How To Make Shortcut For VMware Workstation 7 Virtual Machine In Windows 7

Here’s how to make a shortcut for VMware Workstation 7 virtual machine in Windows 7:

1. Right click on your desktop and select ‘New>Shortcut’.

VMware Workstation 7 Virtual Machine Shortcut Windows 7

2. In the location field, type the following –

“<Path to vmware.exe file>” -X “<Path to the virtual machine’s .vmx file>”

In our case, the path to vmware.exe was ‘C:\Program Files\VMware\VMware Workstation\vmware.exe’ and the virtual machine which we wanted to boot directly was located in ‘C:\LM9’ folder. The name of the virtual machine’s .vmx file was ‘LM9.vmx’. Hence, we typed the following in the location field –

“C:\Program Files\VMware\VMware Workstation\vmware.exe” -X “C:\LM9\LM9.vmx”

VMware Workstation 7 Virtual Machine Shortcut Windows 7

VMware Workstation 7 Virtual Machine Shortcut Windows 7

Click ‘Next’ when done.

3. Type a name for the shortcut and click ‘Finish’.

VMware Workstation 7 Virtual Machine Shortcut Windows 7

4. That’s it! Double click the newly created shortcut on your desktop to directly boot your virtual machine.

VMware Workstation 7 Virtual Machine Shortcut Windows 7

VMware Workstation 7 Virtual Machine Shortcut Windows 7

You can make any number of  shortcuts for various VMware Workstation 7 virtual machines on Windows 7 desktop.

 

  1. Mike says:

    You can also launch multiple virtual machines from the one shortcut.
    Just add the path to the additional machines to the end of the shortcut, followed by a space. eg
    “C:\Program Files\VMware\VMware Workstation\vmware.exe” -X “C:\LM9\LM9.vmx” “C:\Folder\VM2 Config File.vmx” “C:\Folder\VM3 Config File.vmx”

  2. Ilan says:

    I found that a shortcut to the VMX file is enough. But I use VMWare player, not workstation.

    Thanks for the tip. Without it I wouldn’t have tried to operate the VMX file in 1st place…

  3. Tom says:

    Very helpful! Thank you very much!