You can change the working directory for a virtual machine. The working directory is where Workstation Pro stores suspended state (.vmss), snapshot (.vmsn), and virtual machine paging (.vmem) files. By default, the working directory is where the virtual machine files are stored.
Note: You cannot change the working directory for a remote or a shared virtual machine.
To specify a new working directory for a selected virtual machine, select , click the Options tab, and select General.
You might want to change the working directory in the following situations.
- To organize all of your snapshots in a separate directory, you can create a directory in another location. If you plan to take many snapshots and use a large amount of disk space, place the working directory on a disk with a lot of space.
- To run a virtual machine that is stored on a network share or iPod, which might slow performance, you can change the working directory to your local hard disk. Then you can take a snapshot, power on the virtual machine, use it, and discard the snapshot when you are finished. The virtual machine then reverts to its original state.
- To create a paging file on a fast disk with a lot of disk space but leave the virtual disk and configuration file on a different disk, you can change the working directory so that it is located on the fast disk.
Changing the working directory does not change the directory where Workstation Pro stores the virtual machine configuration (.vmx) file and log files.
The virtual machine must be powered off when you change this setting.
