VMware Communities
schwine
Contributor
Contributor

How Important is VMware Tools?

I'm a new user of VMware Fusion 3.1, and since installing

it, I've noticed two bugs as a result. First, it now takes 40 seconds longer to

boot into Windows 7 natively. This delay time is spent in the Windows splash

screen before the desktop finally appears. Can this delay be corrected to the

original opening time of Windows? Second, inside the virtual window for Windows

7 through Boot Camp and VMware, third party software programs installed on

Windows 7 randomly open by themselves. This unpredictable behavior does not

happen when I log onto Windows 7 natively. Although uninstalling VMware Tools

may solve these problems, isn’t VMware Tools a vital part of VMware software as

a whole? Doesn’t the absence of VMware Tools compromise the stability of VMware

software and the Windows 7 operating system? Thanks for any tips.

Reply
0 Kudos
8 Replies
RParker
Immortal
Immortal

First by "natively" I assume you mean physical.

Virtual Machines are not as fast NOR are they supposed to be like Physical machines. Lets burst that bubble right now.

The tools are drivers, nothing more. No enhancement, no special speed increase, nothing, just drivers. The utility DOES allow ESX host to talk to the VM and get heartbeat and critical info about memory, such as balloon, but that is also a driver.

So the tools are necessary, if you expect your VM's to perform well, without them you lose functionality and some devices may not be available.

Second these errors you have are software related, you installed something OTHER than VM tools which is causing this. None of these problems can be attributed to VM ware tools.

Reply
0 Kudos
admin
Immortal
Immortal

The utility DOES allow ESX host

To avoid ambiguity, the user is presumably using Fusion, not ESX, but everything else sounds good.

Reply
0 Kudos
schwine
Contributor
Contributor

I'm using VMware Fusion 3.1 (not ESX). My computer is a Mac Pro tower (10.6.4), and the Mac Snow Leopard operating system is on one hard disk and the Windows 7 operating system is on a second hard disk. I can say without a doubt that Fusion is directly responsible for the two bugs I've described above. So when I boot into Windows 7 "natively," I do so on a hard disk that is separate from the Mac hard disk. As such, the now longer native start up time for Windows 7 is clearly longer than before WMware Fusion was installed (I'm "not" talking about the startup time for the "virtual" Windows 7 via Boot Camp and VMware Fusion, which is actually "faster" than the native boot up of WIndows 7). As for the third party software that randomly opens up within the virtual Windows 7 via Boot Camp and VMware Fusion, this is obviously caused by VMware Fusion since it's only taking place "within" the VMware Fusion platform. As you have confirmed, removing VMware Tools "does" compromise the proper usability of VMware software in general. As such, these bugs have probably not been addressed yet by the VMware Fusion 3.1 staff.

Reply
0 Kudos
mudaltsov
Expert
Expert

There is one known issue in Windows that causes the delay at the login screen if you have Shared Folders enabled.

VMware Tools enables a mapped drive letter (usually Z:) to access Shared Folders within Windows. However, when booting natively in Boot Camp, Shared Folders are not available, and Windows waits for a timeout for resolving what it perceives as a "network" drive. The same delay happens on regular machines with missing network drives.

We are working on a solution to this issue for future versions of Fusion. Unfortunately, this area of Windows is not documented very well by Microsoft, so we don't know when a complete fix will be available.

To work around this, you can disable shared folders by unchecking "Share folders on your Mac" in the VM's Sharing settings. Alternatively, if you would like to keep the shared folder functionality, you can disable the creation of the mapped drive letter:

  1. Shut down the Boot Camp VM if it's running.

  2. Locate the the .vmx file for the Boot Camp VM and open it in a text editor. In Fusion 3.1 you can right-click on the VM in the Library, hold Option, and choose "Open Config File in Editor".

  3. Find the line that says hgfs.mapRootShare = "TRUE" and change TRUE to FALSE, then save the file.

  4. Start the VM again and verify that the mapped drive letter has been removed and was not re-created.

Note that if you later turn off the "Share folders on your Mac" option, and turn it back on, the setting will be reset, and the drive letter will be created again.


Could you explain exactly which third party software is opening randomly, and maybe show screenshots of it? I've never heard of that happening before.

Reply
0 Kudos
WoodyZ
Immortal
Immortal

Virtual Machines are not as fast NOR are they supposed to be like Physical machines. Lets burst that bubble right now.

If you're making that as a blanket statement then I have to disagree with since I have some Virtual Machines that were created via a P2V process and they outperform the physical machines they were created from.

Reply
0 Kudos
schwine
Contributor
Contributor

Third party software that opens randomly within the virtual window of Windows 7 includes: VueMinder Calendar Pro, Switch Sound File Converter and Free CD Ripper. You may not have heard of any of this software for Windows, and it hasn't happened in the last day or so, but I'll try to create a screenshot if and when it happens again.

Reply
0 Kudos
Entegy
Hot Shot
Hot Shot

As a primarily Windows user I've never heard of that software. Do you run an antivirus on Win7?

Reply
0 Kudos
schwine
Contributor
Contributor

Yes, I run an anti-virus on Windows 7 (ESET NOD 32). Viruses are one problem that I don't have with Windows 7.

Reply
0 Kudos