Creating Shortcut from VMPlayer to Host Desktop

G

GreatestOne

Limp Gawd
Joined
May 15, 2005
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488
Hey guys... I am setting up a Win8 laptop for a client whose old software of course doesnt run on Win8. So I installed VMplayer with the tools and am running XP on it fine.

Since he is super computer illiterate, I would like to simply put a shortcut of the program in XP to the Win8 desktop so when he clicks on it, it auto-starts into WinXP virtual, and then when he closes the program, it closes out of XP, although I think the latter is a bit of a task but I heard its possible?

In the end I can make a detailed 5 page tutorial or technical directions manual with pictures for him but really rather not.

I tried right clicking on the program in the Start Menu, but there was no option for "Create shortcut to desktop" which I read was supposed to work to the host desktop... all I have is a "Create Shortcut" link and that doesnt do it. And just in case, I know it would be too good to be true, but I just tried dragging the shortcut to the host desktop, but of course, no go... that would have been the most sensible and efficient way for VMPlayer to have made this work.

Thanks.
 
That might work with Win8 HyperV, but not VMware player
 
I believe what your are looking for in VMWare Player is called Unity Mode. Basically, when the VM is up and running you can enable Unity Mode and it should add the applications in the virtual start menu to the the Physical machine. I've used it on Windows 7, but I don't know if it still works on Windows 8 since it doesn't have a true start menu anymore....
 
I just checked and VMWare Player does have a Unity mode. When the VM is running, but not in "full screen", there should be a button next to the full screen mode that will put you into Unity mode. Once in Unity mode, you can access the VM's start menu by pressing CTRL+SHIFT+U and launch applications on your desktop. You can "create a shortcut on desktop" from the Unity start menu also to give your user a desktop icon if you want.

Unfortunately, I don't have a Windows 8 box to test this on....
 
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