Has anyone seen XP Embedded running on VMware? XPe let's you choose a targeted subset of the full XP Pro distribution. This results in less required resources to run. XPe can run on a 400MHz thin client with 256MB RAM and 128MB of flash memory. Seems to me that this would be ideal for hosting dozens of desktops in a virtualized environment.

The trick would be identifying the components that needed to be added to the XPe image to support the VMware environment (network, storage, etc.) and including VMware Tools in the image. But, as Microsoft claims, XPe is compatible with any appliction or device that will run on a full blown copy of XP.

Another benefit is the reduced cost of the license for XPe, less than half the price of XP Pro.

I have successfully booted a VMware virtual machine on a ESX 2.5.2 server using an XPe powered boot disk. However, it did not detect the hard drive or network card. I have found it hard to find any documentation specific to running XPe on VMware ESX.

Any guidance or interest would be appreciated.

Thanks,
David