You can find troubleshooting notes and tips for advanced users in the knowledge base on the VMware Web site at www.vmware.com/kb.

The VMware user community includes VMware-sponsored discussion forums and newsgroups.

The VMware Community is a set of moderated discussion forums hosted on the VMware Web site, open to all VMware users. In the forums, you can share your experiences in using VMware products, raise technical questions or issues, and benefit from the expertise and advice of other VMware users. The VMware community forum is at www.vmware.com/community.

The VMware newsgroups are primarily forums for users to help each other. You are encouraged to read and post issues, work-arounds, and fixes. While VMware personnel may read and post to the newsgroups, they are not a channel for official support. The VMware NNTP news server is at news.vmware.com.

For more information on the forums and newsgroups, see www.vmware.com/vcommunity/newsgroups.html.

If you have problems while running VMware Workstation, please report them to the VMware support team.

These guidelines describe the information we need from you to diagnose problems.

If a virtual machine exits abnormally or crashes, please run the support script to collect the appropriate log files and system information. Follow the steps below that apply to your host computer.

1. Open a command prompt.

2. Change to the C:
cd \Program Files\VMware\VMware Workstation

If you did not install the program in the default directory, use the appropriate drive letter and path in the cd command above.

3. Run the support script.
cscript vm-support.vbs

4. After the script runs, it displays the name of the directory where it has stored its output. Use a file compression utility such as WinZip or PKZIP to zip that directory, and include the zip file with your support request.

1. Open a terminal.

2. Run the support script as the user who is running the virtual machine.
vm-support

If you are not running the script as root, the script displays messages indicating that it cannot collect some information. This is normal. If the VMware support team needs that information, a support representative will ask you to run the script again as root.

3. The script creates a compressed .tgz file in the current directory. Include that output file with your support request.

If you are reporting a problem you encountered while installing VMware Workstation, it is also helpful to have your installation log file.

On a Windows host, the file is VMInst.log. It is saved in your temp folder. On a Windows 2000, Windows XP or Windows Server 2003 host, the default location is C:\Documents and Settings\<username>\Local Settings\Temp.

You can use the command cd %temp% to locate the Local Settings folder, which is hidden by default. To see its contents, open My Computer, go to Tools > Folder Options, click the View tab and select Show Hidden Files and Folders.

Be sure to register your serial number. You may then report your problems by submitting a support request at www.vmware.com/requestsupport.

For some features that are not fully developed, VMware Workstation includes experimental support, so that advanced customers can explore an in-progress implementation of these features.

VMware may not respond individually to all support requests for features that are supported experimentally. VMware is interested in

Specific and detailed reports can help speed features from experimental support to full functionality. Please include as many details about your configuration, relevant applications, and hardware as you can.