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JeffBeallFlag for United States of America

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vmware linux

I'm becoming a big fan of Lubuntu, it must be really lean, because runs great on a old pc I have. So on this pc, I'm setting it up for someone who is NOT very computer savy. They are only used to winXP, so I thought I would run Lubuntu, and then run vmware to run winXP. That way, when it is compromised, I'll have a copy of the winXP virtual machine and have them back up and running quickly.
So my question is, Is there a way to, when the computer starts up, and after Lubuntu is done loading, to have vmware launch the virtual winXP machine without any user intervention? The person I am setting this up for, I don't think will be able to figure out how to start up the virtual machine.
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TobiasHolm
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Andrew Hancock (VMware vExpert PRO / EE Fellow/British Beekeeper)
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Great comment rindi! Good suggestions about different Win-look-alike-linux distros to try!
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I have tried Zorin, the problem is I'm not sure if my computer unsavy person would be up to the "challenge"

I also tried virtual box and COULDN'T get usb flash drives to work. And even though this person is unsavy, they actually do use flash drives.  For VMware player, usb flash drives work without a problem.
My parents aren't computer savvy either, they hardly noticed the difference between XP and Zorin. They'd have had more problems with Lubuntu. What is the reason you want to run XP as a VM inside your Linux? As I mentioned earlier, a lot of Windows software will work fine under wine, so there is normally no need for virtualization. As I mentioned earlier, if your PC really is as old as you say, any VM will be unusable because it is slow. Really the only reason would be for a few specific software programs that don't run under wine. Besides that you can use OpenSource replacements for plenty of software, so it even is unlikely you need windows software.

USB sticks normally work fine in VirtualBox. You just have to make sure the VBox extensions are installed within the VM, and that the host OS hasn't mounted the stick or is using the USB device you want the VM to use.
Besides checking that VBox extensions are installed, you have to setup a USB-filter to react on USB devices. The easiest is to make a USB filter that catches ALL devices put into the computer.

https://forums.virtualbox.org/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=62100
seems like everyone is dead set against vmware player? not sure why, it is working beautifully for me. Okay, so, I'll revisit virtualbox.
as far as the computer rindi
"if your PC really is as old as you say, any VM will be unusable because it is slow."
I should explain, I guess I have become a bit of a computer snob, because it seems really old to me because I've had it for a long time. it is a pentium duo core with 8gb of ram, with an old fashioned ide 320gb hard drive. So it actually runs vmware player very well.
I'm spoiled by my main pc, ( pent i5, 16gb ram, solid state hard drive ) so the old pc feels pretty slow, my apologies,  I wasn't clear on that point.
Maybe the course of action I should try is, 1) have the computer unsavvy one try Zorin. and use any open source software they might require. 2) is that doesn't pan out, try the virtualbox thing, but see if the USB-filter thing works, if it does, they are in their old familiar environment.
Any multi core CPU in my point of view isn't old. I was under the impression it was a Pentium IV PC... On your hardware also the standard Ubuntu would be fast, not just it's leaner spinoffs like Lubuntu or Xubuntu etc.
VMware Player is a cut down, entry level version of VMware Workstation, e.g. lacks features available in it's Big Bother VMware Workstation.

VMware Workstation is more like Virtualbox. (Workstation is not free, unlike VMware Player).

All our very good Hypervisors.
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thank you for the help