You can specify monitor resolution settings, configure multiple monitors, and select accelerated graphics capabilities for a virtual machine.

To configure display settings for a virtual machine, select the virtual machine, select VM > Settings, click the Hardware tab, and select Display (local virtual machine) or Video card (shared or remote virtual machine).

Note:

Only Workstation 6.x and later virtual machines support specifying resolution settings and setting the number of monitors that the guest operating system can use.

Table 1. Display Settings

Setting

Description

Accelerate 3D graphics

Select this setting if you run applications that use DirectX 9 or DirectX 10 accelerated graphics. Accelerated graphics capabilities apply to Windows XP or later guests on hosts running Windows or Linux.

The virtual machine must be a Workstation 6.x or later virtual machine and must have VMware Tools installed from Workstation 7.x or later.

Use host setting for monitors

When you select this setting, the SVGA driver uses two monitors, a maximum bounding box width of 3840, and a maximum bounding box height of 1920. The virtual machine is configured to have a minimum of two 1920x1200 monitors, in a side-by-side topology, in both normal and rotated orientations. If the host system has more than two monitors, the virtual machine uses the number of monitors on the host system instead. If the host system's bounding box is wider or taller than the defaults, the virtual machine uses the larger size. You should select this setting in most cases.

Specify monitor settings

Set the number of monitors that the virtual machine will see, regardless of the number of monitors on the host system. This setting is useful if you use a multimonitor host system and you need to test in a virtual machine that has only one monitor. It is also useful if you are developing a multimonitor application in a virtual machine and the host system has only one monitor. After you power on the virtual machine, the guest operating system sees the number of monitors that you specified. Select a resolution from the list or type a setting that has the format width x height, where width and height are the number of pixels.

Note:

You cannot configure the resolution setting for a shared or remote virtual machine.

Graphics memory

Select the maximum amount of guest memory that can be used for graphics memory using the drop down menu. The default value of video memory varies by guest OS.

Display Scaling

Enables display scaling for the virtual machine display. The user interface is automatically adjusted when the display changes.