To make your old Windows 7 system accessible on a new Windows 10 PC, put it on a removable drive.

You can store your new VM file anywhere you like (as long as the location is available to the machine that will be running the Player). Initially, this will be populated using the name of your machine as set up in Windows, but for clarity you might want to set it to something such as “Old Windows 7 system”. You might also want to change the name of the VM underneath “Virtual machine details”. Set destination typeĬlick the menu beside “Select destination type” and then select “VMware workstation or other VMware virtual machine” from the list. For our purposes, click the radio button beside “Powered on”, then click the menu beside “Select source type” and pick “This local machine” from the list. We’re running it on the machine we want to convert, but the software can also target a remote machine across your LAN – as long as you know the IP address of the computer whose setup you want to clone. Start the conversion wizardĬlick “Convert machine” on the vCenter Converter toolbar. This needs special consideration, as we’ll explain later.

In our case, we’re starting with a PC that has both Windows 7 and Windows 10 installed on it, but we want to virtualise only Windows 7. Next, launch the installer and decide what you want to include in your VM. You’ll need to set up a VMware account but, like the software, this is free for personal, non-commercial use. Start by downloading vCenter Converter onto your Windows 7 system. All it takes to virtualise Windows 7 is 12 simple steps. VMware's vCenter Converter and Workstation 15 Player are both free for personal, non-commercial use. And as if that wasn't enough, there's also a cost benefit - the benefit being there's no cost at all.

Windows 7 boot