VMware Workstation Pro (known as VMware Workstation until release of VMware Workstation 12 in 2015) is a hosted (Type 2) hypervisor that runs on x64 versions of Windows and Linux operating systems. It enables users to set up

virtual machine In computing, a virtual machine (VM) is the virtualization or emulator, emulation of a computer system. Virtual machines are based on computer architectures and provide the functionality of a physical computer. Their implementations may involve ...

s (VMs) on a single physical machine and use them simultaneously along with the host machine. Each virtual machine can execute its own

operating system An operating system (OS) is system software that manages computer hardware and software resources, and provides common daemon (computing), services for computer programs. Time-sharing operating systems scheduler (computing), schedule tasks for ...

, including versions of

Microsoft Windows Windows is a Product lining, product line of Proprietary software, proprietary graphical user interface, graphical operating systems developed and marketed by Microsoft. It is grouped into families and subfamilies that cater to particular sec ...

Linux Linux ( ) is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an kernel (operating system), operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991, by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically package manager, pac ...

, BSD, and MS-DOS. VMware Workstation is developed and sold by VMware, which has been owned by

Broadcom Broadcom Inc. is an American multinational corporation, multinational designer, developer, manufacturer, and global supplier of a wide range of semiconductor and infrastructure software products. Broadcom's product offerings serve the data cen ...

since November 2023. In May 2024, Workstation Pro became free of charge for personal use, with paid subscriptions available for commercial use, while the free restricted VMware Workstation Player (formerly known as ''VMware Player'') was dropped. In November 2024, VMware Workstation was made free for commercial use, with paid subscriptions and support no longer available. VMware Workstation supports bridging existing host network adapters and sharing physical disk drives and USB devices with a virtual machine. It can simulate disk drives; an ISO image file can be mounted as a virtual optical disc drive, and virtual

hard disk drive A hard disk drive (HDD), hard disk, hard drive, or fixed disk is an electro-mechanical data storage device that stores and retrieves digital data using magnetic storage with one or more rigid rapidly rotating hard disk drive platter, pla ...

s are implemented as .vmdk files. VMware Workstation Pro can save the state of a virtual machine (a "snapshot") at any instant. These snapshots can later be restored, effectively returning the virtual machine to the saved state, as it was and free from any post-snapshot damage to the VM. VMware Workstation includes the ability to group multiple virtual machines in an inventory folder. The machines in such a folder can then be powered on and powered off as a single object, useful for testing complex client-server environments.

History

VMware was first released on 15 May 1999.

2016 company changes and future development

VMware Workstation versions 12.0.0, 12.0.1, and 12.1.0 were released at intervals of about two months in 2015. Download site for VMware Player 7.x and Workstation Player 12.x In January 2016 the entire development team behind VMware Workstation and Fusion was disbanded and all US developers were immediately fired. The company said that "the restructuring activities will not impact the existence of any current product lines", that "roles and responsibilities associated with particular businesses will be moved to other regions and office locations", and that investment would continue "with emphasis on our growth products". The future of Workstation and Fusion became uncertain. On 24 April 2016 maintenance release 12.1.1 was released. In September, same year, the company announced that "we’re very much alive and well". Consequently, on September 13 Workstation 12.5 and Fusion 8.5 were released as free upgrades which added support for Windows 10 Anniversary edition and Windows Server 2016. Since then versions 14 (in 2017, skipping number 13), 15 (in 2018), 16 (in 2020) and 17 (in 2022) were released.

2024 change to freeware

In May 2024, VMware Workstation Pro became free for personal use, with only commercial use requiring a paid license, and free VMware Workstation Player was discontinued as unnecessary. In November 2024, this change was expanded to include commercial and educational users, thereby making the software free for everyone. At the same time, however, Broadcom discontinued official technical support for the product, instead directing users to seek help from existing documentation and the community.

Version history

Host OS support

Variants

There used to be freeware-based version of VMware Workstation with a limited feature set. This version was at first known as VMware Player until VMware Player v7 (released at the same time as Workstation 11). In 2015 the two packages were combined as VMware Workstation 12, with a free VMware Workstation Player version which, on purchase of a player license key granted commercial use along with commercial support, while the purchase of a pro license key became the higher specification VMware Workstation Pro (which also included commercial support). VMware Workstation Player, like VMware Player before it, was free of charge for non-commercial use, or for distribution or other use by written agreement. Download site for VMware Player 7.x and Workstation Player 12.x VMware Workstation v14 (September 2017) continued to be free for non-commercial use. VMware Workstation Player was discontinued in 2024 due to redundancy after VMware Workstation Pro was made free for personal use. The differences between VMware Workstation Player and Pro used to be given in VMware's website Version archived 11 October 2016 compares Workstation 12 Player to Player 7 Pro; Workstation 12 Player (Unlicensed) to Workstation 12 Player (Licensed); and Workstation 12 Player to Workstation 12 Pro. Page is updated; as of October 2017 compares Workstation Player and Workstation Pro, only before the discontinuation of VMware Workstation Player in 2024.

VMware Tools

VMware Tools, a package with drivers and other software available for the various guest operating systems VMware products support, installs in guest operating systems to add functionality. Tools is updated from time to time, with v12.1.5 in 29 November 2022. It has several components, including the following: * Drivers for emulated hardware: ** VESA-compliant graphics for the guest machine to access high screen resolutions and/or special window effects such as Windows Aero/ Desktop Window Manager ** Network drivers for the vmxnet2 and vmxnet3 NIC ** Ensoniq AudioPCI audio ** Mouse integration * Support of shared folders and drag-and-drop file transfer between host and guest. This functionality is described as HGFS (Host Guest File System), and may be disabled by default for security; it may be enabled by changes to the .VMX configuration file * Clipboard sharing between host and guest * Time-synchronization capabilities (guest synchronizes with host machine's clock) * Support for Unity, a feature that allows seamless integration of applications with the host desktop by hiding the monitor of the Virtual Machine and drawing the windows of applications running in the virtual machine on the host. Unity support was added for Windows 10 and removed for Linux in Workstation 12.

Third-party resources

Ready-to-use virtual machines

Many ready-made virtual machines (VMs) which run on VMware Workstation Player, VMware Workstation Pro, and other virtualization software are available with software for specific purposes ready-installed, either for purchase or free of charge. As one among many examples, there are free

-based "browser appliances" with the

Firefox Mozilla Firefox, or simply Firefox, is a free and open-source web browser developed by the Mozilla Foundation and its subsidiary, the Mozilla Corporation. It uses the Gecko rendering engine to display web pages, which implements curr ...

or other browser installed Includes brief documentation, including "autoRevert on shutdown" which can be used for safe Web browsing; if infected or damaged the VM can be discarded and replaced by a clean copy. Or the appliance can be configured to automatically reset itself after each use so that no changes, including personal information, modified files, damage, etc. are stored. VMs distributed legally only have freely distributable

s, as operating systems on VMs must be licensed; ready-to-use Microsoft Windows VMs, in particular, are not distributed, except for evaluation versions.

Other tools

* PowerWF - Provides a visual representation of VMware VIX scripts, converting them into workflows, or converting workflows into Powershell cmdlets and modules. VIX is VMware's addition to Microsoft's Powershell for automation of the VMware Player.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Vmware Workstation Workstation Virtualization software Windows software Proprietary cross-platform software 1998 software