Virtual Machine Configuration File Location

Products

• VMware Desktop Hypervisor

Issue/Introduction

I can't access the virtual machine created by the New Virtual Machine Wizard (Windows host) or Configuration Wizard (Linux host), how can I access the same virtual machine again?

Environment

VMware Workstation 3.x (Windows)
VMware Workstation 3.x (Linux)

Resolution

When a new virtual machine is created with the New Virtual Machine Wizard or Configuration Wizard, the information collected by the wizard is saved to a file called .vmx on a Windows host or .cfg on a Linux host.The configuration file for that virtual machine is stored in the folder or directory specified in the wizard.

To launch that virtual machine in the future, start Workstation, choose File > Open, navigate to the folder or directory where the configuration file is stored and select the configuration file as the file to open.

Note: For later versions of Workstation, the .vmx file is typically located in the directory where you created the virtual machine. For example, on Windows 2000, the default location for the file is usually C:\Documents and Settings\\My Documents\My Virtual Machines\\.vmx. On Linux, vmware-cmd -l lists the full path to all registered .vmx files. (Later versions of Workstation on Linux create.vmx instead of .cfg files.)