VMWare Workstation

The VMware Workstation software allows users to run multiple x86/x86_64-based operating systems, including Linux, Windows, Mac OS X and NetWare, on a single hardware platform. It has been engineered to run multi-tiered and 3D applications simultaneously on a single computer, using fully portable and networked virtual machines that require no hard drive partitioning.

The program has been specifically tailored for IT professionals, including software developers and testers, who are looking for a stable, reliable and advanced virtualization solution that allows them to effortlessly integrate development, testing and deployment of platform-independent software applications in their enterprise.

Features at a glance

Key features include the ability to drag and drop virtual machines from PC to cloud or vSphere, remote connections to existing virtual machines from virtually anywhere, clone and snapshot functionality, 256-bit AES encryption, as well as support for Apache’s OpenStack and VMware’s Micro Cloud Foundry cloud infrastructures.

The application also features streamline software development and testing operations, improved team collaboration, enhanced productivity for IT professionals, as well as introduction of virtual infrastructure for your enterprise.

Technical details include support for creating virtual machines with up to 16 virtual processors or cores with virtualization extensions, 64GB of RAM, 8TB disks, HD audio with 7.1 surround sound, IDE, SATA and SCSI disk controllers, USB 3.0, as well as bluetooth, gyroscope, accelerometer, and magnetometer functions.

Supports a wide range of operating systems

It is a powerful, yet commercial desktop virtualization software that runs on both GNU/Linux and Microsoft Windows operating systems, supporting the 64-bit and 32-bit hardware platforms. Emulated OSes include Linux, BSD, Solaris, IBM OS/2, Mac OS X, Windows, QNX, DOS, and many other.

However, the truth is that these days similar projects exist on the market, offering almost the same functionality, such as Oracle’s award winning and highly acclaimed VirtualBox virtualization software, which we recommend over the expensive VMware Workstation application.

What is new in this release:

• Security:
• Updated VMware Workstation 14 Player Version 14.1.3 to use OpenSSL library version openssl-1.0.2o.
• Addressed critical security issues as outlined in KB 55636
• Resolved Issues:
• After you upgrade Workstation 12.x Pro to Workstation 14.x Pro and power on a virtual machine, the virtual machine console might display a black screen.

What is new in version 14.1.2:

• Windows 10 2018 Spring Creators Update (Version 1803) as host and guest
• Ubuntu 18.04 support as host and guest

What is new in version :

• This update of VMware Workstation Pro exposes hardware support for branch target injection mitigation to VMware guests. This hardware is used by some guest operating systems to mitigate CVE-2018-5715 (also called by the name "Spectre").
• For a guest operating system to use hardware support for branch target injection mitigation, the following steps must be taken:
• Install this update of VMware Workstation Pro.
• Ensure that your VM is using Hardware Version 9 or higher. For best performance, Hardware Version 11 or higher is recommended.
• Update your guest operating system with fixes for CVE-2018-5715 (consult the operating system vendor for these updates).
• Update the host firmware (or CPU microcode, if host firmware cannot be updated).

What is new in version 12.5.7:

• This release of VMware Workstation Pro is a free upgrade for all VMware Workstation 12 Pro users. This release includes some bug fixes and security updates.

What is new in version 12.5.6:

• End users can create virtual machines with the Windows 10 Creators Update or by installing VMware Workstation 12 Pro on a Windows 10 Creators Update operating system.
• Bug fixes and security updates.

What is new in version 12.5.5:

• Resolved Issues:
• If you delete VMnet8 and VMnet1 in the Virtual Network Editor, then bridged networking is no longer available after the host is restarted. This issue could appear after upgrading to Workstation 12.5.
• Trying to execute vmrun commands on a RHEL 6.8 or CentOS 6.8 host machine, results in errors.
• If you install Workstation 12.5 on a RHEL 6.8 host machine, vmware-hostd cannot start. As a result, shared virtual machines are not available.
• When powering on a virtual machine that uses EFI firmware instead of BIOS, the virtual machine sometimes crashes witha 0xc0000374 (Heap Corruption) exception.
• vmciver.dll is not deleted after uninstalling VMware Workstation from a Windows host operating system
• Known Issues:
• When using multiple monitors with an Ubuntu 16.10 virtual machine, you may see a black screen or all the displays on one monitor. This issue can occur when you cycle through three or more monitors. The issue can occur when you are using VMware Tools or open-vm-tools.
• Workaround: Reboot the virtul machine and cycle through the monitors again.
• Virtual Machines running Linux kernel version 4.7 or above may crash during installation or during power-on with a crash in the intel_powerclamp driver. This issue has been reported with Ubuntu 16.10, but it is a generic Linux kernel issue.
• Workaround: VMware is working with the OS vendors to have them fix their respective kernels. Until a fix is available, you can blacklist the intel_powerclamp driver so that the buggy code doesn't get loaded.
• After installing VMware Tools in an Ubuntu 16.10 guest, the VMware Tools service is not started. As a result, functionality provided by the VMware Tools service, for example, shared folders, is not available.
• Workaround: In the guest operating system, manually start the VMware Tools service.
• After VMware Workstation is uninstalled, the following driver-related files remain on the Windows host operating system in C:WindowsSystem32drivers:
• hcmon.sys
• vmci.sys
• vmx86.sys
• vmkbd.sys in case Enhanced Keyboard Driver was installed.
• Workaround: Manually delete hcmon.sys, vmci.sys, vmx86.sys, and vmkbd.sys.

What is new in version 12.5.2:

• Resolved Issues:
• If you delete VMnet8 and VMnet1 in the Virtual Network Editor, then bridged networking is no longer available after the host is restarted. This issue could appear after upgrading to Workstation 12.5.
• Trying to execute vmrun commands on a RHEL 6.8 or CentOS 6.8 host machine, results in errors.
• If you install Workstation 12.5 on a RHEL 6.8 host machine, vmware-hostd cannot start. As a result, shared virtual machines are not available.
• When powering on a virtual machine that uses EFI firmware instead of BIOS, the virtual machine sometimes crashes witha 0xc0000374 (Heap Corruption) exception.
• vmciver.dll is not deleted after uninstalling VMware Workstation from a Windows host operating system
• Known Issues:
• When using multiple monitors with an Ubuntu 16.10 virtual machine, you may see a black screen or all the displays on one monitor. This issue can occur when you cycle through three or more monitors. The issue can occur when you are using VMware Tools or open-vm-tools.
• Workaround: Reboot the virtul machine and cycle through the monitors again.
• Virtual Machines running Linux kernel version 4.7 or above may crash during installation or during power-on with a crash in the intel_powerclamp driver. This issue has been reported with Ubuntu 16.10, but it is a generic Linux kernel issue.
• Workaround: VMware is working with the OS vendors to have them fix their respective kernels. Until a fix is available, you can blacklist the intel_powerclamp driver so that the buggy code doesn't get loaded.
• After installing VMware Tools in an Ubuntu 16.10 guest, the VMware Tools service is not started. As a result, functionality provided by the VMware Tools service, for example, shared folders, is not available.
• Workaround: In the guest operating system, manually start the VMware Tools service.
• After VMware Workstation is uninstalled, the following driver-related files remain on the Windows host operating system in C:WindowsSystem32drivers:
• hcmon.sys
• vmci.sys
• vmx86.sys
• vmkbd.sys in case Enhanced Keyboard Driver was installed.
• Workaround: Manually delete hcmon.sys, vmci.sys, vmx86.sys, and vmkbd.sys.

What is new in version 12.5:

• VMware Workstation 12 Pro version 12.5 is a free upgrade for all VMware Workstation 12 Pro users, it adds support for the following operating systems:
• Windows 10 Anniversary Update
• Windows Server 2016
• Resolved Issues
• A Linux host with kernel 4.6 fails to launch Workstation because the vmmon and vmnet drivers are not built successfully.
• If you configure Revert to snapshot when a VM is powered off from Options-> Snapshots, the VM actually reverts to a snapshot when suspended.
• With the latest Windows Server 2016 Technical Preview, this issue no longer exists.
• Due to changes in the FreeBSD system-bundled Perl, you cannot install VMware Tools in a FreeBSD 10.3 guest OS and you get a vmware-install.real.pl: not found error when executing the ./vmware-install.pl script.
• The issue occurs after you add a VMX entry to autoconnect the USB device to a VM by using VID and PID. This entry is getting removed when you disconnect the USB device from VM through VM > Removable device > Disconnect.
• On RHEL 6.8 host with kernel 2.6.32-642.el6.x86_64, Workstation fails to launch due to vmnet driver compilation error.
• Beginning with Windows 8, Microsoft implement a security policy (GPO) that prevents non-domain and domain simultaneous connections. When this GPO is enabled and Workstation is installed, Windows considers the virtual adapters that Workstation creates as physical connections. Therefore, the wireless connection cannot be established because Windows prefers the wired connection (virtual adapter) to wifi connections.
• When you power on a Windows Vista guest with latest VMware Tools installed, and click Workstation menu View->Fit Guest Now, the guest screen does not change.
• After installing Workstation on a host running Fedora 23, Workstation fails to launch.
• When installing Workstation to a customized folder path, canceling the installation deletes all the contents in the destination folder.
• If your Windows host has an NVDIA GPU, you might hit the VMware Workstation unrecoverable error: (svga) when running a 3D application in the guest.
• VMware Workstation Pro cannot boot virtual machine on a 64-bit Braswell N3150 processor and the following error appears:
• On a Linux host, when you try to connect smart card to guest via Workstation through VM->Removable Devices, the guest can detect the smart card reader, but is not able to access the smart card.
• On the Ubuntu 15.10 and later versions guest OS, when you replace open-vm-tools with the VMware Tools version bundled with VMware Workstation Pro, VMware Tools does not work as expected. After you reboot the system, an Ubuntu crash report might appear and one of the services in VMware Tools might stop working.
• The guest OS uses the full amount of memory allocated to the virtual machine even if you try to limit the amount of memory used by the guest OS through the BCDEdit 'truncatememory' option.
• You cannot connect specific USB Ethernet adapter to a running VM.

What is new in version 12.1.1:

• Resolved Issues:
• When creating a new virtual machine, if you select a Windows 10 version 1511 ISO file in the New Virtual Machine Wizard, the wizard says "Windows 10 detected. The operating system will use Easy Install". But in the next step, the "Version of Windows to install" dialog box only displays options for Windows Server 2012 R2.
• When you run Microsoft Excel 2013 on a Windows 10 virtual machine, the application responds to your input with a one-second delay.
• When you start a virtual machine that was put into a suspended state with the vmware-kvm.exe command, the virtual machine starts successfully in the background. However, the desktop of the virtual machine does not respond to mouse or keyboard operations.
• When you issue the vmrun command with the nogui option on VMware Workstation 12 Player, which is bundled with Workstation 12 Pro, the command fails
• On an OpenSuse 13.2 host, dragging a virtual machine to a folder in the virtual machine library fails
• When a UAS device is connected to a guest operating system and you turn the device off and back on, the device does not successfully reconnect to the guest. In Workstation Pro when you select VM > Removable Devices, the device is listed as connected to the guest, but the device does not appear in Windows Explorer within the guest.
• When you add a network adapter on the Customize Hardware screen in the New Virtual Machine Wizard, the extra network adapter does not use the same network device type as the existing network adapter. Instead it uses the Vlance network device type, which might prevent the guest operating system from using the network device.

What is new in version 12.1:

• Resolved Issues:
• When creating a new virtual machine, if you select a Windows 10 version 1511 ISO file in the New Virtual Machine Wizard, the wizard says "Windows 10 detected. The operating system will use Easy Install". But in the next step, the "Version of Windows to install" dialog box only displays options for Windows Server 2012 R2.
• When you run Microsoft Excel 2013 on a Windows 10 virtual machine, the application responds to your input with a one-second delay.
• When you start a virtual machine that was put into a suspended state with the vmware-kvm.exe command, the virtual machine starts successfully in the background. However, the desktop of the virtual machine does not respond to mouse or keyboard operations.
• When you issue the vmrun command with the nogui option on VMware Workstation 12 Player, which is bundled with Workstation 12 Pro, the command fails
• On an OpenSuse 13.2 host, dragging a virtual machine to a folder in the virtual machine library fails
• When a UAS device is connected to a guest operating system and you turn the device off and back on, the device does not successfully reconnect to the guest. In Workstation Pro when you select VM > Removable Devices, the device is listed as connected to the guest, but the device does not appear in Windows Explorer within the guest.
• When you add a network adapter on the Customize Hardware screen in the New Virtual Machine Wizard, the extra network adapter does not use the same network device type as the existing network adapter. Instead it uses the Vlance network device type, which might prevent the guest operating system from using the network device.

What is new in version 12.0.1:

• When you use 64-bit VIX API to control virtual machines, the API breaks
• When you use Easy Install to install CentOS 7.0, the installation might stop at "WELCOME TO CENTOS 7" page
• When you use the Easy Install option with the Windows Server 2016 guest operating system, the virtual machine displays a black screen
• After installing VMware Tools version 10.0.0 on a FreeBSD 10.x virtual machine, the guest might not shut down properly when performed from the VMware Workstation Pro interface
• Virtual machines fail to start on a host with an Intel Skylake processor

What is new in version 12.0:

• Resolved Issues:
• Two interface items on the Access Control screen used the same hot-key combination
• In a virtual machine, on the Access Control screen, VM > Settings > Options > Access Control, the Encrypt button and the Require the user to change the encryption password when this virtual machine is moved or copied check box both used the same hot-key combination.
• This issue is resolved. These two items now use different hot-key combinations.
• Attempting to suspend a Windows virtual machine with the Sensor Diagnostic Tool running caused the virtual machine to become unresponsive
• When you attempted to suspend a Windows virtual machine while the Sensor Diagnostic Tool was running, the screen went black and provided no option to quit or power off the virtual machine.
• Using audio conferencing software on a Windows 8 guest operating system caused a severe echo during both video and audio calls
• When you used audio conferencing software on a Windows 8 guest, participants using the built in speaker, as opposed to headphones, received a severe echo during both video and audio calls.
• On the Windows 95 guest operating system, the mouse cursor jumped
• When you moved the mouse in a Windows 95 guest, the cursor sometimes jumped to the side.
• This issue is resolved. The cursor moves smoothly in a Windows 95 guest now.
• Symbolic links created within a Windows guest operating system on a Linux host did not list files under subdirectories
• When you created a symbolic link, such as with the mklink command, from the local disk to a shared folder in a Windows guest on a Linux host, files and subdirectories were not listed under the shared folder.
• This is resolved in this release, but requires a workaround. For the symbolic link to work successfully, configure sharedFolderX.hostDefaultCase = "FALSE" in the .vmx file, where X is the number of the shared folder that is used for the target of the symbolic link command you use.
• Workstation did not display Regions in the VMware vCloud Air Subscription node
• Workstation could not automatically detect the Fedora 21 ISO when creating a new Fedora 21 virtual machine
• You had to manually select the Fedora 21 guest operating system.
• Under specific conditions, when the alipaybsm.exe file was installed on the Workstation host, network service was disrupted
• The alipaybsm.exe file is associated with the Alipay security control software developed by Alipay.com. A network service disturbance could occur when this EXE file was installed on the Workstation host.
• After connecting to vCloud Air from Workstation, no virtual machines were listed in the Workstation virtual machine library
• After connecting to vCloud Air from Workstation, no virtual machines were listed in the Workstation virtual machine library.
• Using Easy Install for the Ubuntu 15.04 guest operating system with kernel 3.19.0-15-generic prevented you from enabling folder sharing
• When you used Easy Install to install the Ubuntu 15.04 guest with kernel 3.19.0-15-generic, Open VMware Tools (open-vm-tools), which are installed automatically and do not include the Shared Folder feature, prevented you from enabling folder sharing, even when you installed VMware Tools by selecting VM > Reinstall VMware Tools.
• This issue is resolved. Now, after you use Easy Install, you can install VMware Tools to enable folder sharing.
• Reverting to a snapshot failed following a specific set of steps
• When you powered off a virtual machine, changed its virtual device node setting, and powered the machine back on, an attempt to then revert to a snapshot failed.
• A Windows 10 guest operating system running idly caused Workstation to crash
• When you let a Windows 10 guest run idly for a couple of hours or more, Workstation sometimes crashed.
• Using the Easy Install option to install the Ubuntu 14.04 or Ubuntu 15.04 guest operating system failed to install VMware Tools
• Security Issues:
• VMware Workstation 11.1.2 has been updated to OpenSSL library version openssl-1.0.1m. This OpenSSL library version addresses several OpenSSL security issues including CVE-2014-3571, CVE-2015-0206, CVE-2014-3569, CVE-2014-3572, CVE-2015-0204, CVE-2015-0205, CVE-2014-8275, and CVE-2014-3570.

What is new in version 11.1.2:

• Resolved Issues:
• Two interface items on the Access Control screen used the same hot-key combination
• In a virtual machine, on the Access Control screen, VM > Settings > Options > Access Control, the Encrypt button and the Require the user to change the encryption password when this virtual machine is moved or copied check box both used the same hot-key combination.
• This issue is resolved. These two items now use different hot-key combinations.
• Attempting to suspend a Windows virtual machine with the Sensor Diagnostic Tool running caused the virtual machine to become unresponsive
• When you attempted to suspend a Windows virtual machine while the Sensor Diagnostic Tool was running, the screen went black and provided no option to quit or power off the virtual machine.
• Using audio conferencing software on a Windows 8 guest operating system caused a severe echo during both video and audio calls
• When you used audio conferencing software on a Windows 8 guest, participants using the built in speaker, as opposed to headphones, received a severe echo during both video and audio calls.
• On the Windows 95 guest operating system, the mouse cursor jumped
• When you moved the mouse in a Windows 95 guest, the cursor sometimes jumped to the side.
• This issue is resolved. The cursor moves smoothly in a Windows 95 guest now.
• Symbolic links created within a Windows guest operating system on a Linux host did not list files under subdirectories
• When you created a symbolic link, such as with the mklink command, from the local disk to a shared folder in a Windows guest on a Linux host, files and subdirectories were not listed under the shared folder.
• This is resolved in this release, but requires a workaround. For the symbolic link to work successfully, configure sharedFolderX.hostDefaultCase = "FALSE" in the .vmx file, where X is the number of the shared folder that is used for the target of the symbolic link command you use.
• Workstation did not display Regions in the VMware vCloud Air Subscription node
• Workstation could not automatically detect the Fedora 21 ISO when creating a new Fedora 21 virtual machine
• You had to manually select the Fedora 21 guest operating system.
• Under specific conditions, when the alipaybsm.exe file was installed on the Workstation host, network service was disrupted
• The alipaybsm.exe file is associated with the Alipay security control software developed by Alipay.com. A network service disturbance could occur when this EXE file was installed on the Workstation host.
• After connecting to vCloud Air from Workstation, no virtual machines were listed in the Workstation virtual machine library
• After connecting to vCloud Air from Workstation, no virtual machines were listed in the Workstation virtual machine library.
• Using Easy Install for the Ubuntu 15.04 guest operating system with kernel 3.19.0-15-generic prevented you from enabling folder sharing
• When you used Easy Install to install the Ubuntu 15.04 guest with kernel 3.19.0-15-generic, Open VMware Tools (open-vm-tools), which are installed automatically and do not include the Shared Folder feature, prevented you from enabling folder sharing, even when you installed VMware Tools by selecting VM > Reinstall VMware Tools.
• This issue is resolved. Now, after you use Easy Install, you can install VMware Tools to enable folder sharing.
• Reverting to a snapshot failed following a specific set of steps
• When you powered off a virtual machine, changed its virtual device node setting, and powered the machine back on, an attempt to then revert to a snapshot failed.
• A Windows 10 guest operating system running idly caused Workstation to crash
• When you let a Windows 10 guest run idly for a couple of hours or more, Workstation sometimes crashed.
• Using the Easy Install option to install the Ubuntu 14.04 or Ubuntu 15.04 guest operating system failed to install VMware Tools
• Security Issues:
• VMware Workstation 11.1.2 has been updated to OpenSSL library version openssl-1.0.1m. This OpenSSL library version addresses several OpenSSL security issues including CVE-2014-3571, CVE-2015-0206, CVE-2014-3569, CVE-2014-3572, CVE-2015-0204, CVE-2015-0205, CVE-2014-8275, and CVE-2014-3570.

Limitations:

• 30-day evaluation