Getting VMWare Server to display in 1280×800

Recently, I have been playing around with Vmware server to run Windows as a guest OS to Linux. I did encountered a problem with the display resolution. Like many laptop, my screen resolution is 1280×800. After I install the Vmware tool, I find that I cannot set the resolution to 1280×800. The only option appears to be 1280×960, which is beyond what the LCD can handle.

To fix the problem, I go to the Vmware directory for my virtual machine (mine is at /var/lib/vmware-server/Virtual Machine. Locate your virtual machine and edit the vmx file in this folder and add the following line:

svga.maxWidth = “1280″
svga.maxHeight = “800″

After adding the lines, reboot the virtual machine. Now when you select the display resolution, 1280×800 will be available.