You first need to download BackTrack’s VMWare Image for the final available release from the following link:

http://www.backtrack-linux.org/downloads/

At the time of writing this post the final release is BackTrack 4 so the download gave me the following zip file:

bt4-final-vm.zip

Now we should do the following:

1. First unzip the file. The result is a folder called: BackTrack4-Final
   

2. Move BackTrack4-Final and its contents to the Virtual Machines folder created for you by VMware when you first installed it. Under Windows 7 it is located at:
   C:\Users\{Your User Name}\Documents\Virtual Machines
   

3. Run VMware Workstation
   

4. From the menu bar, select File –> Open and navigate to the BackTrack4-Final folder. Inside the folder you should find: BackTrack4-Final.vmx. Open it.
   

5. Now that the image is loaded into your VMware Desktop, click: Power on this virtual machine.
   

6. Most likely, you will get the following dialog:

   “This virtual machine may have been moved or copied.

   In order to configure certain management and networking features, VMware Workstation needs to know if you moved this virtual machine or if you copied it.”

   Choose I copied it and proceed.
   

7. If everything goes well, and it should, BackTrack will ask you to log in. The username will be root and the password is toor.
   

8. Once logged in as a root, type startx to run the graphical interface.
   

9. The internet/network is not connected by default in BackTrack, to start it run the Konsole and enter the start-network command.
   

10. If that did not work, open Wicd manager (K menu –> Internet –> Wicd manager) and click Connect. The status bar should show something like:

    Connected to wired network (IP: xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx)

If you get that, it means you connected BackTrack to the network successfully! Well done

At the end, make sure you have the latest kernel sources by running the following commands:

apt-get update
 
apt-get install linux-source
 
cd /usr/src
 
tar jxpf linux-source-{version}.tar.bz2
 
ln -s linux-source-{version} linux
 
cd linux
 
zcat /proc/config.gz > .config
 
make scripts
 
make prepare

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