed by attaching the physical media CD or DVD or by using an image file (ISO). I prefer the latter method because it’s way faster and more flexible .... you don’t need to play disc jockey to mount and dismount physical medias.
Creating an image file from a physical CD or DVD is really easy with OS X. Start the Disk Utility located in the Application/Utilities folder and follow the next steps :
1. Put the operating system (Windows, Linux) CD or DVD into your Mac’s drive
2. Select the mounted media in Disk Utility and click the New Image button on the toolbar.
3. Enter the name of the image file and choose DVD/CD master as the preferred image format.
4. Click the Save button to create the disk image. The CDR file extension can be renamed to ISO but VMware Fusion also perfectly handles CDR extensions.
A virtual machine’s operating system (Windows, Linux, Netware etc.) can be installed by attaching the physical media CD or DVD or by using an image file (ISO). I prefer the latter method because it’s way faster and more flexible .... you don’t need to play disc jockey to mount and dismount physical medias.
Creating an image file from a physical CD or DVD is really easy with OS X. Start the Disk Utility located in the Application/Utilities folder and follow the next steps :
1. Put the operating system (Windows, Linux) CD or DVD into your Mac’s drive
2. Select the mounted media in Disk Utility and click the New Image button on the toolbar.
3. Enter the name of the image file and choose DVD/CD master as the preferred image format.
4. Click the Save button to create the disk image. The CDR file extension can be renamed to ISO but VMware Fusion also perfectly handles CDR extensions.
Base Setup
There are several solutions for this problem and I will try to cover two of them.
There is a really basic partitioning schema that consists of creating one big partition (Partition C) and mix the user data with the operating system files. This is the default configuration choosen by the Windows installer and I highly discourage to use it.
Always try to separate the operating system files from the user data. This can be simply achieved by creating two different partitions, one for the Windows operating system and another for the user files.
Single virtual disk :
On a single virtual disk, create two partitions and use the first one for Windows and the second one for the user data.
Multiple virtual disks :
On two separate virtual disks, create one partition on each of them to fill the entire available space. This method allows you to have a separate virtual disk for the operating system and a virtual disk for the user data.
There are several solutions for this problem and I will try to cover two of them.
There is a really basic partitioning schema that consists of creating one big partition (Partition C) and mix the user data with the operating system files. This is the default configuration choosen by the Windows installer and I highly discourage to use it.
Always try to separate the operating system files from the user data. This can be simply achieved by creating two different partitions, one for the Windows operating system and another for the user files.
Single virtual disk :
On a single virtual disk, create two partitions and use the first one for Windows and the second one for the user data.
- Easy to setup and maintain
- Prevent user data corruption when system partition corrupts
- Single virtual disk for operating system AND user files
- Separate operating system from user data
- Backup of virtual disk always includes user data and operating system
Multiple virtual disks :
On two separate virtual disks, create one partition on each of them to fill the entire available space. This method allows you to have a separate virtual disk for the operating system and a virtual disk for the user data.
- More complex to setup
- Physically isolate the two partitions (separate disks)
- Separate operating system from user data
- Separate backup of operating system and user data virtual disks is possible
Windows Setup
Based on the virtual machine setup and using the Easy Install feature of VMware Fusion, the installation of Windows XP is nothing else then powering on the virtual machine.
In the Virtual Library, double-click the new virtual machine to start up the guest. One the machine finished it’s initialization, you’ll notice that Windows XP will be automatically installed using the default options.
The time needed to perform the installation of Windows and the VMware tools depends on your Apple hardware but should not exceed 20 minutes. Once the process terminated, the virtual machine is ready to use but we still have to do some manual tweaks to use the second hard disk as this is not covered by the automatic installation. This is covered in the Partitioning section of this tutorial.
This screen appears on your Mac display once Windows is completely installed and ready to use.
Based on the virtual machine setup and using the Easy Install feature of VMware Fusion, the installation of Windows XP is nothing else then powering on the virtual machine.
In the Virtual Library, double-click the new virtual machine to start up the guest. One the machine finished it’s initialization, you’ll notice that Windows XP will be automatically installed using the default options.
The time needed to perform the installation of Windows and the VMware tools depends on your Apple hardware but should not exceed 20 minutes. Once the process terminated, the virtual machine is ready to use but we still have to do some manual tweaks to use the second hard disk as this is not covered by the automatic installation. This is covered in the Partitioning section of this tutorial.
This screen appears on your Mac display once Windows is completely installed and ready to use.
Add Disk
To add new hardware to your virtual machine, shutdown your running machine and open the Settings control panel using the Virtual Machine -> Settings menu entry.
As described above, a secondary 20GB disk is added to the virtual machine acting as a future data disk. Select the Hard Disks icon in the settings control panel to open the corresponding dialog.
In the hard disk applet, click the + symbol to add the definition to the virtual machine’s hardware. Make the necessary adjustments such as the disk size.
By default, Fusion will name the disk as Virtual Disk.vmdk but in the dialog you have the option to choose a more user friendly name: Click the File name drop down list box and select the New... option. Fusion now opens a filesystem dialog and asks for a new name of the virtual disk to create.
In this example, I use WinXP@Tutorial-Data.vmdk as disk name.
Once the disk customization is finished, click on the Apply button to save the modified configuration and close the settings control panel.
The next step is to make the new disk usable in Windows. To do so, restart the virtual machine and follow the steps outlined in the Add Partition section.
To add new hardware to your virtual machine, shutdown your running machine and open the Settings control panel using the Virtual Machine -> Settings menu entry.
As described above, a secondary 20GB disk is added to the virtual machine acting as a future data disk. Select the Hard Disks icon in the settings control panel to open the corresponding dialog.
In the hard disk applet, click the + symbol to add the definition to the virtual machine’s hardware. Make the necessary adjustments such as the disk size.
By default, Fusion will name the disk as Virtual Disk.vmdk but in the dialog you have the option to choose a more user friendly name: Click the File name drop down list box and select the New... option. Fusion now opens a filesystem dialog and asks for a new name of the virtual disk to create.
In this example, I use WinXP@Tutorial-Data.vmdk as disk name.
Once the disk customization is finished, click on the Apply button to save the modified configuration and close the settings control panel.
The next step is to make the new disk usable in Windows. To do so, restart the virtual machine and follow the steps outlined in the Add Partition section.
Add Partition
Once the virtual disk is added to the virtual machine, it must be made visible to the Microsoft Windows operating system. Power on the virtual machine and follow the next steps to initialize the secondary disk.
In Windows, click the Start button and select the Control Panel entry in the shown dialog.
Once the Control Panel is launched, select Performance and Maintenance, Administrative Tools and launch the Computer Management applet. There are other ways to launch the Management Console, but the described one always works (even if no desktop icons are shown).
A much simpler way is to right-click on the My Computer icon on your Windows desktop and select the Manage menu item. Unfortunately, all desktop icons except the Trash are hidden in the default installation of Windows XP. Unhiding these icons is discussed n the Customize XP section in this tutorial.
In the left pane of the graphical user interface, select the Storage / Disk Management option. The Initialize and Convert Disk Wizard pops up and safely follow the wizard with the default options to initialize the new disk in basic format.
If you canceled the wizard, the initialization is done by right-clicking on the area with the Not initialized disk state notification.
Once the disk is initialized for Windows, a new partition needs to be created. Right-click on the unallocated region of the new disk and click the New Partition menu to launch the New Partition wizard.
The easiest way is to create a new primary partition and use all available space for the new partition. A maximum of 4 primary partitions is allowed, otherwise you need to use extended partitions.
Also keep care to assign a drive letter to the newly created partition. In this tutorial, I choose the drive letter W (for work), but they can easily be changed in the GUI after the partition is created.
The partition needs to be formated with a filesystem before files can be stored. The preferred filesystem in newer Windows versions is NTFS. Another common choice is FAT32 because it can be read by any other operating system.
The secondary disk is now visible and accessible in Windows and can be used to store information.
In the next section of this tutorial, a change is made to move all existing files in the My Documents folder to this new partition. A nice side effect is that all applications reading and writing by default to the My Documents folder will be redirected to the new location.
Once the virtual disk is added to the virtual machine, it must be made visible to the Microsoft Windows operating system. Power on the virtual machine and follow the next steps to initialize the secondary disk.
In Windows, click the Start button and select the Control Panel entry in the shown dialog.
Once the Control Panel is launched, select Performance and Maintenance, Administrative Tools and launch the Computer Management applet. There are other ways to launch the Management Console, but the described one always works (even if no desktop icons are shown).
A much simpler way is to right-click on the My Computer icon on your Windows desktop and select the Manage menu item. Unfortunately, all desktop icons except the Trash are hidden in the default installation of Windows XP. Unhiding these icons is discussed n the Customize XP section in this tutorial.
In the left pane of the graphical user interface, select the Storage / Disk Management option. The Initialize and Convert Disk Wizard pops up and safely follow the wizard with the default options to initialize the new disk in basic format.
If you canceled the wizard, the initialization is done by right-clicking on the area with the Not initialized disk state notification.
Once the disk is initialized for Windows, a new partition needs to be created. Right-click on the unallocated region of the new disk and click the New Partition menu to launch the New Partition wizard.
The easiest way is to create a new primary partition and use all available space for the new partition. A maximum of 4 primary partitions is allowed, otherwise you need to use extended partitions.
Also keep care to assign a drive letter to the newly created partition. In this tutorial, I choose the drive letter W (for work), but they can easily be changed in the GUI after the partition is created.
The partition needs to be formated with a filesystem before files can be stored. The preferred filesystem in newer Windows versions is NTFS. Another common choice is FAT32 because it can be read by any other operating system.
The secondary disk is now visible and accessible in Windows and can be used to store information.
In the next section of this tutorial, a change is made to move all existing files in the My Documents folder to this new partition. A nice side effect is that all applications reading and writing by default to the My Documents folder will be redirected to the new location.
Move Data
Moving existing data from the current My Documents location to the new partition is quite easy if done through the configuration wizard. Open the Properties dialog box for the My Documents icon, but how to do this in a default Windows XP setup ?
As mentioned earlier, these desktop icons are hidden in a default XP setup. The easiest way to gain access to the properties sheet is to click the Start button and then right-click on the My Documents folder located on the right side of the menu.
Once the context menu is displayed, select the Properties menu entry to display the configuration dialog.
The next step is to move all contents within this folder to the new partition. Click the Move button and select the new location for My Documents. This can be either the root of the partition or a new subfolder on this partition.
Click the Apply or OK button to transfer the files to the new location.
Moving existing data from the current My Documents location to the new partition is quite easy if done through the configuration wizard. Open the Properties dialog box for the My Documents icon, but how to do this in a default Windows XP setup ?
As mentioned earlier, these desktop icons are hidden in a default XP setup. The easiest way to gain access to the properties sheet is to click the Start button and then right-click on the My Documents folder located on the right side of the menu.
Once the context menu is displayed, select the Properties menu entry to display the configuration dialog.
The next step is to move all contents within this folder to the new partition. Click the Move button and select the new location for My Documents. This can be either the root of the partition or a new subfolder on this partition.
Click the Apply or OK button to transfer the files to the new location.
Customizing Windows
There is ONE option that you should deactivate in the Windows Control Panel as it is often used by viruses and trojans to fake dangerous file extensions. Once logged into Windows, open the Control Panel by clicking Start -> Control Panel. Select the Appearance and Themes entry and locate the Folder Options applet.
Double click the icon to open the applet and uncheck the Hide extensions for known file types. If you leave this option checked, Windows hides known extensions such as .EXE and would display an application called MyApp.exe as MyApp. Numerous malware exploit this issue to hide the real extension. For example, an application Hello.txt.exe shows as Hello.txt which refers to a text file, but the real type is an application !
Change keyboard layout for non English Apple keyboards
In Windows Control Panel (Start -> Control Panel), select the Regional and Language Options applet to configure the keyboard layout. Select the Languages tab and click the Details button to configure you non English keyboard layout.
In the Installed services area of the dialog box, add/remove the services necessary input services. Ensure, that Default input language drop down listbox reflects your configuration.
Customize Desktop
The initial Windows XP desktop is somehow empty and it's quite difficult to access the filesystem at first glance. But it's possible to add some important icons such as My Documents and the My Computer icons back to the desktop.
Right-click on the Windows desktop and choose the Properties menu entry to show the Display Properties applet.
Select the Desktop tab and click on the Customize Desktop button to show the customization dialog box to configure the visibility of desktop icons.
There is ONE option that you should deactivate in the Windows Control Panel as it is often used by viruses and trojans to fake dangerous file extensions. Once logged into Windows, open the Control Panel by clicking Start -> Control Panel. Select the Appearance and Themes entry and locate the Folder Options applet.
Double click the icon to open the applet and uncheck the Hide extensions for known file types. If you leave this option checked, Windows hides known extensions such as .EXE and would display an application called MyApp.exe as MyApp. Numerous malware exploit this issue to hide the real extension. For example, an application Hello.txt.exe shows as Hello.txt which refers to a text file, but the real type is an application !
Change keyboard layout for non English Apple keyboards
In Windows Control Panel (Start -> Control Panel), select the Regional and Language Options applet to configure the keyboard layout. Select the Languages tab and click the Details button to configure you non English keyboard layout.
In the Installed services area of the dialog box, add/remove the services necessary input services. Ensure, that Default input language drop down listbox reflects your configuration.
Customize Desktop
The initial Windows XP desktop is somehow empty and it's quite difficult to access the filesystem at first glance. But it's possible to add some important icons such as My Documents and the My Computer icons back to the desktop.
Right-click on the Windows desktop and choose the Properties menu entry to show the Display Properties applet.
Select the Desktop tab and click on the Customize Desktop button to show the customization dialog box to configure the visibility of desktop icons.