Solved VMware Player with UEFI

Hopachi

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Tutorial: Install Windows in UEFI mode as a virtual machine.

Here we are, we want to test the new UEFI installation of Windows (Vista, 7, 8 and later) on out pc.

If we don't have UEFI natively, or even if we do, we can test this under a virtual machine in VMware Player.
Keep in mind that UEFI in VM's is disabled by default.

Used software: VMware Player 5.0.1 (this translates to VMware Workstation 9.0.1 for the Workstation users).
We create a new VM for this purpose with one of the supported OS types.

Don't enable UEFI under a standard (older) virtual machine that is already installed or used because it will not boot anymore!

How to enable UEFI in Player:
We use VM_Tweaker and open our virtual machine's VMX (settings) file with it.
(this is a followup on the VM Tweaker tweaks I discovered here).

uefi-bios-enable.png

In this example, it's a Win7 x64 machine (beta 7000 more precisely, long expired, but it's just a test for UEFI boot).

After marking in the check-box, we click apply changes.

Then the file will be saved. If we search for the changes, there will be a new setting available:
Code:
firmware = "efi"

vmx-efi.png

We start up the machine with the installer disk and install Windows normally.

After all is done, we check the partitions in the VM's Disk Management just to confirm.

vmware-efi.png

Yes. The expected EFI System Partition is there.

That concludes this example. It works.
We can use this type of VM install since Windows Vista, so our Windows 7 and Windows 8 will work fine and we don't need to worry about SecureBoot in a VM because is not needed or mentioned in this steps.


That's it.
Hopachi
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 10 x64
    Computer type
    Laptop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    HP Envy DV6 7250
    CPU
    Intel i7-3630QM
    Motherboard
    HP, Intel HM77 Express Chipset
    Memory
    16GB
    Graphics Card(s)
    Intel HD4000 + Nvidia Geforce 630M
    Sound Card
    IDT HD Audio
    Monitor(s) Displays
    15.6' built-in + Samsung S22D300 + 17.3' LG Phillips
    Screen Resolution
    multiple resolutions
    Hard Drives
    Samsung SSD 250GB + Hitachi HDD 750GB
    PSU
    120W adapter
    Case
    small
    Cooling
    laptop cooling pad
    Keyboard
    Backlit built-in + big one in USB
    Mouse
    SteelSeries Sensei
    Internet Speed
    slow and steady
    Browser
    Chromium, Pale Moon, Firefox Developer Edition
    Antivirus
    Windows Defender
    Other Info
    That's basically it.
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