This is an easy hack that took me forever to figure out. This all came about because I wanted to test out some browser computability issues within Linux. The normal easy way would be to download a LiveCD, burn it to a disc and then reboot a computer using the LiveCD. This method works fine but while I am at work I use a laptop running WindowsXP with an external keyboard, video and mouse and spend most of my time running Remote Desktop to other computers on our network. So instead of reboot my work station into Linux I'd rather just run Linux in as a Virtual Machine. Enter VMWare Player.
Getting Started
Download VMWare Player
Download a Linux LiveCD
Once you've got a LivedCD downloaded create new text file in the same directory named: LiveCD.vmx
Then paste this code into the file:
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config.version = "8"
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virtualHW.version = "4"
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scsi0.present = "TRUE"
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memsize = "512"
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ide1:0.present = "TRUE"
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ide1:0.fileName = "livecd.iso"
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ide1:0.deviceType = "cdrom-image"
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floppy0.present = "FALSE"
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ethernet0.present = "TRUE"
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usb.present = "TRUE"
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sound.present = "TRUE"
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sound.virtualDev = "es1371"
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displayName = "LiveCD"
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guestOS = "otherlinux"
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nvram = "otherlinux.nvram"
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workingDir = "."
Change the value of ide1:0.fileName to the name of your newly downloaded LiveCD .iso.
You can also tweak memsize = "512" depending on how much RAM your computer has.
Now launch VMWare Player and click Open and brows to the LiveCD.vmx file.
VMWare will now launch the LiveCD in the same manner when the LiveCD is used to boot a computer.
When running a Virtual Image for the first time it will ask you to create place for VMWare to store some files and logs.
Now you've got a Linux LiveCD running in an application window on your desktop.