Run Home windows, Linux and BSD digital machines on a Home windows or Linux desktop with VMware Workstation Professional.
Construct, take a look at and demo software program throughout an array of various units, platforms and clouds. IT professionals, builders and companies depend on Workstation Professional every single day to assist their tasks and prospects. Workstation Professional makes it simple to run complicated native digital environments to simulate working techniques, platforms and clouds, all from the identical desktop PC.
What are the completely different editions of VMware Workstation?
The VMware Workstation product line consists of two merchandise: Workstation Professional and Workstation Participant. Collectively they’re known as ‘VMware Workstation,’ and when there are variations, they’re referred to as out.
What are the variations between Workstation Professional and Workstation Participant?
Workstation Professional and Workstation Participant share the identical hypervisor expertise, however with distinctive consumer interfaces for various kinds of use.
Workstation Participant is designed for a single graphical VM operation, or for command line operation with ‘vmrun’ or ‘ for operating a distinct working system in a safe remoted sandbox on a PC.
Workstation Professional is designed for IT professionals and builders, offering a extra totally featured interface with capabilities for operating a number of digital machines on the identical time. Workstation Professional can present and configure digital networking, create clones, connect with vSphere, present a number of VMs on the identical time in a tabbed UI and extra.
Do I have to twin boot or repartition the disk?
No, VMware Workstation makes use of your pc’s file system and creates recordsdata that map to a digital machine’s disk drives, so there isn’t a have to create a partition for every working system. If you have already got one other OS with twin boot put in in your pc, you should utilize VMware Workstation to run the opposite OS in a digital machine in your host working system.
As an alternative of twin booting, you may run each working techniques concurrently and seamlessly change from one working system to a different with a click on of your mouse.
Options
Run VMs and Containers on a Single PC
Deploy native OCI containers and Kubernetes clusters with VM isolation, digital networking and digital useful resource choices by the brand new vctl CLI instrument.
Develop and Take a look at for Any Platform
Repair extra bugs and ship high quality code on time utilizing Workstation Professional in growth and testing. Virtualize almost any x86 working system accessible in the present day on a desktop PC.
Take pleasure in Baked-In vSphere and ESXi Assist
Run ESXi and vCenter as digital machines on the desktop, and connect with a distant vSphere atmosphere for fast VM entry and primary administration duties.
Run Safe and Remoted Desktops
Run a safe second desktop with completely different privateness settings, instruments and networking configurations for on-line safety, or to take “snapshots” that may be restored later.
Increase the Energy of Your PC with Virtualization
Uncover the true energy and adaptability of your desktop or laptop computer pc with VMware Workstation. Cut back {hardware} prices by 50% or extra by operating a number of working techniques concurrently on a single PC. Automate and streamline duties to save lots of time and enhance productiveness. Be a part of the hundreds of thousands worldwide who use Workstation to:
- Host legacy functions and overcome platform migration points
- Configure & take a look at new software program or patches in an remoted atmosphere
- Automate duties for software program growth and testing
- Reveal multi-tier configurations on a single PC
Use A number of Working Programs Concurrently on the Similar PC
VMware Workstation makes it easy to create and run a number of digital machines in your desktop or laptop computer pc. You may convert an current bodily PC right into a VMware digital machine, or create a brand new digital machine from scratch. Every digital machine represents a whole PC, together with the processor, reminiscence, community connections and peripheral ports.
VMware Workstation allows you to use your digital machines to run Home windows, Linux and a number of different working techniques side-by-side on the identical pc. You may change between working techniques immediately with a click on of a mouse, share recordsdata between digital machines with drag-and-drop performance and entry all of the peripheral units you depend on.
Take Snapshots & Movies of your Digital Machines
With Workstation, you may take a “snapshot” that preserves the state of a digital machine so you may return to it at any time. Snapshots are helpful when you want to revert your digital machine to a previous, steady system state. Workstation shows thumbnails of all of your snapshots on a single display screen, making it simple so that you can observe and revert to a beforehand saved snapshot.
You may even use Workstation 6 to document and play video recordsdata that seize all adjustments to a digital machine over a time frame. This perform is unique to VMware Workstation and is extremely helpful for software program debugging, Assist Desk forensics, gross sales demonstrations and coaching.
Run an Whole Multi-tier System on a Single Host Pc
Run multi-tier enterprise functions on a single piece of {hardware} by managing network-connected digital machines with the Groups function of Workstation 6. Groups allow you to create digital community environments that embrace shopper, server and database digital machines.
With Workstation Groups, you may flip a complete multi-tier atmosphere on and off with a single click on of the mouse button. Workstation shows stay thumbnails of all linked digital machines, enabling you to simply determine and change between the digital machines related to a staff.
Clone your Digital Machines to Speed up Deployment
Putting in working techniques and functions might be time consuming. With clones, you can also make many copies of a digital machine from a single set up and configuration course of. This functionality makes it quick and easy to distribute standardized computing environments to workers and college students, or to create a baseline configuration for testing.
Take Your Digital Machines With You
New to Workstation is the flexibility to create and deploy safe digital machines (referred to as ACEs) with the ACE Possibility Pack. Mobility is likely one of the major advantages of this selection pack, because it allows customers to securely take their desktops with them on moveable media units equivalent to USB thumb drives.
What’s New
Introducing vmcli
vmcli is a command-line instrument included with VMware Workstation Professional, enabling customers to work together with the hypervisor instantly from a Linux or macOS terminal, or the Home windows command immediate. With vmcli, you may carry out a wide range of operations equivalent to creating new digital machines, producing VM templates, powering on VMs, and modifying numerous VM settings. Moreover, you too can create scripts to run a number of instructions sequentially. For extra info, see Utilizing VMware Workstation Professional.
New Visitor Working System Assist
- Home windows Server 2025
- Home windows 11 Model 23H2
- Ubuntu 24.04
- Fedora 40
New Host Working System Assist
- Home windows Server 2025
- Home windows 11 Model 23H2
- Ubuntu 24.04
- Fedora 40
Resolved Points
- VMware KVM crashes whereas operating the ‘vmware-kvm –preferences’ command
- VMware KVM crashes if you attempt to open its Preferences dialog through the use of the ‘vmware-kvm –preferences’ command. This situation is resolved.
- Digital machines run unusually slowly on Home windows hosts
- Operating digital machines on Home windows hosts as a non-administrator consumer would possibly end in excessive host CPU utilization and poor visitor efficiency. This situation is resolved.
- Workstation set up fails on Linux hosts with a compilation error
- Should you attempt to set up Workstation on Linux hosts with kernel model 6.8, you obtain a compilation error. For particulars, see https://data.broadcom.com/exterior/article?legacyId=80807. This situation is resolved.
Safety Points
- OpenSSL has been up to date to three.0.14
- Expat has been up to date to 2.6.2
- 7zip has been up to date to 23.01
Recognized Points
- CentOS 9 Stream with kernel variations later than 5.14.0-432 shouldn’t be supported on Workstation Professional 17.6 as a number
- Workaround: None
- Inline product improve from variations sooner than 17.6 is not going to be automated for Workstation Professional on Home windows Host
- As a result of migration from VMware providers to Broadcom, Workstation Professional can not mechanically apply this improve.
- Workaround: Seek advice from the KB368734 article for downloading and putting in Workstation Professional from the Broadcom assist portal.
- The multi-monitor function may not work accurately in particular topologies
- In particular conditions, based mostly on completely different {hardware} and topologies, the multi-monitor function doesn’t work as anticipated. You would possibly see points like reverting the topology to a single display screen, or not biking by screens.
- Workaround: None.
