Can the "VMware" bios splash screen be changed?

[behealed]

As a developer, I know it's a deeply disturbing question when someone asks if your splash screen can be changed. But before I unload my long and complicated (but fairly legitimate) reason for why I'm asking this question... is it even possible? I'm using VMWare Workstation Player 15.

[wila]

Hi,

Not AFAIK.

If you change this then I think VMware legal will want to have a word with you too, they generally are very protective of their logo branding.

--

Wil

[behealed]

I found some ROM files in one of the vmware folders that appear to be bios files not just for the bios but maybe also for the devices such as VGA.ROM which might be the display device. I'm excited to see these files. Now I don't really care about changing the splash screen, now my new question is, can these ROM files be opened or edited? I'm particularly interested in the VGA.ROM file, if that is the virtual graphics card bios of some sort. I've been trying for days to make some changes to display drivers on my VM and being able to modify that rom file might be the thing I've been missing.

[wila]

Hi,

Probably, yes, although I do not see a vmx option for it over at: sanbarrow.com

I'm a bit doubtful on what you can do by editing the rom section, it is not exactly for the faint of heart.

What are you trying to achieve?

--

Wil

[continuum]

Several hundred years ago when Workstation 4  - 7 were available and the typical host OS was 32 bit based we could use the Phoenix Bios Editor to hack the VMware bios.

At that time a user named Borg Number One was the most experienced guy outside of VMware who played with stuff like this.

Just tried to use the latest version on a 64bit host but it did not work.

If you want to try yourself look at

https://phoenix-bios-editor.software.informer.com/

You may need to use a XP 32 VM to use it.

Looks like the work of Borg Number One was not welcome by VMware and so most of his posts are locked these days :smileycry:

Not sure what you really want to acchieve ... ?

To change the behaviour of the VMware VGA device rather look for vmx-parameters.

[behealed]

I was able to edit the bios440 file with the Phoenix Editor but it appears to have done absolutely nothing. I'm running windows 10 x64 on the VM. I assume the bios440 rom isn't being used. But that is the only rom file that I can open, all the others give errors attempting to open them. I'd primarily like to open the vga.rom. forone thing, I'd be interested to see if there is anything in the rom that controls the maximum monitor refresh rate. My physical monitor supports 144hz and my host its set to 144hz, but even with 3D acceleration enabled, the only option in the VM is 60hz (which basically caps you at 60 FPS). There is an option in the vmx to set some kind of max refresh, but I already tried it and it did nothing unfortunately. There's other stuff I am trying to do with the svga drivers as well. It seems like being able to edit bios files would allow me to potentially add features directly to the graphics device itself, such as but not necessarily limited to a higher refresh rate, which I could then maybe modify the drivers as well to support. I'm surprised vmware wouldn't literally have official guides for editing the bios, what are they trying to prevent?