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My goal is to instead of buying 4 separate basic PCs (plus the obvious peripherals), buy just one fast PC and the peripherals.

I'm wondering if I can use a more powerful computer, say, one with core i7 and plenty of RAM, with 2 video cards (total of 4 monitor outputs) to run 4 or more virtual machines (WinXPs) so instead of having 4 individual machines, I'll be having just one. However, the catch is, is it possible to have a pair of mouse and keyboard + input/output audio for each of these virtual machines?

Ignacio Vazquez-Abrams
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chiurox
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1 Answers1

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It's possible using VMware Workstation 7.0. Under VM settings > USB Controller, enable "Show all USB input devices," and then you can freely assign USB mice and keyboards to any VM. Then just move each VM to a monitor and set it to full-screen.

If separate audio channels is important to you, you'll have to invest in a multi-channel sound card. Unfortunately this might run you $100 or so. Once you have the desired outputs, though, VMware can route audio from a VM to any pair of outputs on a sound card.

zildjohn01
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