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BasePointer
Contributor
Contributor
‎11-20-2017 04:05 AM

VMX Unrestiricted Guess while starting WinXP

Hi,

I was using VMWare 12 and was working fine. I have just upgraded to 14 to test.

When I attempt to start WinXP virtual image, it says that "This host does not support virtualizing real mode. The Intel VMX Unrestricted Guest feature is necessary to run this virtual machine on an Intel processor."

vm.PNG

I have Dell XPS 1645 with CPU Intel i7 Q720 and Virtualization is already enabled in BIOS.

What else do I need to enable in order to run VMWare 14?

Thanks.

1 Reply
bluefirestorm
Champion
Champion
‎11-20-2017 04:23 AM

As the i7-720QM belongs to the Clarksfield/Nehalem generation, it does not have the VMX unrestricted guest feature. CPU-Z does not report it. You can't even see it in the Intel ARK site as a line item. The VMX unrestricted guest features are available only in Westmere generation and later; although it is not iron-clad guarantee anything that is Westmere and later will have the VMX unrestricted guest feature. VMX Unrestricted Guest also requires Extended Page Table (EPT) feature.

https://ark.intel.com/products/43122/Intel-Core-i7-720QM-Processor-6M-Cache-1_60-GHz

It can be identified by bit 5 in MSR 0x485. You can see this in the vmware.log. If bit 5 is 1 it has the VMX unrestricted guest feature.

You could change to a computer/laptop with a newer processor or go back to version 12.5.x and get a refund from VMware (if you already paid for version 14).