How To Install Windows Home Server Beta "Vail" on VMware Workstation

If it isn’t, you might want to check through your BIOS tweaks to enable it.

Also check for and install any BIOS updates that are available for your machine.

An excellent utility to quickly find out if it’s capable of Hardware Virtualization isSecurAble.

If you already have the free VMware Player installed, you’ll be prompted to uninstall that first.

A restart is required to complete the uninstall of VMware Player.

Again a reboot will be required to finish the installation.

Creating New Virtual MachineOnce it’s installed you’ll see the VMware Workstation icon in the Taskbar.

Launch it from there and tap on New Virtual Machine.

When the New Virtual Machine Wizard starts, choose Custom (advanced) configuration.

In the next step of the wizard just keep the defaults and select Next.

Now select I will roll out the operating system later.

For the Guest Operating System select Windows Server 2008 x64.

Give your VM a name that makes sense.

For this article we didn’t change the processor tweaks, we kept them with the defaults.

This is something you might want to experiment with later though.

Now decide the amount of memory you want to allocate for the Vail VM.

On our system we have some memory to spare so we bumped it up to 2GB.

For the web link throw in select Use bridged networking for best performance.

Now you should probably create a new virtual disk for Vail.

it’s possible for you to then specify the disk file, we just left it as the default.

You’ll get an overview of the tweaks you selected when creating the Server VM.

From the main Workstation screen, under Devices double-click CD/DVD so we can plant the ISO image.

Since Vail comes in ISO format, there is no need to burn it to disc for the VM.

You might want to burn it at some point for installing it on an actual machine later.

Select Use ISO image file and browse to its location.

Now power on the machine to begin the install process of Vail.

Go through the installation as you normally would.

Don’t worry if you haven’t installed it before, the process is pretty basic following the wizard.

The VM will restart several times which is normal and the amount of time it takes will vary.

On our machine it took around 30 minutes.

After the install process has completed tap the I Finished Installing button.

Now that Vail is installed on VMware Workstation you’re free to jump in and start using it.

At the Press CTRL+ALT+DELETE screen select VM \ Send Ctrl+Alt+Del from the toolbar.

Now you’ve got the option to log into your new virtual Vail Server.

VMware ToolsNow you’ll want to install VMware Tools which will enhance the VM experience.

From the toolbar go to VM \ Install VMware Tools.

When the AutoPlay screen comes up tap on Run setup.exe to installed the tools.

Now run through the VMware Tools wizard and install it accepting the defaults.

Another restart will be required to complete the installation of VMware Tools.

it’s possible for you to now test out the beta version of Windows Home Server virtually.

If you want to test out clients, you could create another virtual machine and connect it.

Well that is true provided the install goes through successfully without and errors.

you’re free to access VMware Player from the Start Menu \ All Programs \ VMware folder.

On our tests, all of the VMs we had previously setup worked without any issues.

ConclusionThat is all there is to it!

The process is fairly easy since everything is wizard driven.

You just need to confirm to follow the steps in the right order and pick the correct options.