The time has com to present you the new version of the virtualization environment: VMware Workstation 6.5 beta 1. Despite the fact this is only the first public beta of this new product, it offers a list of new innovative solutions. Let’s go over them!

VMware Workstation 6.5 beta 1

Among the changes a long awaited feature can be found — “Unity”. It has been already known from the Fusion project for Mac OS X. This option allows you to run a virtual machine on the host’s desktop without the need of switching between the guest OS and the host.

VMware Workstation 6.5 also brings:

• more advanced saving and resuming of the virtual machine,
• support for Smart Card Readers,
• extended ACE authorization,
• better support for 3D graphics,
• Start menu integration,
• experimental support for Windows Server 2008 as a guest OS,
• introduced borders to mark guest OS windows in Unity mode,

And this is how the settings of new VMware look like:

Workspace / Input / Hot Keys

Display / Tools / Memory

Let’s then quickly install Windows XP Professional in VMware to see how it actually works. Before the installation, 14-step wizard shows up ( only in advanced mode ) that is supposed to help us with this task. Here is what we have to do:

• Set up the virtual machine,
  • Specify the compatibility of the virtual machine,
• Choose the installation media,
  • Enter the registration information (in case of Windows systems only)
  • Name the system to be installed and its location,
• Choose the number of virtual processors,
• Set the memory limit for the guest OS,
• Configure the network,
• Select I/O ATAPI and SCSI controllers, if any,
• Choose the hard disk type for the virtualized system,
  • Set the disk parameters,
  • Set the disk size,
  • Configure the disk location,
• Summary of the options chosen.

Preparing for the installation

Just after launching a virtual machine we are being informed about the connected devices:

Connected devices

I’m skipping the Windows XP installation process. I hope you can manage it by yourself. And it’s actually boring to write about it anyway. Just assume it worked fine

Unity mode

Let’s then check how the famous Unity mode works in practice. An interesting add-on for the “detached” windows is the option to configure them. We can specify a border color for all guest windows deployed on the host’s desktop. We can also set a special icon for all of them.

Configuring the Unity mode

Windows XP + Slackware Linux

Windows border and icon configuration in Unity mode

DirectX support

Another “killer feature” is 3D graphics support, which can be turned on and off according to our needs. Unfortunately I could not use this option together with the Unity mode.

Turning on the 3D support

What were my impressions then? Well… in spite of enabling DirectX 9 with SM 2.0 support, it’s fair to say that VMware still needs plenty of time to work on this feature.

The dxdiag test looked successful and promising:

DirectX 9 - dxdiag

Then I decided to test the new feature in real life example, so I run Heroes of Might & Magic 5.

VMware Workstation 6.5 beta 1 + HoMM 5

Unfortunately the result was far from satisfactory. The game run miserably slow with performance around 5 frames per second. Not enough to even try to enjoy it.

DirectX acceleration works only when the guest OS is Windows XP. It’s good however that you can use practically any host, including Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows Vista and Linux. Hope it gets better in the final release…

Start menu integration

Start menu integration in Unity mode proved to be an issue, as well. The mode itself requires the XShm X.org extension to be enabled. This not always (depending on the drivers) works fine with Xv extension. It’s worth noting that Unity works a lot slower than Seamless Windows known from VirtualBox.

Summary

Except for the mentioned problems, especially those with the Unity mode, I have to wait with my final verdict on VMware Workstation 6.5 till I test the stable release of this software which may (hopefully!) solve some of the issues. Stay tuned then!