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Polieno

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Feb 28, 2014
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I am trying to install a game (Sims 3) for my niece, since I dont want to worry about her messing with my personal OS (last time she played around she infected my pc, resulting in me formatting the thing) I thought I could do it through VMware. Now the game is by no means gpu intensive so VMware can handle it, but the game does need to recognize your gpu to be able to load propperly. I have gone into the game files trying to edit the rules for startup and I have even followed all tutorials I could find but to no yield.

My thinking was if I change the manufacturer name, card name and so on of VMware to say some AMD model, the game will be able to boot.

Thanks in advance!
 
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Math Geek
lol, i do at times myself try something the hard way. often just so i know how to do it and can help others. but this is something i've never done. never really had a good reason to mess with a VM and only tried it a couple times just to see.

as i said, i have 4 OS's on my system as well as a couple data drives. 1 or 2 OS's are set aside for me to play with. i tweak, change, edit, infect and just plain abuse the OS any way i feel like. this includes purposely letting malware and viruses onto the system. i have yet to have anything move to any other part of my system this way. i can't say it is 100% that it may never happen but in over 20 years of doing this, i have yet to have it happen to me. even with the OS on a drive being shared...
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No, it doesn't work like that.
The game actually inspects the video card properties and what itis capable of.
Not just the name.
 
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Sure but it doesn't stresstest the card, so fakin values woudln't be impossible?
 
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Doesn't have the performance sadly. Also It wouldnt work, since the gpu is also virtualized there.
 
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Sadly because of my workspace I cant convert to linux. Thank you for trying at least!
 
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how about a second partition and a second instance of windows that only your niece will use. can be a small partition since it won't have much more than windows, drivers and the game installed.

this way if something does happen, you can simply reformat and not lose anything. is something i do in my house for when "guests" use my systems.
 
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I would but I am just to scared of malware spreading. I dont want to risk it.
 
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If you are using Windows 10 Pro you could try a Hyper-V virtual machine however Windows licensing will not permit you to use the host license on a guest machine as well. If you have an old Windows 7 machine that isn't being used you could install Windows 7 and use the Product key for the unused machine.
You do this via RemoteFX and you can read more here
Edit: Seems you can use RemoteFX 3D Video Adapter With Windows 7
You may also want to read http://windowsitpro.com/virtualization/q-how-do-i-enable-remotefx-my-windows-7-guest-oss
 
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As I see it Hyper-V with RemoteFX still has a virtualized gpu. Or did i read the article wrong, does it do a passthrough?
 
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Still uses a virtual GPU however it is 3D capable and has been used for gaming. This video hhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sx7-o9krbuc shows him doing just that.
I am kinda curious now about this myself and luckily (not really) have a dead Windows 7 laptop that hopefully I can use the key to use with Windows 7 Guest so I think I will try it out tomorrow when I have enough time to play around.
 
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VMware isn't the problem game wise, its the gpu authentication that Sims 3 uses, it has a list of compatible vendors and models and it sets its settings accordingly.
 
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So...in the Registry in the VM OS...search for any text related to the GPU name or whatever.
Can't hurt to look, and if you find it, change it.

It doesn't work now, so it won't get any more broken.
 
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Tried that, searched for a hour and a half. The problem is I have to change vendor, card type, everything that lists under display in dxdiag. Do you possibly know where to look? Local machine I assume?
 
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I can't find anything that would help you use a VM for this game.
If you use a Microsoft account to login you could create another for her under Settings / Accounts / Family and Other than use Parental Controls to remove Apps so that she can only use Sims game. However I am not sure if you can remove The Edge browser from the allowed apps hopefully you can. I think under the section that allows you to added or block websites it probably by default will block all except those add to the Allow list.
If you choose this option I HIGHLY recommend setting up a Local Administrative account the reason is I have heard of people being locked out of the machine that the only way to login was via a Microsoft Account.
 
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Thanks I will try that if its the last resort, but she also wants access to youtube, so that may pose a problem... Thank you for trying :)!
 
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Looking at it from a different angle, could you possibly use a disk virtualization program such as Shadow Defender, Deep Freeze, or SandBoxie? https://malwaretips.com/threads/deep-freeze-sandboxie-and-shadow-defender.24624/

This will give you direct access to your hardware (graphics card) and still protect from (most?) viruses, downloaded software, etc.

I use the first one and it basically works like this: Turn on shadow mode and anything done to hard drive is virtualized (fake) until you reboot. Reboot to turn shadow mode off and restore hard drive to how it was BEFORE you turned on shadow mode.

You can turn shadow mode on, delete notepad.exe and install a download manager. Once you reboot, notepad.exe will be returned and the download manager will not be on your system. This would basically protect you from most viruses, but I'm not sure about rootkits. You would have to read up on that.

It also allows you to set up folders to exclude, meaning that all files saved to the folders are really saved to your hard drive. You could use this to save the actual sims data (you would have to figure out which folders that is).

The only other thing to know is that anything else that is downloaded or saved to the hard drive while in shadow mode will NOT actually be saved unless it's in one of those excluded folders! Its very important to remember you're in shadow mode.

I'm not sure how the other two work, it's seems to be a personal preference on which one people like.
 
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I didnt even think that was possible, will try and see if how it works, thank you!
 
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this is so much to work to avoid a simple second partition :)

no worries of anything spreading. i have a win 7 install that i often infect just to see what various virus/malware actually do. never has anything spread beyond that OS despite there being multiple hdd's and OS's installed. when done, i just format it and re-image that partition and then do it again when the mood strikes.

if you got a win 7 key, then simply dual boot it and let your niece use that one. or keep banging your head against the wall with the VM issues if that makes you feel better about it all 😀
 
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So what are the chances of a virus spreading from one OS to another if I dualboot with 2 hdds? At the moment I have 2 hdds (main system) and I plan on adding 2 more for the linux/VM/VGA passthrough. If I can safely just install the two extra hdds and in some way isolate them from my main hardware I'd do that, just dont even know what questions to ask.

I just love baniging my head until it works, when it finally works it makes me feel very good about it haha. Guess this is why I love Darksouls so much 😀
 
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lol, i do at times myself try something the hard way. often just so i know how to do it and can help others. but this is something i've never done. never really had a good reason to mess with a VM and only tried it a couple times just to see.

as i said, i have 4 OS's on my system as well as a couple data drives. 1 or 2 OS's are set aside for me to play with. i tweak, change, edit, infect and just plain abuse the OS any way i feel like. this includes purposely letting malware and viruses onto the system. i have yet to have anything move to any other part of my system this way. i can't say it is 100% that it may never happen but in over 20 years of doing this, i have yet to have it happen to me. even with the OS on a drive being shared by other OS's as is the case in my system now, never had anything move to the other OS's nor to my data on the separate drives.

not sure what or how your niece got your system infected but some good AV and anti-malware software as well as some guidance from you on how to stay safe should be all you need to ensure she stays safe on the pc.

if you're really uneasy and slightly paranoid about it, then you could install the OS to the second drive with no other drives installed. this way it will boot on it's own. when she is using the pc, then plug in "her" drive and unplug yours and then you'll know for sure, there is no way for your stuff to get infected. your drive won't even know the second drive is there, nor be able to access it, if it is unplugged when you're using the pc.

can't stay any safer than that :)
 
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Solution


I must admit I am slightly paranoid when it comes to infections, she got the malware by downloading some "hacks" for an online game she plays.

I usually do it that way, unplugging and plugging hdds but it is very tedious and my case isnt made for that kind of ease of access. Huh I'll look over with VMware if they know how I can fool the system to think a different gpu is installed, if not then well.. I tried :)

Thank you for your time 😀
 
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