VMware Workstation


VMware Workstation Pro is a hosted hypervisor that runs on x64 versions of Windows and Linux operating systems ; it enables users to set up virtual machines on a single physical machine, and use them simultaneously along with the actual machine. Each virtual machine can execute its own operating system, including versions of Microsoft Windows, Linux, BSD, and MS-DOS. VMware Workstation is developed and sold by VMware, Inc., a division of Dell Technologies. There is a free-of-charge version, VMware Workstation Player, for non-commercial use. An operating systems license is needed to use proprietary ones such as Windows. Ready-made Linux VMs set up for different purposes are available from several sources.
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 drives are implemented as.vmdk files.
VMware Workstation Pro can save the state of a virtual machine 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.

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. 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.

Version history

VersionRelease dateSignificant changes
1.015 May 1999First release
1.111 October 1999
2.03 March 2000
3.011 November 2001
3.129 March 2002
3.216 September 2002
4.07 April 2003
4.515 March 2004
5.07 April 2005
5.529 November 2005
6.09 May 2007
6.523 September 2008
  • 6.5 is the last version to support CPUs without PAE
  • Record Replay
7.010 October 2009
  • Replay Debugging
    • 7.125 May 2010
    8.014 September 2011
  • Shared Virtual Machines
  • Workstation 8 is the first version that requires an x64-compatible CPU.
  • Replay Debugging removed
    • 9.023 August 2012
  • USB 3.0 support for Linux and Windows 8 guests
  • OpenGL driver for Linux guests
  • Improved graphics subsystem
  • Restricted Virtual Machines
  • New operating system support
  • * Ubuntu 12.04
  • * Windows 8
  • * Windows Server 2012
    • 10.03 September 2013
  • New operating system support
  • * Windows 8.1
  • * Windows Server 2012 R2
  • * Ubuntu 13.10
  • VMware hardware version 10
  • * 16 vCPUs
  • * 8 TB disks
  • * New virtual SATA disk controller
  • * USB 3.0 streams support
  • * SSD pass-through
  • Expiring Virtual Machines
  • Virtual tablet sensors
  • * Accelerometer
  • * Gyroscope
  • * Compass
  • * Ambient light sensor
  • User interface enhancements
  • Cloud Management Tools
  • VMware KVM
  • WSX 1.1
    • 10.0.124 October 2013
  • Improved compatibility with some AMD Piledriver CPUs
  • Easy Install support for Windows 8.1 RTM and Windows Server 2012 R2 RTM
  • Fixes for certain hangs and freezes
    • 10.0.217 April 2014
  • The compatibility and performance of USB audio and video devices with virtual machines has been improved.
  • Resolved an issue that prevents a USB device from being connected to Linux RHEL 5 guest operating system.
  • Easy installation option supports Windows 8.1 Update 1 and Windows Server 2012 R2 as a guest operating system.
  • openSUSE 13.1 is now supported as a host operating system.
  • Resolved an issue causing burning CDs with Blu-ray drives to fail while connected to the virtual machine.
  • Resolved an issue that caused using Microsoft Word and Excel in unity mode causes a beep.
  • Resolved an issue causing host application windows to be blanked out in the UAC dialog on the Linux host of the Windows 8 virtual machine.
  • Resolved an issue that prevented the Sound Card from being automatically added to the VM when powering on the virtual machine on a Linux host.
  • Resolved an issue that could cause a Windows 8.1 guest operating system to display a black screen when launching Metro style applications in the launch menu.
  • Resolved a hotkey conflict in the Preference dialog of the KVM mode.
  • Resolved a compatibility issue of GL renderer with some new Nvidia drivers.
  • Resolved graphics errors with for Solidworks applications.
  • Resolved an issue causing virtual machines imported from a physical PC to crash on startup.
  • Resolved an issue about shared folder when the user read and write file using two threads.
  • Resolved an issue that caused Linux virtual machines to see stale file contents when using shared folders.
  • Resolved the virtual machine performance issues when using the E1000e adapter.
  • Resolved an issue preventing Workstation from starting on Ubuntu 14.04.
    • 10.0.31 July 2014
  • VMware Workstation 10.0.3 has been updated to the OPENSSL library version openssl-0.9.8za where necessary to address.
    • 10.0.430 October 2014
  • Fixes memory issue in Workstation on Microsoft Windows 8.1 and Windows Server 2012.
    • 10.0.527 January 2015
  • Bug fixes
  • * At power-on, a virtual machine hangs and a.dmp file is created.
  • * The VideoReDo application does not display the video properly and parts of the application's screen are scrambled.
  • * Copying and pasting a large file from host to guest may fail.
  • * Memory leak in the HGFS server causes VMware Tools to crash randomly with the error: Exception 0xc0000005 has occurred.
  • * New VMs have the same location UUID and MAC address so that the UUID and MAC address are not unique. This problem occurs with WS 9 and WS 10 VMs but not WS 7 and WS 8 VMs.
  • * On RHEL 6.6, vmmon cannot be loaded due to incompatible kernel symbol versions. With gcc, kernel-headers, kernel-devel installed, vmmon module will be recompiled automatically.
  • * Memory leak by the process vmtoolsd.exe when the guest NIC is disabled causes memory consumption by Workstation processes to increase over time.
  • * When USB devices are autoconnected with a hub to a Renesas host controller, the devices are not redirected to the guest.
  • * WS 11 license is accepted by WS 10.0.5 and future 10.0 updates.
  • * When WS is installed on Linux in a non-default location, the Virtual Network Editor fails to run.
    • 10.0.65 May 2015
  • Fixed a problem when uploading a virtual machine with Workstation 10.0.x to ESXi 6.0.
  • Updated to OpenSSL library version openssl-1.0.1m.
    • 10.0.72 Jul 2015
  • Security fixes
    • 11.01 Dec 2014
  • New operating system support
  • * Windows 10
  • * Ubuntu 14.10
  • * RHEL 7
  • * CentOS 7
  • * Fedora 20
  • * Debian 7.6
  • VMware hardware version 11
  • * 2GB Video memory per VM
  • Connection to VMware vCloud Air
    • 11.117 Feb 2015
  • Added support for VMware vCloud Air Virtual Private Cloud OnDemand
  • Bug Fixes
  • * A Linux guest OS booted on EFI firmware sometimes failed to respond to the keyboard and mouse if any mouse motion occurred during a short window of time during OS boot.
  • * Outlook 2010 would occasionally crash when running in Unity mode.
  • * You could not compact or defragment a persistent disk.
  • * The UI sometimes crashed when a user copied and pasted a file between two Windows guests.
  • * Rendering corruption in UI elements in Fedora 20 guests with 3D enabled.
  • * When creating a new virtual machine with SUSE Linux Enterprise 12, the Easy Install path was not available.
    • 11.1.19 Jun 2015
  • Critical security fix for
  • * VMware Workstation and Horizon Client TPView.ddl and TPInt.dll incorrectly handle memory allocation. On Workstation, this may allow a guest to execute code or perform a Denial of Service on the Windows OS that runs Workstation.
    • 11.1.215 Jun 2015
  • Security Issues
  • * VMware Workstation 11.1.2 has been updated to OpenSSL library version openssl-1.0.1m.
  • Bug Fixes
  • * Two interface items on the Access Control screen used the same hot-key combination.
  • * Attempting to suspend a Windows virtual machine with the Sensor Diagnostic Tool running caused the virtual machine to become unresponsive.
  • * Using audio conferencing software on a Windows 8 guest operating system caused a severe echo during both video and audio calls.
  • * On the Windows 95 guest operating system, the mouse cursor jumped.
  • * Symbolic links created within a Windows guest operating system on a Linux host did not list files under subdirectories.
  • * 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.
  • * Under specific conditions, when the alipaybsm.exe file was installed on the Workstation host, network service was disrupted.
  • * 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.
  • * Reverting to a snapshot failed following a specific set of steps.
  • * A Windows 10 guest operating system running idly caused Workstation to crash.
  • * Using the Easy Install option to install the Ubuntu 14.04 or Ubuntu 15.04 guest operating system failed to install VMware Tools.
    • 12.0.024 Aug 2015The following features have reached end of life in Workstation 12 Pro and have been removed:
  • Unity mode on Linux guest and host operating systems
  • Virtual Debugger Visual Studio
  • Connection to the VMware vCloud Air subscription service
    • Added support for, amongst other things:
    • Later operating system versions, including Windows 10
    • DirectX 10 and OpenGL 3.3
    • IPv6 NAT
    12.0.129 Oct 2015Maintenance release that resolves some issues.
    12.1.08 Dec 2015Maintenance release that resolves some issues.
    12.1.121 Apr 2016Maintenance release that resolves some issues.
    12.513 Sep 2016
  • The announced release date of 8 Sep 2016 was missed due to
  • Compatible with Windows 10 Anniversary Edition
    • 12.5.127 Oct 2016Bug fixes, security updates for undisclosed vulnerabilities and performance improvements.
    12.5.213 Nov 2016This release of VMware Workstation 12 Pro addresses an out-of-bounds memory access vulnerability related to the drag-and-drop feature. This may allow a guest to execute code on the operating system that runs VMware Workstation 12 Pro.
    12.5.39 Mar 2017Bug fixes, security updates, and performance improvements.
  • Workstation Pro fails to launch on a Linux platform that uses kernel 4.9.0
  • Occasionally, the Workstation Pro user interface crashes in Workstation 12 Pro version 12.5 and displays an error
  • When you use a USB device that does not follow USB specifications in a virtual machine in USB passthrough mode, the guest becomes unusable
  • You cannot connect a parallel port to a virtual machine
  • Connecting an Active Braille device to the virtual machines fails
  • After users execute Active FTP in the guest operating system, the vmnat.exe process continues to use a TCP port of the host
  • ThinPrint technology does not work in a Windows XP guest operating system with VMware Tools 10.0.10
  • VMware Tools service is not started in Ubuntu 16.10 guest
  • You cannot use shared folders in a Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7.3 virtual machine
    • 12.5.414 Mar 2017This release addresses an out-of-bounds memory access vulnerability related to the drag-and-drop feature. This vulnerability might allow a guest to execute code on the operating system that runs VMware Workstation 12 Pro.
    12.5.528 Mar 2017This release of VMware Workstation Pro addresses the following issues:
  • VMware Workstation Pro has a heap buffer overflow and uninitialized stack memory usage in SVGA. These issues might allow a guest virtual machine to execute code on the host. The Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures project has assigned the identifiers and to these issues.
  • The VMware Workstation Pro XHCI driver has uninitialized memory usage. This issue might allow a guest virtual machine to execute code on the host. The Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures project has assigned the identifier to this issue.
  • VMware Workstation Pro has uninitialized memory usage. This issue might lead to an information leak. The Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures project has assigned the identifier to this issue.
    • 12.5.618 May 2017This release includes the following highlights:
  • Day 0 support of the Windows 10 Creators Update
  • Bug fixes and security updates
    • 12.5.722 Jun 2017This release of VMware Workstation Pro includes some bug fixes and security updates.
    12.5.816 Nov 2017
  • VMware Workstation 12 Pro Version 12.5.8 has been updated to OpenSSL library version openssl-1.0.2l.
    • Support has been added for the following operating systems:
    • RHEL 7.4
    • Oracle Linux 7.3
    12.5.910 Jan 2018
  • 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 .
    • 1426 Sep 2017This major version release includes the following highlights:
  • Updated to support the newest versions of Microsoft Windows 10, and Windows Server editions, as well as various Linux distributions
  • Updated support for the latest Intel and AMD processors and limited or no support for pre-2011 CPUs
  • Improved virtual firmware support, such as UEFI, and new Secure Boot support
  • Support for Virtualization Based Security
  • Improved Virtual Networking
  • New and improved support and controls for working with vSphere and the vCenter Server Appliance
  • Network latency simulator
  • New remote vSphere controls
    • 14.1.021 Dec 2017
  • This release delivers improved guest support of Windows 10 Fall Creators Update
  • Includes VMware Tools 10.2.0
    • 14.1.19 Jan 2018
  • 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 .
    • 14.1.221 May 2018
  • This update delivers guest access to the SSBD feature in IA32_SPEC_CTRL.
    • 14.1.314 Aug 2018
  • This version has been updated to OpenSSL library version openssl-1.0.2o.
    • 1524 Sep 2018This major version release includes the following highlights:
  • Updated to support the newest versions of Microsoft Windows 10 as well as various Linux distributions
  • This version enables support for 4K resolution.
  • This version enables support for DirectX 10.1.
  • This version raises the limitation of shared graphics memory to 3GB.
  • This version adds a new RESTful API to automate common virtual machine tasks using standard JSON over HTTP/HTTPS.
  • This version adds new Hosts and Clusters view when connect to remote vSphere.
  • This version enables feature for USB devices to connect automatically to a powered on virtual machine.
  • This version enables support for SSH login to Linux virtual machine.
  • This version enables stretch guest display feature.
  • This version enables support for Wayland protocol.
  • This version improves performance for virtual NVMe storage.
    • 15.0.19 Nov 2018
  • This version adds support for the newest versions of various Linux distributions.
  • Bug fixes and security updates.
    • 15.0.222 Nov 2018
  • Updated to support the newest versions of Microsoft Windows 10 and Windows Server 2019.
  • Bug fixes and security updates.
    • 15.0.314 Mar 2019
  • Bug fixes and security updates. OpenSSL library updated to version 1.0.2q. libxml2 library updated to version 2.9.9.
    • 15.0.429 Mar 2019
  • Bug fixes and security updates.
    • 15.1.014 May 2019
  • This version adds support for new guest operating systems
  • * The newest versions of Microsoft Windows 10
  • * Ubuntu 19.04
  • * RHEL 8
  • * Fedora 30
  • * VMware ESXi 6.7 Update 2
  • This version is updated to support stretch guest display for all guests running on Windows hosts.
  • Bug fixes and security updates.
    • 15.5.019 Sep 2019
  • This version adds support for new guest operating systems
  • * The newest versions of Microsoft Windows 10
  • * Debian 9.11 & 10
  • * Oracle Linux 8.0
  • * SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 15 SP1
  • * FreeBSD 12.0
  • * PhotonOS 3.0
  • Adds support for virtual networks with configurable MTU up to 9 000 bytes
  • Is able to save network settings after upgrades and to import and export network configurations.
  • Adds support for VMware Paravirtual SCSI Controllers.
  • Open Virtual Machine Tools, previously known as VMWare Tools, are made default for applicable Linux guests.
  • Bug fixes and security updates.
    • 15.5.112 Nov 2019
  • Bug fixes and security updates.
    • 15.5.2 Pro12 Mar 2020
  • Bug fixes and security updates.
    • 15.5.5 Pro28 May 2020
  • VMware Workstation 15.5.5 now runs on Windows hosts with Hyper-V features enabled.
  • This version adds support for new guest operating systems
  • * Windows 10 20H1
  • *Ubuntu 20.04
  • *Fedora 32
  • Bug fixes and security updates
    • 15.5.6 Pro9 Jun 2020
  • Bug fixes and security updates

    • Host OS support


    Operating systemWorkstation release
    Windows Server 201915.5 and later
    Windows Server 201614.0 and later
    Windows Server 2012 R210.0 and later
    Windows Server 20129.0-14
    Windows 10 May 2020 Update 15.5.5 and later
    Windows 10 November 2019 Update 14.1.8 and later
    Windows 10 May 2019 Update 15.1.0 and later
    Windows 10 October 2018 Update 15.0.2 and later
    Windows 8.110.0 and later
    Linux distributionsVaries


    Operating systemWorkstation release
    Windows Server 2008 R28.0 and later
    Windows Server 20086.0–10.0
    Windows Server 2003 R26.0–10.0
    Windows Server 20034.0–10.0
    Windows 10 April 2018 Update 14.0 and later
    Windows 10 Fall Creators Update 15.0 and later
    Windows 10 Creators Update 15.0 and later
    Windows 10 Anniversary Update 12.5
    Windows 10 Version 1507 and November Update 11.0
    Windows 89.0-14.0
    Windows 77.1 and later
    Windows Vista6.0–10.0
    Windows XP3.0–10.0
    Windows 20002.0–6.5
    Windows NT 4.01.0–4.5

    Variants

    There was a free VMware Player distinct from Workstation, with similar but reduced functionality, until VMware Player v7, Workstation v11. In 2015 the two packages were combined as VMware Workstation 12, with a free VMware Workstation Player version which, on purchase of a license code, became the higher specification VMware Workstation Pro. VMware Workstation Player, like VMware Player before it, is free of charge for non-commercial use, or for distribution or other use by written agreement.
    The features of the versions are compared on the VMware web site.

    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 v10.1.15 in September 2017. It has several components, including the following:

    Ready-to-use virtual machines

    Many ready-made virtual machines which run on VMware Player, Workstation, and other virtualization software are available for specific purposes, either for purchase or free of charge; for example free Linux-based "browser appliances" with the Firefox or other browser installed which can be used for safe Web browsing; if infected or damaged it can be discarded and replaced by a clean copy. The appliance can be configured to automatically reset itself after each use so personal information and other changes are not stored. VMs distributed legally only have freely distributable operating systems, 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