I suggest that everyone use their own "virtual machine". You can start off with a fresh ms-windows install by copying the directory /guestos/mswin-fresh (e.g. with "cp -r"). You should probably discuss with me where to put your copy of these files on dahlquist, because they're huge. You don't want to store them on CSLab machines for two reasons: one is that access of that huge amount of data over the network will be very slow, and the other is that it really doesn't need backing up. It's mostly zeroes, and the rest is mostly the ms-windows operating system and application software.
To start, you'd usually type "vmware &". In the "requestor" window you get, select "local host" (default) and press "connect".
Then you probably "open a virtual machine", although you can "create a new virtual machine" if you want to install from an ms-windows CD etc. (In this case, when it asks about networking, choose "NAT".) If you've just copied /guestos/mswin-fresh, it will ask you a weird question about "UUID", with default option "Create". "Create" is the right answer here.
You generally have to click in the window to focus on the virtual machine window; and then you have to press control + alt (but no other keys) to release the control so that you can use the mouse normally with the rest of the (non-virtual) computer screen.
You should normally shut down or suspend the virtual machine when you're done. You can shut down ms-windows in the usual ms-windows way (from the "start" menu).
If you need the administrator password in an ms-windows installation copied from /guestos/mswin-fresh, it's "happytime".
Any questions, please ask (preferably by e-mail).