The number of screen colors available in the guest operating system depends on the screen color setting of the host operating system.
Virtual machines support the following screen colors.
- 16-color (VGA) mode
- 8-bit pseudocolor
- 16 bits per pixel (16 significant bits per pixel)
- 32 bits per pixel (24 significant bits per pixel)
If the host operating system is in 15-bit color mode, the guest operating system color setting controls offer 15-bit mode in place of 16-bit mode. If the host operating system is in 24-bit color mode, the guest operating system color setting controls offer 24-bit mode in place of 32-bit mode.
If you run a guest operating system set for a greater number of colors than the host operating system, the colors in the guest operating system might not be correct or the guest operating system might not be able to use a graphical interface. If these problems occur, you can either increase the number of colors in the host operating system or decrease the number of colors in the guest operating system.
To change color settings on the host operating system, power off all virtual machines and close Workstation Pro and then follow standard procedures for changing color settings.
How you change color settings in a guest operating system depends on the type of guest operating system. In a Windows guest, the Display Properties control panel offers only those settings that are supported. In a Linux or FreeBSD guest, you must change the color depth before you start the X server, or you must restart the X server after making the changes.
For best performance, use the same number of colors in the host and guest operating systems.
