How do I create a simple VM that uses EFI firmware?

[michielvoo]

I created a VM with OS "Other 64-bit" and edited the .vmx file, changing only firmware = "bios" to firmware = "efi"

Whenever I start the VM, it uses BIOS instead of EFI. I can see this when starting directly to firmware, or by starting with a Windows 8.1 install disc and checking Windows Setup logs immediately after it has started ("detected boot environment: legacy").

How can I create/configure a VM to always use EFI, without it 'overwriting' or 'reverting' my configuration?

I'm using VMware Fusion 7.1.0 (2314774).

[wila · Accepted solution]

Hi michielvoo

Welcome at the VMware communities forum.

I wrote an article about using EFI in a VM here: Boot via EFI firmware | PlanetVM

Basically what you are doing is correct. The part I'm wondering about is if the double quotes characters you are using a normal double quotes and not the "fancy" ones (like you can see in the article above, those are fancy ones)

It needs to be standard double quotes from your keyboard.

Another possible reason for it not working is if you edit the vmx while your Fusion is still running as it might revert your edits to protect the VM.

If you are unsure about what is wrong with your vmx file then post the vmware.log file also found in that folder to a reply here and me or somebody else will take a look and hopefully see what is wrong.

--

Wil

[michielvoo]

Quiting VMware Fusion fixed the problem for me, thanks for the tips!