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 day-after-day to help their tasks and clients. Workstation Professional makes it straightforward to run advanced native digital environments to simulate working methods, platforms and clouds, all from the identical desktop PC.
What are the totally 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 known as out.
What are the variations between Workstation Professional and Workstation Participant?
Workstation Professional and Workstation Participant share the identical hypervisor know-how, however with distinctive person 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 unique working system in a safe remoted sandbox on a PC.
Workstation Professional is designed for IT professionals and builders, offering a extra absolutely 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 must 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 any must create a partition for every working system. If you have already got one other OS with twin boot put in in your pc, you need to use VMware Workstation to run the opposite OS in a digital machine in your host working system.
As a substitute of twin booting, you’ll be able to run each working methods 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 means of the brand new vctl CLI device.
Develop and Take a look at for Any Platform
Repair extra bugs and ship high quality code on time utilizing Workstation Professional in improvement and testing. Virtualize almost any x86 working system obtainable in the present day on a desktop PC.
Get pleasure from Baked-In vSphere and ESXi Assist
Run ESXi and vCenter as digital machines on the desktop, and connect with a distant vSphere setting for fast VM entry and primary administration duties.
Run Safe and Remoted Desktops
Run a safe second desktop with totally different privateness settings, instruments and networking configurations for on-line safety, or to take “snapshots” that may be restored later.
Broaden the Energy of Your PC with Virtualization
Uncover the true energy and suppleness of your desktop or laptop computer pc with VMware Workstation. Scale back {hardware} prices by 50% or extra by operating a number of working methods concurrently on a single PC. Automate and streamline duties to avoid wasting time and enhance productiveness. Be 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 setting
- Automate duties for software program improvement and testing
- Display multi-tier configurations on a single PC
Use A number of Working Techniques 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 present 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 bunch of different working methods side-by-side on the identical pc. You may change between working methods 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’ll be able to take a “snapshot” that preserves the state of a digital machine so you’ll be able to return to it at any time. Snapshots are helpful when you’ll want to revert your digital machine to a previous, secure system state. Workstation shows thumbnails of all of your snapshots on a single display, making it straightforward so that you can monitor and revert to a beforehand saved snapshot.
You may even use Workstation 6 to report and play video recordsdata that seize all modifications to a digital machine over a time period. This operate 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 Laptop
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 embody shopper, server and database digital machines.
With Workstation Groups, you’ll be able to flip a complete multi-tier setting on and off with a single click on of the mouse button. Workstation shows stay thumbnails of all related 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 methods and functions will be time consuming. With clones, you may 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 staff 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 (known as ACEs) with the ACE Choice Pack. Mobility is without doubt one of the major advantages of this feature pack, because it allows customers to securely take their desktops with them on transportable media units comparable to USB thumb drives.
What’s New
Introducing vmcli
vmcli is a command-line device 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’ll be able to carry out quite a lot of operations comparable to creating new digital machines, producing VM templates, powering on VMs, and modifying varied VM settings. Moreover, you can even create scripts to run a number of instructions sequentially. For extra data, 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 whenever you attempt to open its Preferences dialog through the use of the ‘vmware-kvm –preferences’ command. This problem is resolved.
- Digital machines run unusually slowly on Home windows hosts
- Working digital machines on Home windows hosts as a non-administrator person would possibly end in excessive host CPU utilization and poor visitor efficiency. This problem is resolved.
- Workstation set up fails on Linux hosts with a compilation error
- For those who 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 problem 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
Identified Points
- CentOS 9 Stream with kernel variations later than 5.14.0-432 isn’t supported on Workstation Professional 17.6 as a bunch
- Workaround: None
- Inline product improve from variations sooner than 17.6 won’t be automated for Workstation Professional on Home windows Host
- As a result of migration from VMware providers to Broadcom, Workstation Professional can’t robotically apply this improve.
- Workaround: Check with the KB368734 article for downloading and putting in Workstation Professional from the Broadcom help portal.
- The multi-monitor function may not work accurately in particular topologies
- In particular conditions, primarily based on totally 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, or not biking by means of screens.
- Workaround: None.