Windows: manually start VMware

Usually VMware automatically start at boot time, to start and stop it manually we can disable the autostart of the following services:

  • VMware Authorization Service
  • VMware DHCP Service
  • VMware NAT Service
  • VMware USB Arbitration Service

and we can use a batch script as the following:

    @echo off
    echo Start/Stop VMware Workstation services
    echo.
    echo 1. Start
    echo 2. Stop
    echo.
    choice /c:12

    If errorlevel 1 if not errorlevel 2 goto start
    If errorlevel 2 if not errorlevel 3 goto stop

    :start
    echo.
    NET START "VMware Authorization Service"
    NET START "VMware DHCP Service"
    NET START "VMware NAT Service"
    NET START "VMware USB Arbitration Service"
    CD "C:\Program Files\VMware\VMware Workstation"
    START vmware.exe
    goto end

    :stop
    echo.
    NET STOP "VMware Authorization Service"
    NET STOP "VMware DHCP Service"
    NET STOP "VMware NAT Service"
    NET STOP "VMware USB Arbitration Service"
    taskkill /im vmware.exe /f
    taskkill /im vmware-tray.exe /f
    goto end

    :end

Sources: defaultreasoning.com, www.pc-freak.net