Fix A Problem: Cannot Run BlackBerry PlayBook Simulator on VMWare Player Due to "Insufficient Permissions"

The BlackBerry PlayBook Simulator is a Virtual Machine image file that can run under VMWare Player.

The BlackBerry PlayBook Simulator is included with the BlackBerry Tablet OS SDK for Adobe AIR and is located in "C:\Program Files\Research In Motion\blackberry-tablet-sdk-1.1.0\BlackBerryPlayBookSimulator-1.0.6".

However if you just run VMWare Player and open the .vmx file then "Play" the VM image, you'll get an error message like this:

Error while powering on: Unable to open file "C:\Program Files (x86)\Adobe\Adobe Flash Builder Burrito\sdks\blackberry-tablet-sdk-1.0.1\BlackBerryPlayBookSimulator-1.0.1\BlackBerryPlayBookSimulator.vmdk": Insufficient permission to access file.

VMWare is also unable to change any Virtual Machine settings.

Solution:

To solve this problem, either:

• Run VMWare Player as administrator. Right-click VMWare Player and choose "Run as administrator".
  This will elevate its privileges, and allow VMWare Player to access everything in your computer.
• Move out the BlackBerry PlayBook Simulator folder to your user home folder, and make sure to open the permissions to read/write.

Now... Enjoy your BlackBerry PlayBook development!

Learn more about tablet apps development with Adobe Flash/AIR, get Professional Flash Mobile Development: Creating Android and iPhone Applications.