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ksio89
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How do I edit .vmx files on VMware Workstation Player?

I created a Windows 11 Insider Preview VM but have not installed it yet, because I want to enable vTPM and Secure Boot by adding a couple of lines to the VM .vmx file, as the options to enable those features only exist in VMware Pro. However, after I edit the file, I see this message when I try to start the virtual machine:

 

Error while opening virtual machine. VMX file is corrupt.

 

I don't get why this error occurs, because there's even an article on official VMware documentation instructing how to edit VMX files:

Editing the .vmx file of a VMware Workstation and VMware Player virtual machine (2057902)

Is there any way to edit the VMX file without corrupting it?

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bluefirestorm
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You won't be able to get Windows 11 to work with vTPM with VMware Player 15.x/16.x at its current state as vTPM requires that the VM is encrypted.


See my reply here on a different thread
https://communities.vmware.com/t5/VMware-Workstation-Player/Support-for-Windows-11-Guest-OS-VMware-W...

As for the "VMX file is corrupt" message, assuming you are using a text editor and the entries you added are all correct, the likely problem is because an entry of the same already exists (in this case maybe uefi.secureboot.eanbled already exists in the vmx file).

By the way, once a VM is encrypted, the vmx file is also encrypted and you won't be able to edit it manually without going throught the decrypt process.

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ajgringo619
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As long as the VM is not running, you can edit it with any text editor; for example, I use Vim (both Linux and Windows) to add bios boot delays to my systems just before I'm ready to install the OS.

 

My guess is that you messed up the formatting of the file. Can you post it, please?

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bluefirestorm
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You won't be able to get Windows 11 to work with vTPM with VMware Player 15.x/16.x at its current state as vTPM requires that the VM is encrypted.


See my reply here on a different thread
https://communities.vmware.com/t5/VMware-Workstation-Player/Support-for-Windows-11-Guest-OS-VMware-W...

As for the "VMX file is corrupt" message, assuming you are using a text editor and the entries you added are all correct, the likely problem is because an entry of the same already exists (in this case maybe uefi.secureboot.eanbled already exists in the vmx file).

By the way, once a VM is encrypted, the vmx file is also encrypted and you won't be able to edit it manually without going throught the decrypt process.

RaSystemlord
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No comments on .vmx editing, but about Windows 11 installation ... I have written things about that, but I want to make it a bit more precise based on latests tests. This may or may not be relevant for the author of this thread.

From Wikipedia (perhaps information might exist at Microsoft Site, but it wasn't easily available in the place where the downloadable material was), I found that:

- 22000-series .ISOs (like 22000.160.210811-1701.CO_RELEASE_SVC_PROD2_CLIENTPRO_OEMRET_X64FRE_EN-US.ISO ... created with uupdump.net utility) are Beta releases AND they seem to be in line of the forecoming official release

- 22000-series, you can STILL install on a VMware guest, without a proper processor or TPM or anything like that. I checked this again, after the following results (read further) last week.

THEN

- 22400-series, or whatever (like 22463.1000.210917-1503.RS_PRERELEASE_CLIENTMULTI_X64FRE_EN-US.ISO) are development versions and are beyond the official release.

- those I could NOT install on a i7 (perhaps 2nd generation) AND without any changes to .vmx as a VM. It said that computer doesn't meet the requirements and gives a link to requirements, which of course doesn't give any info on requirements (typical for Microsoft). Probably there is no way of installing those versions of Win 11, if you don't have a rather new computer ... perhaps something needs to be done with VMware software, too.

ksio89
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You were right on both accounts @bluefirestorm: I already had the entry firmware = "efi" on .vmx file, and after removing the duplicated line, I was able to power on the VM. Nevertheless, I found out I had to also encrypt the VM, but such feature is not available in Player. Guess I'll have to use Hyper-V for the time being, which supports all of the features required by Windows 11.

@RaSystemlord That's exactly what happened, I tried to install Windows 11 build 22468.1000 (Dev channel) obtained from UUP dump. I have a Windows 11 VM on build 22463.1000, and couldn't update anymore because a message pops saying the machine doesn't pass all the requirements, it is, TPM 2.0, Secure Boot and GPT/UEFI installation. However, I found a script that bypasses requirements, though I have not tried it yet, feel free to try it yourself:

New Windows 11 install script bypasses TPM, system requirements (bleepingcomputer.com)

 

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RaSystemlord
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@ksio89 

Thanks for the tip! Yeah, requiring TPM (secure boot and all that) makes no sense on a development build testing.

EDIT: This script is targeted for Updating into the original version. Well, for a clean install, which is 100% my preferred choice on any system, it makes no difference. For testing, sure this might be useful.

BUT
The official Windows 11, English, ISO (as provided officially by Microsoft today) does not install on VMware Player ... none of the new requirements are met in my VMware or Host. The latest Beta did install from (UUP DUMP) ISO (as commented in length elsewhere by me).

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