Vmware with LaunchBox (mini guide)

[Retro_Rage]

So I posted a while back about a very easy way to instantly launch VirtualBox machines from Launchbox. Well, I just switched to VMware workstation 17 player, and it ended up being much more extremely flawless, better performing and seamless so I figured I would share with the community a quick guide on how I have this setup. Ill kind of put this as a little guide so noobs can understand this to, its really easy.

1) install vmplayer (obviously) its free for commercial use. Then setup your systems. Obviously, I'm not going into detail where to get these or even how to setup systems (that's really out of the scope of the guide) but vmdk files are your friend. If using a vmdk file you can just setup a blank system and replace the one in the system directory. While setting up, keep in mind the "Location". I personally always change the location to a specific directory on a never hard drive alongside my other roms.

2) After the system is imported click on the system in the launcher and click on edit virtual machine settings. As a side note, the launcher really fails in comparison to Virtualbox, of course we won't be using it to launch the machines anyway so for our purpose it doesn't matter. From here I always first change the memory to as much as you can afford, I usually use 4 GB for nearly everything. Anything pre–Windows XP error will not boot if using that amount, so I just leave at whatever it recommends. I also go to processors and use as many as you have. Again, it won't boot if using more than the system supports. Now the most important, click on the options tab at the top and click power, then check "Enter full screen mode after powering on". Then you can test the system from the launcher and it should boot up in full screen mode. Make sure you install vmtools using the "manage" button in the top to enable things like svga display driver which will make the display switch to the full screen with among many other improvements.

3) now to Launchbox, go back to the install directory and search for vmx files. These files are launchable directly into the virtual machine through windows. So all we need to do is install these just as you would a directory of Windows games. So just drag and drop them on LB or use the import menu, For type its none of the above and obviously don't search for media as nothing will come up. Once imported just click on the file and it will open up vmware nearly instantly. Whats awesome is if you use the suspend button in the toolbar on top it will instantly switch back to Launchbox since Vmware minimizes it to the taskbar as it saves it state. Next time you open it it will nearly instantly load and will be exactly how you left it.

I think I covered everything, but I have this running perfectly and flawlessly on my system so If I missed anything then I would be happy to answer any questions. I can easily just switch between any operating system I want instantly with a click of a button. Couldn't be happy using this method.