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Is it possible to run VMware player as a Windows Service so that a user does not have to be logged in to have the player running?

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Just wanted to mention that I was looking for this same thing. Thanks SF for being such a great service! – Chase Florell Feb 15 '10 at 19:33
Yes it is actually. You just need to create your own service. See my answer below. – JamesBarnett Nov 27 '11 at 9:22
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2 Answers

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Vmware Server is the correct tool for running a VM in the background, not Vmware Player.

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(and is also free) – Chris_K Oct 2 '09 at 19:40
Not strictly true. People all over the net are running VMWare Player as a service. – JamesBarnett Nov 27 '11 at 9:12
@JamesBarnett people do lots of things that aren't "ideal" - go for a drive and watch how others behave on the roads if you don't believe me. The fact that you can 'bodge' VMWare player into running as a service doesn't alter the fact that VMWare server is the intended tool for that job. – DJ Pon3 Nov 27 '11 at 10:10
Maybe depends on the use case. If you want to run a VM unattended because you want a cheap VMWare Server then I agree with you. However the statement "the correct tool for running a VM in the background" is overly broad. In my case, I wanted to run linux side-by-side with Windows using Unity mode and not have to worry with seeing the VMWare Player UI. Also Windows is overly found closely binding GUIs with background processes. A central part of computer history is being able to hack a something to do what you want. The tool isn't wrong, you just need to know it's limitations. – JamesBarnett Nov 27 '11 at 10:21
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vmware server is deprecated and has a low "vm hw version" – Sirber Jan 17 at 15:27
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up vote 1 down vote

Sorry for the late responce with this. I was trying to figure this out today. I came across this answer, figured I let SF know.

You can actually ...

  • Add this to your VMX config file to set VMWare Player not show the UI:

    msg.noOk = "TRUE"

  • Get instsrv.exe from a Windows Server Resource Kit to create your own service

  • On Startup have a batch file call the service you just made

Step-by-step instructions can be found here:

http://research.stowers-institute.org/dct/docs/admin/VMwarePlayerService.htm

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To the person that down voted this: Runnung a VM in the background is a built-in feature to VMWare Workstation since atleast version 6. – JamesBarnett Nov 28 '11 at 2:00
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