Tom2k8 wrote: Trying to run your physical Windows won't work, since VMWAre and your physical PC have completely different hardware.
The only thing true in that statement is the different hardware however technically a physical partition containing an OS can be run as a Virtual Machine although it can be a hassle doing it with any version of Windows that requires WPA, like Windows 7 does. Although as a general rule I wouldn't do it with Windows 7, nonetheless it is doable! Image may be NSFW.
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As an example with another VMware Product, VMware Fusion has no problem running the physical install of Windows 7 on the Boot Camp partition as a Virtual Machine and doesn't require an additional Product Key or License as the EULA allow for it to be virtualized. It can then also be run natively. VMware does use its VMware Tools to maintain two separate WPA databases and swaps them out depending on Native Boot or Virtual Machine Boot.
Message was edited by: WoodyZ - So as to avoid any confusion I do believe that it is only with VMware Fusion that VMware Tools manages the two WPA databases so while technically one could run the physical partition in a Virtual Machine one would have to script or manually swap out two different WPA databases to avoid constantly being bothered by WPA. While it's technically doable it not easy as the swap has to take place before the database is being validated.
