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Examples of Using Snapshots
The following examples illustrate some use-cases for snapshots.
Using Snapshots as Protection from Risky Changes
If you plan to make risky changes in a virtual machine (for example, testing new software or examining a virus), take a snapshot before you begin. If you encounter a problem, you can restore the virtual machine to the state preserved in that snapshot.
If your risky actions cause no problems you can take another snapshot the virtual machine in its new state. This is similar to saving progress in a computer game. Snapshots can minimize lost work if something goes awry. Furthermore, with multiple saved positionsmultiple snapshotsyou can return to an important position if you discover something wrong that you didn't notice at the time.
Starting a Virtual Machine Repeatedly in the Same State
You can configure the virtual machine to revert to a snapshot any time it is powered off. One example of using snapshots this way is setting up student VMs to power on for each new class at the beginning of the lesson, discarding previous student work. See
Reverting at Power Off for the procedure.
Automatically Recording Milestone Status
You can configure a virtual machine to take a snapshot any time it is powered off, preserving a virtual audit trail as work progresses. See
Virtual Machine Settings for Snapshots for configuring automatic snapshots at power off.
Disabling Snapshots for Better Performance
If you do not need to use snapshot functionality, VMware Workstation operates more efficiently with snapshots disabled in Settings. See
Virtual Machine Settings for Snapshots for the procedure to disable snapshots.