Enable Automatic Start Up for Guest OS on VMware ESX 3.5
This one had me tearing my hair out. We needed to enable auto startup on some of our Virtual Machines on the VMware ESX server, but I couldn’t for the life of me work out how. After a stupid amount of Googling around, turning up nothing, I actually RTFM! Page 177-178 had the answers 
Here’s how to do it:
Launch the Virtual Infrastructure Client. If you don’t have it, just http:// to your VMware ESX host and grab it from the front page.
Go to the Configuration tab of your ESX Server, then click on Virtual Machine Startup/Shutdown.
By default (I’m pretty sure) automatic startup is disabled. To enable it, click on “Properties…” on the far upper right of the window.
You’ll now see this window:
Check/Tick “Allow virtual machines to start and stop automatically with the system”.
Now, this is the bit where I nearly cried…
You know you want to “enable” your Guest OSes to automatically boot, but how? I tried clicking and dragging, right clicking for a context menu to enable “Automatic start up” and gave up.
Turns out, you need to click on the Guest OS you’d like to enable, and then click “Move Up” until it sits underneath the “Automatic startup” title. Argh!
I really hope this helps someone out! 
31 July, 2008 at 2:15 pm
Yes, it helps a lot, thx ; )
10 August, 2008 at 6:11 pm
This helped a lot as I couldn’t find the relatively hidden properties button. Thanks again.
14 August, 2008 at 7:46 am
You really have to wonder who vets this UI design! Come on VMware.
Thanks, I wasn’t going to work that one out through intuition.
19 August, 2008 at 9:31 am
Thank you… this would have cost me a lot of hair pulling!
What a strange GUI.
19 August, 2008 at 12:40 pm
Yes, it helps a lot, thanks from Johnny
11 September, 2008 at 2:56 pm
Thank you….
Thanks for taking the time to make this page.
This was a very non intuitive way of making a gui.
19 September, 2008 at 5:28 am
For the last week I have tried again and again to find the way how to move things from disabled to enabled with no success. No help No google. Till I found you. Thank You.
6 October, 2008 at 3:02 pm
Thanks for taking the time.
I never would have figured this out (I’m not even sure where our “FM” is).
9 October, 2008 at 5:35 pm
Thanks, it helps a lot!
23 October, 2008 at 4:59 pm
Haha! Thank you for the pics. I spent half an hour looking for the damn “properties” button. Guess I am getting blind in my old age. The “on the far upper right of the window” really came in handy! Thank you!
26 October, 2008 at 3:13 pm
Very many thanks for that. VMware Server has the same window. The help in VMware Server *does* actually tell you to do the Move Up thing, but it’s lost in the noise. The bad news is that it also gives you this false explanation for why you aren’t getting anywhere:
‘Note To allow virtual machines to be started and shut down on a Windows host system, you must also select Allow virtual machines to start and stop automatically with the system during the installation of VMware Server.’ That’s untrue. You can do it at any time.
Very good interface in general, though.
7 November, 2008 at 4:47 pm
Intuitive. NOT!
Thanks VERY much for this.
20 November, 2008 at 3:29 pm
Wow! Thanks for ending the hours of fruitless google!
2 December, 2008 at 2:49 pm
U are a gawd for putting this up..
BUT, my next question is how does this work with vmotion as the vitual machines seem to be tied to a host when u do the settings.
2 December, 2008 at 4:30 pm
Haha, thanks Ed
You raise a good question, but as I don’t have VMotion enabled, I’m not sure…