VMware Communities
Mashkoor
Contributor
Contributor

How to change the BIOS UEFI to Lagecy Bios of a virtual machine in VMware workstation player 12?

How to change the BIOS UEFI to Lagecy Bios of a virtual machine in VMware workstation player 12?

However I am able to change via VMware workstaion which is a trial version. So for long time use I have to use vmware workstation which is free for my learning purpose.

16 Replies
continuum
Immortal
Immortal

Open the vmx-file in a texteditor.
Search for the line
firmware = "efi"
and delete it.
On next boot the VM will start with a legacy BIOS but will very very likely fail to boot.
Changing the firmware on an existing VM is not trivial - if you really need to change that the best way is to create a new VM from scratch.


________________________________________________
Do you need support with a VMFS recovery problem ? - send a message via skype "sanbarrow"
I do not support Workstation 16 at this time ...

DevaDx
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

Hi User

Steps below.

  1. Select the VM
  2. Right click settings
  3. select Options tab
  4. Select Advanced Button
  5. on the right side of pan select the firmware type you need by selecting a radio button (BIOS/UEFI)

Regards

Deva

continuum
Immortal
Immortal

@

Whats the point in giving instructions that will render OPs VM unusable ???
Ulli


________________________________________________
Do you need support with a VMFS recovery problem ? - send a message via skype "sanbarrow"
I do not support Workstation 16 at this time ...

Reply
0 Kudos
jgcsw4lyfe
Contributor
Contributor

One reason would be building a windows image that boots UEFI, but the software used to capture the image only boots over the legacy network.  Its fairly simple to change this as needed.

Reply
0 Kudos
isknurul
Contributor
Contributor

Hello Sir,

That option is not available in VMware Player

2020-02-02 01_28_30-Virtual Machine Settings.png

continuum
Immortal
Immortal

The option is notavailable via the GUI.

Use a texteditor and adjust the vmx-file instead.


________________________________________________
Do you need support with a VMFS recovery problem ? - send a message via skype "sanbarrow"
I do not support Workstation 16 at this time ...

Reply
0 Kudos
isknurul
Contributor
Contributor

Hi @continuum

I found the solution.

You are correct, through GUI we cannot change it to "bios"

Steps:

1. After creating the virtual machine we have to go to the folder where our virtual disk is stored

2. Then we have to edit the .vmx  file with any text editor

3. In the text file search for firmware = 'efi' ..... and replace efi  with bios .... like below

                         firmware = "efi"    ---> Existing

                        

                         firmware = "bios"   --->  Replaced

4. Save the file

5. Fire up the machine

Balavant
Contributor
Contributor

We can change in GUI too

 

VM settings, VM options, Boot options, firmware, change from uefi to BIOS.

Reply
0 Kudos
ki2rin
Contributor
Contributor

No. There aren't such options in VMware Workstation 16 Player.

klamb8153
Contributor
Contributor

Is there a process document on how to convert a VM windows image from firmware type of UEFI to BIOS ?

Reply
0 Kudos
continuum
Immortal
Immortal

This has been answered 3 times in this post already.

Edit the vmx-file and delete the line that starts with firmware.
Save vmx-file.
Done

Result is a VM that will not boot.

Ulli


________________________________________________
Do you need support with a VMFS recovery problem ? - send a message via skype "sanbarrow"
I do not support Workstation 16 at this time ...

Reply
0 Kudos
klamb8153
Contributor
Contributor

It has not been answered.  I have VM Workstation and regardless if I change the value of the "Firmware Type" in the VM Settings or I edit *.vmx file.   My VM Image will not longer be bootable if I change it from UEFI to BIOS.

That is why I am asking what the process is for modifying the VM image to work with BIOS verses UEFI ?

continuum
Immortal
Immortal

The process to make the VM bootable again after changing the firmware is quite a pain.

You need to create a new boot partition on an MBR-partitioned disk.
Then you need to boot from a Windows-installer ISO and run a bunch of commands to create a new BCDstore, add a new boot-option and stuff like that.
There hardly is any scenario that would justify that amount of work - so why do you think you need to do this ?

 

Ulli


________________________________________________
Do you need support with a VMFS recovery problem ? - send a message via skype "sanbarrow"
I do not support Workstation 16 at this time ...

Reply
0 Kudos
hunter4444
Contributor
Contributor

This fixed my issue, much appreciated. I believe you could change from EFI to BIOS from the GUI in previous additions, I wonder why it has removed with version 16.

Tags (1)
Reply
0 Kudos
sanjeetvgi
Contributor
Contributor

After doing this I start my VM again installing windows 10 and what now I installed it again but still no TPM option why what wrong i did it will be great if you tell full process 

Reply
0 Kudos
RaSystemlord
Expert
Expert

This particular question from 2018 does not involve discussion of TPM.

There is another very recent thread, already marked as solved by the author, which discusses Windows 11, TPM and VMware Workstation Player. In its entirety, it is not completely solved, especially for Player.

If you still have a question in that regard, where the other thread does not help, please open another thread. State also your Host OS, hardware and VMware version matters. Microsoft requirements, acccording to some news, are not really explicit, but that is best discussed in an appropriate thread, so that all the members can see it.

Reply
0 Kudos