Testing an install on VMWare

I have created an InstallShield single-executabl开发者_运维技巧e install which includes some merge modules for VS2005 dependencies which go in the WinSxS, such as VC80.CRT. I work remotely, and when our tester runs the install on an XP machine, it works fine. I've also verified that when run on an XP machine that's missing the VC80.CRT version I need, the install does successfully install it. But, when our tester runs the install on a VMWare image (XP), the merge module does not get installed.

I know nothing about VMWare. Can somebody provide a "well, duh!" type of answer on this? I'd love to just be able to tell them that we can't expect it to install the merge module on a VMWare image. Or, is there some way I can make the merge module install properly under VMWare?

Thanks!

VMWare (in all its versions) is little more than a cunning piece of software that allows one computer to appear as though it is one or more different computers. You take a PC, install VMWare on it and presto it can appear as though it is one or more XP machines and several different types of Linux all at the same time. Very handy for testing.

Inside a VMWare server the 'guest' computers, as they are known, are little more than an image file, ie. a single file that contains a snapshot of a PC hard disk. VMWare server boots this as though it were a real PC booting from its hard disk, and VMWare makes sure the guest PC has access to all the hardware the it needs, be this real or simulated.

If something doesn't work on a VMWare image, but it does work on a 'real' PC then it is most likely to be something wrong with the image rather than something wrong with VMware (unless what you're doing requires some strange low-level hardware access that VMWare can't provide). Simply running an installer should function the same under VMWare as on the real PC, especially if you are using VMWare ESX.

The simple test in your case is to take the 'real' PC, make an image of it, and run this image under VMWare. It will almost certainly function correctly.

Agree with Toby.

You can use VMware vCenter Converter to make a VMware image of your real PC. Then try whether the install works on this image.