Getting VMware workstation 8 Build 434829 Beta to install on older hardware.

Hi i decided to test VMware workstation 8 Build 434829 Beta on an old nforce2 rig with an Athlon XP3200 running xp and win7, straight away i came up against a brick wall it gave an error "vmwork station requires features not supported by your cpu.."

so i though just what features is it talking about after a little snooping around the installer is checking for x64 Vmm feature so i set about getting it not to check for this so that it would install below is what i did.

first of all get hold of a copy of VMware workstation 8 Build 434829 Beta, once you have it place it in your c: root

then open a command prompt c: and use the following to exract files to new directory called vm8beta in c:

c:\>VMware-workstation-full-e.x.p-434829.exe /e "vm8beta"


now you have the extracted files go into vm8beta and locate a file called "bootstrap.lua" open this in a text editor such as notepad++ and remove the highlighted text in image below and save. you can find these around line 190,191 195

64BITVMM[%s]
, tostring(tOSInfo.supports_64bit_vmm)
and tOSInfo.supports_64bit_vmm


ok now that file is edited open another command prompt in c:\vm8beta> and use following to lauch the setup.

c:\vm8beta>VMware-workstation-full-e.x.p-434829.exe /S "vm8beta"



Happy testing

Already edited bootstrap.lua
View attachment bootstrap.7z

 

I can`t say i`ve come across this as i dont have win8 7989 installed, i`ll see if i can find out what might be causing it though, can you post the install log file that should be sitting in your user- local settings- temp folder.

 

ok i have had a look at the logs and it seems to be complaining about permissions, now from what i have been reading people have had problems on win7 64bit too. so here are some idea that might help: please note always install to the default directory that vmware wants to on 64bit as the ui app is 32bit and can fail if in different location but vm`s will be 64bit just one of those strange quirks.

1, copy VMware-workstation-full-e.x.p-434829.exe to your c:root, then open a cmd window as administor now extract to a directory so we dont have to worry about permissions in a temp directory so ( c:\>VMware-workstation-full-e.x.p-434829.exe /e "vm8beta" ). now try installing in the same cmd window using the command ( c:\vm8beta>VMware-workstation-full-e.x.p-434829.exe /S "vm8beta" )

2. go to your c:/vm8beta and right click vmware workstation.msi and select run as administrator.

3.go to your c:/vm8beta and right click VMware-workstation-full-e.x.p-434829.exe select properties then compatibilty select win7 also tick run as administrator.

4:go to your c:/vm8beta and right click vmware workstation.msi and select properties then compatibilty select win7 ok then right click again run as administrator

hopefully at least one of 1-4 will help and get it installed. I`m no expert by any stretch of the imagination.