Tuesday, January 29, 2008

WinXP within WinXP with VMware (BlogEntry_VMconfigT60b_Xmg)

This document contains some public notes I've made on the arduous process of getting VMware to run with a Win XP guest on a Win XP host. (One might wonder why I'm trying to do this, but this will take too much text here. I'll let any reader just speculate.) In general see below and some of my relevant del.icio.us links .

## Del.icio.us Links

My central collection of bookmarks around this endeavor is:
http://del.icio.us/mbgmbg/Useful_VMconfigT60b_Xmg

In addition, some extensions that I found useful for Firefox and Thunderbird
http://del.icio.us/mbgmbg/UsefulExtension

## Outlook

Getting Outlook to work with the Palm Treo and VMware

* Have to keep main outlook DB in
C:/Documents and Settings/mbg/Local Settings/Application Data/Microsoft/Outlook

Doesn't seem to work when moving it another location.

* archive stuff to archive.pst and then compacted

* When synching with the VMware and treo, host application often seizes the "context." This happens particularly on the second sync attempt. Have to tell it to "take no action" on a sync on the host application dialog box.

* See treo hints under http://del.icio.us/mbgmbg/useful_vminstalls to work with Verizon wireless sync.

## Blackberry
Works fine in VM

7750M_PBr4.0.0_rel201_PL1.5.0.30_A4.0.0.171.exe
BlackBerry_400_33_desktop_ml.exe
user "mbg"
Select "Blackberry Internet Email" Option

Run desktop mgr
set it to use USB
use default folder
C:/Documents and Settings/mbg/Application Data/Research In Motion/BlackBerry

## Thunderbird
Getting it to run in VM and then have it's mail directory outside.

* Install normally
but then edit c:/Documents and Settings/mbg/Application Data/Thunderbird/profiles.ini
to be thus:

[General]
StartWithLastProfile=1
[Profile0]
Name=default
IsRelative=1
Path=Profiles/knnjxcfu.default
[Profile1]
Name=mbg
IsRelative=0
Path=J:/vmshared/PERS/mailstuff/mbg
Default=1
[Profile2]
Name=mbg2-yahoo
IsRelative=0
Path=J:/vmshared/PERS/mailstuff/mbg2
[Profile2]
Name=mbg-old-rec
IsRelative=0
Path=J:/vmshared/PERS/mailstuff/mbg-old-rec
[Profile3]
Name=mbg-old-sent
IsRelative=0
Path=J:/vmshared/PERS/mailstuff/mbg-old-sent

* To access profiles,
"C:/Program Files/Mozilla Thunderbird/thunderbird.exe" -ProfileManager

* Profile0 was there, now adding profile1
Thunderbird should then come up with full mail setup

* One has to install quicktext manually.
Then all the stuff should be there.

Make sure you check the auto download of messages.

## Google Earth
It runs under VMware but not in directX mode

## Itunes
Key point here is putting iTunes DB in another location and then configuring VMware to access this location with another.

## MS Office

* Installs fine on the VM
* Transferred settings from "office-saved-settings-for-MG-29Dec07.OPS"

However, then ran to documents to go problem -- interface with word was messed by copying over the prefs (see above). Found fix at http://support.dataviz.com/support.srch?docid=12792 , viz:

How to manually uninstall Word Add-In:
1. Open Word
2. Go into Tools menu
3. Click on Templates and Add-Ins
4. Uncheck DVZWDAddin.dot - this menu should then be removed
5. Close Word, then press CTRL-ALT-DELETE to bring up the Task Manager, and check to make sure all instances of WINWORD.EXE are closed
6. Go into the following directory: C:/Documents and Settings/<user name>/Application Data/Microsoft/Word/STARTUP
(NOTE: The Application Data folder is a hidden folder. If you can't see hidden folders, go to Tools > Folder Options, select the View tab, select the option to "Show hidden files and folders" and click OK.)
7. Delete the file "DVZWDAddin.dot" and all of its temp files (i.e. ~$ZWDAddin.dot)

## This doc

Tips in formatting include using ^l (in word) instead of ^p before import into Google Docs. Within GoogleDocs one can just do "shift-return" .