Pennic Consulting Virtualization Center

The newly released Vista Beta 1 -- build 5112 can be installed in VMware workstation 4.5.2 albeit with a little bit of 'special handling'
 
First, Beta 1 will not install on a virtual disk that has not been partitioned (and perhaps formatted).  Workarounds for this are 1) run an XP install far enough to format the drive and then reboot with the Vista DVD.  2) Use a drive (.vmdk file) partitioned and formatted on another VM.  3) Select "Longhorn (experimental)" as the VM OS rather than XP.  This seems avoid the problem although I am not sure why.
 
Second, the standard NIC in VMware Workstation is not supported in Beta1.  To change the NIC device to a 'vmxnet' device, shut down the Vista VM and edit the .vmx file adding the line 'Ethernet[n].virtualDev="vmxnet"  where [n] is the NIC instance number.  Restart the Vista VM and install the vmxnet driver from VMware Workstation 5 tools. (the 4.5.2 tools driver does not work).
 
Other notes, try to give the Vista at least 384 MB of memory -- more if you can.  Be sure you do not change this value AFTER you activate the copy.  Memory changes will likely trigger re-activation.
 
With these changes and the VMware tools installed, you will have a copy of Vista with network connectivity.