Vmplayer proceses always running in the background

Question

I just installed vmplayer 3.0.0 build-197124 on Vista Home Premium. the following processes are always running after rebooting - vmware-usbarbitrator ,vmnat, vmnetdhcp. Is this normal ? Do i have to kill them everytime to save RAM or they should be kept running for vmplayer to working normally if I want to run a virtual machine later.

Solution 1

Those "programs" are services and they are set to auto-start. You can change to Manual their Start settings in Control Panel -> Administrative Tools -> Services, so they will keep out of your way unless needed.

The article Commandline-guide to virtual network settings and more describes the VMware utility vnetlib.exe, included in VMplayer and all VMware products, that can totally control VMware components.

To start these services use a .bat file containing:

cd "C:\Program Files\VMware\VMware Player"
vnetlib.exe -- start nat
vnetlib.exe -- start dhcp
vnetlib.exe -- start authd

To later stop them, use the above with "stop" instead of "start".

Solution 2

These are services required on the host side to provide hardware and network capability to your VMs. If you are concerned about the idle RAM in use when your VM is not, it is probably safe to manually stop them and restart them before loading your VM. YMMV, of course.

Comments

[JMD]

Not bad. For extra credit, we can parameterize the start/stop and use one .bat for both operations. +1

[iceman]

yep parametrize the start/stop using %1 and works great from the command line.