Most guest operating systems automatically detect the serial port(s) at installation time and install the required drivers -- even if those devices are not enabled in the Workstation virtual machine configuration. Operating systems that auto-detect at boot time include Linux, Windows NT, and Windows 2000.
Note: These virtual devices do consume guest operating system IRQ and I/O address resources and appear from within the guest operating system to be present. Leaving these devices as is, but not configured in Workstation will not cause any problems. To enable a device shut down the guest operating system, power off the virtual machine and use the Configuration Editor to enable the serial port device.
Others operating systems -- like Windows 9x -- do not automatically detect serial port devices. On Windows 9x, for example, it is necessary to manually add a new driver. To do so, use the "Add New Hardware" icon in the "Control Panel" and let Windows detect the new device(s). Manually selecting the devices from a list may result in an incorrect configuration.
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