Setting up VMWare WinXP

NOTE: Anything in square brackets needs replacing by you!

Download VMWare player (source)

Un tar and run the perl setup script.
Answer YES to most questions. (I answered YES to all)

Install qemu
Use qemu to create a disk:
qemu-img create -f vmdk winxp.vmdk 5G

This will 'create' a Vmware disk '-f vmdk' called 'winxp.vmdk' and set the maximum size to '5G' (gigabytes)

Then create the VMX config file:
http://www.easyvmx.com/

Make sure you set the following line in the VMX:
ide0:0.fileName = "[full path to ISO file]"
ide0:0.deviceType = "cdrom-image"

This will then boot from the 'cd-rom drive' (actually the windows.iso file)

Once Windows is installed you need to get Vmware Tools...

UPDATE (11/08/08): I had some problems with vmmon under Ubuntu 8.04 (Hardy Heron) but this helped: http://communities.vmware.com/docs/DOC-3850


UPDATE (15/09/08): If you want to save yourself some effort, use this direct download link to download the vmware players for Linux / Windows:
http://www.vmware.com/download/player/download.html