How To Setup and Install Windows Home Server "Vail" in VMware Player

We also took a look atinstalling Vail on VMware Serverwhich is completely free for personal use.

Also you’re able to update the BIOS and find the setting to enable it.

First, download and install VMware Player (link below).

It’s a free download, but requires registration.

Install it following the install wizard and accepting the defaults.

After it’s finished, a restart will be required to complete the setup.

Open VMware Player and press Create a New Virtual Machine.

When the New Virtual Machine Wizard starts, select I will set up the operating system later.

For the Guest Operating System select Windows Server 2008 x64 and click Next.

We had best results creating the disk as a single file versus splitting them into multiple files.

This will make the server act as if it were a separate physical machine on your data pipe.

For the CD/DVD select to use an ISO and browse to the location of your VailInstallDVD.iso file.

Review your controls and if everything looks good click Finish.

Now that everything is setup you’ve got the option to start the VM.

Now you might start the installation process of WHS Vail.

During the installation a message will come up at the bottom of Player prompting you to run VMware Tools.

We don’t need to install that now while we have Vail installing, so click Remind me later.

The message will leave the screen and the Vail installation will continue.

The amount of time it takes to install will vary based on your hardware.

On our Core i3 system with 8GB of RAM the install took about a half hour.

For more details check out our article onhow to install WHS Vail.

After several restarts and entering in the correct data, you could start using your new Virtual Vail Server!

At the CTRL+ALT+DELETE screen to log on screen click Virtual Machine and Send Ctrl+Alt+Del.

Now you’re free to login to Vail with the credentials you entered in during the install.

We will be covering how to do that in future articles.

tap on Virtual Machine and Install VMware Tools.

When AutoPlay comes up punch Run setup.exe.

Just follow the install wizard using the Typical Setup key in.

A restart of the VM will be required to complete the installation process.

Here we are using the Dashboard on a physical machine and backing it up to the virtual Vail server.