Win7 Host + Win8 Guest + VMWare Workstation + touch

In decided to do an experiment and install VMWare Workstation 8 on the base installation of Windows 7. Then I installed Win8 Dev Preview.

Supprisingly after connecting the touch and pen drivers to the VM, it seems to work....

 

cool... I'm doing this next week

 

I wouldn't be surprised that this "works" the question is how well.

Personally I just imaged my main partition and then wiped it and just put Windows 8 on it, it occasionally messes up but majority of the time it runs great.

I left my recovery partition in place as well in case I need to go back.

 

It works nicely.. But be carefull. Once installed, Windows 8 boots just fine. Performance seems pretty good. I upped the mem allocation to 1.5gb. Then I wanted to have the VM recognize touch. Several Samsung Slate "Host" devices are available to include in the VM session under removable devices.

I first included the capacitive touch and it works... Then I included the pen touch and it works!

Just be carefull. The next time you boot the VM, it will ask you whether to include each of these devices, if you say yes, you lose the ability to touch or pen in win7 host OS. This means if you don't have a keyboard connected you essentially lose control of the physical machine and host OS.

as an asside, I'm using "Mouse without Borders" from Microsoft Research to have a single keyboard and mouse work between my very nice 30" monitor and the tablet over Wifi N. It's a great software KVM solution and should be built into-windows!!