I hope this isn't listed elsewhere, I searched but could not find info.
We use VMware Player in our training lab. What I'm trying to do is lock the machines down so when a user logs into the host machine with the training user login, it will only enable them to launch VMware.
We have XP Pro SP2 on our training hosts and they are joined to our domain. I've locked down the hosts using Group Policy applied to the Training Computers OU and the Training Users OU where applicable. Also have GP configured to launch VMware Player upon startup for the training users.
When I first set this up, it works fine. Logging on as the training user enables them to log into VMware player and pick the specific image.
For some reason, after time, when we log into the machines as the training user VMware Player launches automatically as it was configured in GP but then once you specify the .vmx, it starts to load and then just shuts down.
If you launch VMware Player manually, same thing. You select the .vmx and it starts to load and immediatly shuts down.
If I log into the host machine as a local admin or as a domain user exempted from the GPs, I can run VMware Player fine.
When I remove the links to the GPs, I still encounter the same behavior (immediate shutdown after specifying the .vmx as the training user but works fine as the local admin or GP exempt user).
If I do a repair or reinstall of VMware Player, I can get it to work fine in the training user profile (but I have no idea for how long). I uninstalled/reinstalled the last time and I just tested a repair and that fixed it as well.
VMware Player is getting installed/reinstalled/repaired via the local admin account (not a domain account) if that might matter at all.
Would greatly appreciate any insight anyone might have.
Thanks very much,
Chris
