Hi, I have been struggling with a windows guest OS freezing for 1 2 seconds every 20 30 seconds and could find nothing helpful by googling. Pinging. I thought maybe thered be a key in there, or that I could create, indicating that it has been activated Basically, I just need to know how to get Windows activated without going through the wizard since the wizard wont work. Everything I find on Google is about how to change your product key, activate pirated copies of windows, cracks and keygens and other questionable things. I have all the valid pieces, I just cant figure out how to make them all go together oOThanksHow to install VMware VSphere ESXi 4 on a desktop PCTrying to figure out how to install VMWare Vsphere ESXi 4. Neither was I but I finally figured it out and Ill tell you how Over the last year, Ive been getting very involved in VMware ESX installations and rollouts at work. It started with doing several hundred P2. Vs physical machine to virtual machine conversions then onto the server side and actually configuring the servers. We started with ESX 3. ESXi 4. 0 which is now known as VSphere. I took a couple of VMware training classes and realized that there was a lot of capabilites in VSphere that we werent using at my company. Unfortunately, since it was a production environment, tinkering and experimenting on the ESX clusters at the office wasnt an option. Im the type of person that when I get into a technology, I want to know as much about it as possible. It also helps to learn as much as possible as it makes you more valuable at work and to potential higher paying employers. RESEARCHMy research began to find out what it would take to build a VMware VSphere ESXi 4. A quick google search showed it was very possible to build a home ESX server, but unlike Windows servers there were very specific hardware requirements. Even tougher, VMware doesnt list what desktop class hardware you can run it on since they dont officially support running ESX on desktops. There are a couple of sites out there like Ultimate. White. Box. com that list various components that people have reported success in using, but obviously there is a huge range of possible hardware combinations out there on home machines, so a lot is not covered. The other issue is that it seems that the sites arent updated that often, if at all anymore. Continuing my research, I looked into what processors were compatibile with ESXi 4 and settled on the Intel Quad Core. I specifically wanted a quad core processor since I was going to have several virtual machines running on it and didnt want the processors pinned at 1. I also wanted a lot of RAM for the same reason. I was debating whether to buy all the components and build the machine myself, but every time I started pricing out components, I realized it would cost me the same or more than just buying an off the shelf desktop pc plus all the time involved in building it. I ultimately settled on buying an HP Pavilion with an Intel Core i. RAM. This would be a very solid machine at a decent price. I headed over to Amazon. I could get it tax free and with free shipping. THE BUILDThe machine arrived and I was impressed with the look. It looked like it was made to be a server with smooth glossy paint and even a cool arctic blue glowing power button. I gleefully started out trying to install ESX. First I tried ESX 3. SATA controller. Next I tried ESXi 3. I was getting worried but crossed my fingers and installed ESXi 4. The only hiccup was that it couldnt see the onboard network controller, which I knew would probably happen as VMware generally only recognized broadcom and Intel based NICs and the HP came with an onboard Realtek NIC. I was bummed that I wouldnt get to start playing immediately but was still happy that it was going to work. I headed back over to Amazon and picked up an Intel Gigabit Ct Desktop adapter for about thirty bucks. Two days later it showed up and I popped it into the machine. Presto I have a fully functioning ESXi 4 VSphere server YAYAfter creating a couple of test VMs and contemplating what type of home virtual universe I should start building, it occurred to me that the single drive in the Pavilion was not going to be big enough. I then started having my usual internal debate where my geek side fights with my cheap side over whether to buy larger drives or cheaper drives. I found a good compromise in the 1. Western Digital 2. TB Caviar Green hard drives. They have an outstanding amount of storage and variable speed which allows them to spin down to a slower speed during the day while Im away but ramp back up to full speed when Im banging away on them doing Windows 2. I bought two of the drives and in another two days they arrived. I popped them in replacing the original drive that came with the Pavilion and reinstalled ESXi 4. Luckily the VMware installation is only about 1. The drives worked like a charm out of the box and are drop dead silent which made me happy since I hate having the jet engine like whir of multiple hard drives in the background while I try to work. Yolanda Be Cool Pulp Fiction here. THE RESULTI am happy to report that over a month later, this machine is rock solid. I have two workstation VMs and two server VMs running 2. Ive retired the hardware that my Windows Home Server was on as Ive successfully virtualized it. Ive found so many cool uses for it that I hadnt even thought of before. For example, I loaded up a generic Windows XP vm that I remote control from my Apple i. Pad over wifi. I have another that I use when I am downloading from suspicious websites that may contain malware. When Im done with the download and have scanned it for viruses, etc, I just power off the vm and restore it from a pristine image. I cant say enough about how happy this setup has made me I know, I know, super geekWHAT YOULL NEEDHeres my final shopping list for this setup HP Pavilion with an Intel Core i. RAM Intel Gigabit Ct Desktop adapter Western Digital 2. TB Caviar Green hard drives. Let me know if youve had success with a similar configuration or have questions about setting up your own by leaving a comment below. UPDATE FOR ESXi Vsphere 5 I performed the upgrade from ESXi 4. Vsphere 5. The upgrade was pretty easy in that I just downloaded the ISO file from vm. Ware, burned the CD and booted my ESXi 4. CD. It gave me the option to upgrade, I selected it and followed the prompts. The whole upgrade probably took about 1. Sphere client and vmware tools on my VMs. From my experience, you can dive right in and upgrade your ESXi 4. Check out this link for screenshots of the upgrade process on another site. Technorati Tags 2tb, 4. HP, install, intel, nic, pavilion, pc, quad core, realtek, sata, upgrade, vmware, vsphere, windows home server. Windows 8 Hangs On Install Vmware© 2017