VMware GSX Server 2.5.2

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Upgrading the Virtual Hardware in Older Windows Guest Operating Systems

If you are using a Windows Me, Windows 98 or Windows 95 virtual machine created under GSX Server 1 and choose to upgrade the virtual hardware, you need to take several steps to be sure the new virtual hardware is recognized properly by the guest operating system. With other guest operating systems, these special steps are not needed.

Before you upgrade the virtual hardware, make sure you have installed the latest version of VMware Tools, including the SVGA driver, then power off your virtual machine.

Follow the steps listed under the name of your guest operating system.

Windows Me Guest

Choose Settings > Upgrade Virtual Hardware.
A warning message appears. It says: "This operation will cause the virtual hardware your guest operating system runs on to change..."
Click Yes.
Click Power On.
Click OK to dismiss the message "A legacy SVGA driver has been detected."
Several Plug and Play messages appear. You can safely ignore them.
Log on to Windows Me. More Plug and Play messages are displayed. One refers to the VMware SVGA driver.
Click Yes to restart your computer.
Log on to Windows Me. The SVGA driver is not working properly.
From the Windows Start menu, choose Settings > Control Panel > System > Device Manager > Display Adapters.
Manually remove the two SVGA drivers.
Restart Windows Me.
A VMware SVGA II adapter is detected and Windows installs it.
Windows notifies you to restart your computer.
Click Yes.
The SVGA driver should be working correctly.

Windows 98 Guest

Choose Settings > Upgrade Virtual Hardware.
A warning message appears. It says: "This operation will cause the virtual hardware your guest operating system runs on to change..."
Click Yes.
Click Power On.
Click OK to dismiss the message "A legacy SVGA driver has been detected."
Log on to Windows 98. You see a number of Plug and Play messages. You may need to insert your Windows 98 installation CD.
A blue screen appears. Press any key to dismiss the blue screen.
Click Reset to restart the virtual machine (because it is not responding).
Click OK to dismiss the message "A legacy SVGA driver has been detected."
Again, you see a number of Plug and Play messages.
Windows notifies you to restart Windows.
Click Yes.
Log on to Windows 98. The SVGA driver is not working properly.
From the Windows Start menu, choose Settings > Control Panel > System > Device Manager > Display Adapters.
Manually remove the two conflicting SVGA drivers.
Restart Windows 98.
A VMware SVGA II adapter is detected and Windows installs it.
Restart Windows 98.
The SVGA driver should be working correctly.

Windows 95 Guest

Choose Settings > Upgrade Virtual Hardware.
A warning message appears. It says: "This operation will cause the virtual hardware your guest operating system runs on to change..."
Click Yes.
Click Power On.
Click OK to dismiss the message "A legacy SVGA driver has been detected."
Log on to Windows 95. You see a number of Plug and Play messages. Click Cancel for the following devices: Standard host CPU bridge, PCI bridge and PCI Universal bus.
The SVGA driver is not working properly.
From the Windows Start menu, choose Settings > Control Panel > System > Device Manager > Display Adapters.
Manually remove the SVGA driver.
Restart Windows 95.
Again, you see a number of Plug and Play messages. Click Cancel for the following devices: Standard host CPU bridge, PCI bridge and PCI Universal bus.
A VMware SVGA II adapter is detected and Windows installs it.
Restart Windows 95.
Once again, you see a number of Plug and Play messages. Again, click Cancel for the following devices: Standard host CPU bridge, PCI bridge and PCI Universal bus.
The SVGA driver should be working correctly.

Check Guest Operating System Selection

Some operating systems, such as Windows Server 2003 and Windows 2000, have multiple versions. Verify your guest operating system is set to the specific version of the operating system installed in the virtual machine. Check the setting in the Configuration Editor (Settings > Configuration Editor > Options).

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