How To Run Ubuntu in Windows 7 with VMware Player
Would you like to use Ubuntu Linux programs, but prefer the convenience of Windows 7? With VMware Player, you can install a full copy of Ubuntu and integrate it with your Windows 7 computer for free.
VMware Player makes it easy to install Ubuntu Linux as a virtual machine in only 5 clicks. It then offers easy access to Ubuntu programs straight from your desktop with Unity mode. Here’s how you can set this up on your computer.
Getting Started
First, download and install VMware Player (link below). It is a free download, but requires registration.
You may see some prompts about installing drivers; simply approve them. We didn’t see them on our latest test, but have in the past. When you are finished installing VMware Player, you will have to restart your computer.
![sshot-2010-02-16-[19-14-34]](http://www.howtogeek.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/sshot20100216191434.png)
Install Ubuntu
Once you have installed VMware Player and downloaded Ubuntu, you’re ready to setup Ubuntu. Open VMware Player, and choose “Create a New Virtual Machine.”
You can install Ubuntu from a disk, or directly from the ISO file you can download (link below). This is the simplest method if you’re simply wanting to use Ubuntu in VMware Player. However, if you do have an Ubuntu disk, then feel free to choose that instead. Once you’ve selected your install media, VMware Player will automatically detect Ubuntu and will show that it will be installed with Easy Install. Click next to continue.
Now enter your name, user name, and password. All fields are required.
Please note that the username can only have lowercase characters and numbers.
Also, the password must be at least 8 characters long.
Now, choose a name for your virtual machine and where to save it. Simply click next to accept the defaults.
You can choose how large you want your virtual hard drive to be; the default is 20Gb, but you can choose a different size if you wish. Please note that the entire 20Gb will not be used up on your hard drive initially. Ours only took up 3.6Gb with a clean install, but this will increase as you install programs and save files.
And that’s it! You can review your settings and change them here if you wish, or simply click Finish to start installing Ubuntu!
VMware player will now install Ubuntu without any further input. The window may show cryptic commands, but don’t worry, as you don’t have to do anything else to install Ubuntu.
During the install, you may be prompted to download and install VMware tools for Linux. Simply click Download and the tools will automatically download and install, though you may have to approve the UAC prompt.
VMware will continue installing Ubuntu even while the tools are downloading. Once the install is finished, you will be presented with your Ubuntu login screen. The full install took about 30 minutes in our test.
Select your user name, then enter your password to access Ubuntu.
Welcome to your Ubuntu desktop!
Installing VMware Tools
VMware Player will attempt to automatically install the VMware tools into Ubuntu during the initial setup, but sometimes this does not work. In our test, the tools failed to install during the Ubuntu setup since our internet connection was down. In your tests, it may or may not automatically install. If it doesn’t, follow the following steps to install them. Please not that this is fairly complicated, so be sure to enter the correct things during the install.
To install the tools, click VM and then select “Install VMware Tools” in the menu.
This will open a File Browser window. Double click on the VMwareTools icon; this should look like a box that says tar.gz on the front.
This will open the compressed file. Click the Extract button at the top of the window.
Now, choose where to save the files. Simply click “Desktop” on the left, and then click Extract.
This will take a moment. When the files are extracted, click “Close”.
Now, click the Applications menu at the top of the screen, click Accessories, and then click Terminal.
Enter the following to access the files you unzipped before:
cd ./Desktop/vmware-tools-distrib
Now, enter:
sudo bash
and enter your password when prompted. Please note that the password will not show while you are typing it in; simply type it in, and press Enter when completed.
Now we can install the VMware tools. To do this, enter:
./vmware-install.pl
and then simply press enter at the prompts to accept the defaults. It should ask a total of 5 questions, and just press enter at all of them. 
After a bit, it may ask the following questions about documentation files; simply press enter again at each prompt.
The installation is now complete. You will still need to configure the tools, so simply enter “yes” at the prompt to automatically do that.
It may ask to enable an experimental backup feature; we simply entered “no” at this prompt.
Then, it will want to setup the graphics configurations. Enter “yes” at the prompt. Your screen may flicker or go black momentarily while it is changing these settings.
Finally, you will see the following message when the install is complete.
Restart Ubuntu by clicking on the button with your username at the top right, and then selecting Restart from the menu.
Once your virtual machine has rebooted, login to Ubuntu as before and your setup is complete!
Integrate Ubuntu with Windows 7
You can already use all of Ubuntu’s tools and features directly from the Ubuntu desktop in VMware Player. But, if you would like to use your Ubuntu programs seamlessly in Windows, we need to activate Unity mode. Click VM and then Unity Mode in the VMware Player Menu.
Now, you will have an Ubuntu menu right above your Windows 7 Start button!
By default, the Ubuntu windows will have a border and VMware logo on them.
To change this, click VM and then Settings, select the Options tab, and uncheck the “Show borders” and “Show badges” boxes.
Now the windows will look just like they do in Ubuntu.
You can run Ubuntu windows side-by-side with Windows 7 windows, and can copy and paste, drag-and-drop between the windows, and more! The Ubuntu programs’ icons show up in the taskbar the same as normal Windows programs.
You can access all of the files in your Ubuntu virtual machine from the Ubuntu menu. Select Other, and then choose Computer or Home Folder.
Conclusion
VMware Player gives us an exciting way to have a complete Ubuntu install right inside Windows 7. This would work the exact same on any modern version of Windows, including all editions of XP and Vista. In this tutorial we used Ubuntu 9.10, but other recent editions should work the same.
Links
This is an amazing tool for productivity. I also wonder if it would be possible to unify windows 7 with OSX as well. It would be even more amazing to unify windows 7, OSX and ubuntu all at the same time. Is this even possible? I await an amazing post from the-how-to-geek about this.
*Crosses fingers*
Thanks for this excellent tutorial. Saves lot of time when we need to work on both OS.
Vmwares Unity mode is okay, but I like using Virtual Box’s seamless mode. Especially with Ubuntu, you can configure the toolbars just right to make them look like actually toolbars for the Host OS. Here is a good picture of it being setup just right http://www.doztech.net/wp-cont.....mage_8.png
This works the other way? (Run Windows 7 in unity mode form a Ubuntu machine ? )
Great tutorial
thanx
Is this possible with Windows Virtual PC ? I have professional version of win7 and I wonder if I can run ubuntu next to the xp mode without installing VMware Player ?
Will this make me be able to run compiz on windows7?
Please cover Pubuntu (Portable ubuntu) if you have time. Thanks
@Ryan Dozier How do you setup Virtual Box’s seamless mode to look like it does on your link?
This worked great thanks.
Love this tutorial and everything on this site. Thanks Geek.
If you use Windows 7, you must be liking its transparent bottom panel and its new taskbar. If you run Ubuntu in a virtual machine, how can you run compiz to make a transparent panel? After a few days using Ubuntu in a VM in Windows 7, you might complain how slow Ubuntu is (because of the NTFS).
My suggestion is dual boot. Then you’ll see how fast Ubuntu is compared to Windows 7
Hey frend,
I have a small query, I have done everything what you have mentioned here. Unity is working very well here. But now I have installed Google Chrome, but its not showing in the Ubuntu menu in Unity mode. How can I display installed applications in the Unity Ubuntu menu?
hello Matthew is possible to have a guide on how to install open virtual machine tools ???
pls cover sun virtualbox in the next article
thanks
How can I enable wireless internet connection in vmware player? I am using ubuntu through vmware in windows 7.Each time i try to connect it connect through wired network and does not work. I am using it on my laptop.
That was one comprehensive way to explain it. It was too good.. Thanks a lot…!!!
Also if you can answer the last question asked by POEM, it would be really great.
Currently I am using Ubuntu on my Dell Optiplex Workstation on WinXP but plan to install it soon on my Dell Laptop.Then I would require to connect VM through wireless.
Thanks in Advance..
Keep continuing this splendid work..!!!!
@poem @Saurav Verma – To connect to the wireless network, I believe the best way will be to open Settings in VMware Player, select Network Adapter on the left, and then select NAT. I think that will be the most compatible with your Ubuntu drivers, though I can’t actually tell for sure. It may work differently depending on your hardware. One other thing … make sure you installed the integration components, as these should get everything working for you just by installing them. Hope this helps!
Do any of you have problems using key combinations like Alt gr – < or Alt gr – 2 to do \ or @?
In unity mode these keys dont work. But in windowed mode or desktop mode they work just fine.
How can this be?
I can’t type the password..
I installed the Ubuntu 10.04 three times, but the letters just don’t show up.
And yes, I know about Ctrl+g and Ctrl+alt
I can’t type the password either
Re the problem of Ubuntu 10.04 not allowing password input from the computer keyboard, there is a work-around.
On the Ubuntu login screen, just to the left of the date, there is a tiny figure in a circle. Click on that and a menu appears. Select ‘on screen keyboard’ and a keyboard appears in the ubuntu window. Use that to enter the password and you’re off. Once in Ubuntu, the computer keyboard should work.
Hope this sorts things.
I have the same issue with the keyboard not working. When I click the virtual keyboard it appears for about 1/2 a second and then disappears.
Hi,
I just wanted to say THANK YOU for creating such a nice tutorial. Its really good and easy.
- Gaurav
Hi Brian, I had the same problem on the virtual keyboard coming for just a sec .. but then if you restart the VMware player it will come up next time and if you enter the password using that …the ubuntu works awesome .
-Gaurav
Waaaaaah *-*
It worked \o/
Thank you so much, Chris and Gaurav ^^
I cant type in the password. I clicked the on screen keyboard but it wont show up
please help me out
Setting virtual keyboard and rebooting worked for me too. I’m bummed it’s not a permanent solution… I have to use the virtual keyboard every time I log on.
Windows home premium 64bit opearting system users
For Your Info.
I downlaoded Ubuntu 64bit however there is a compatibility issue with the Vmware Player & ubunut 64bit so please be careful while downloading.
I will try 32bit ubuntu & will inform perhaps.
FYI, VMware has released an update to VMware Player, so now the latest version is 3.1. If you already have VMware Player installed, try checking for updates in the program or download the latest version from VMWare via the link above.
Hope this clears up everyone’s problems. And, again, 64 bit versions of Ubuntu should work fine, but if you’re having trouble, give the standard 32 bit version a shot.
This is amazing. I already had a setup before, but with VirtualBox. Now I’m switching to this, just because of Unity.
This is a truly excellent how-to! Thanks so much for sharing. The only thing I would add is a little more detail on the hardware configuration – especially allocating RAM to the virtual machine. The first couple of times, I gave the VM too little. Even though I can view the allocation after the build, I can’t seem to change it. Thanks again!
brilliant tutorial. i was surprised at how quickly i managed to set this up. i have an old banger of a laptop which i run ubuntu 10.04 on, and i love it! and i was tempted to remove windows 7 from my good laptop, becuase tbh ubuntu is much more versatile and also, in my opinion, easier to use. was thinking about a dual boot system but i didnt really want to do that. also i was reluctant to replace win7 due to the fact i have a lot of software which wont run on ubuntu. this is the perfect solution, i have been using this side-by-side setup for only a few hours and already the benefits are apparent. thank you for posting this tutorial, and i hope to randomly stumble on more tutorials which would improve my home computing experience.
Tried alternate install of Kubuntu 10.04. It installed, but as a command prompt only. Had to apt-get the Kubuntu-desktop (actually had to do apt-get install kdm first). Still installing the kubuntu-desktop. We’ll see if it ultimately works.
Ok, 32-bit full version of Kubuntu worked better than 64 bit alternative install, but 32 bit Ubuntu full install worked best so far (10.04 for all). However, not able to get unity mode to work, should I try to re-install vmtools?
@Joe – Yes, that would likely be a good idea. Try reinstalling the tools, and I bet that would solve the problems. It might not, but it’s worth a shot!