Create virtual servers to run various operating systems in a safe environment for testing, updating, developing code and other modifications. The suite supports desktop virtualization, tablet transfer and virtual networking and network condition simulation.
VMware is the leading product in desktop virtualization. It acts as a virtual computer, in which you can install any operating system of your choice. Apart from testing a new OS before installing it into the actual PC, you can use this program to do any work that you think may damage your actual system, like hacking, trying out viruses, etc.
One of its most notable features is the drag and drop functionality, which allows you to copy files directly from the virtual OS to the host OS or vice versa. But while files are being copied, you can't use your PC at all.
In addition, to get this feature you should install the VMware tools program into your computer. This set of tools helps you better integrate the VMware client into the host OS. You can also create a virtual network with some virtual clients and the host. NAT, bridged connection, etc. can be easily set up too.
VMware Workstation 7.0 includes a lot more features than the previous versions. In this version the networking functionality and the support for new operating systems have been greatly improved .
Additionally, VMware Player is included in this package. This add-on is very useful, if you want to run multiple operating systems at the same time on your computer such as Windows 7, Chrome OS or the latest Linux. The player also can run an older version of your OS.
One of the newest features included in the player is the "unity mode", which allows to run some virtual applications from the task bar of the host OS. This mode is somewhat slow, but it doesn't cause any problems with any operating system, except for Linux. If you enable "Show position of pointer when the Control key is pressed" option in System > Preferences > Mouse in this OS, the mode might not work correctly.
I really like the VMware Workstation program. It is a suitable tool not only for the professional programmers, but also for every user who is fun of searching for a lot of programs on the net and testing them out.
v16.0.0.54117 [Jan 28, 2020]
- Container and Kubernetes Support:
- Build/run/pull/push container images using the vctl CLI.
- Supports KIND kubernetes clusters running on top of Workstation Pro.
Note: Windows 10 1809 or higher is required
- New Guest Operating System Support:
- RHEL 8.2
- Debian 10.5
- Fedora 32
- CentOS 8.2
- SLE 15 SP2 GA
- FreeBSD 11.4
- ESXi 7.0
- Support for DirectX 11 and OpenGL 4.1 in the Guest:
- Hardware Requirements:
- For Windows hosts, a GPU that supports DirectX 11.0 is required.
- For Linux hosts, a NVIDIA GPU is required.
- Software Requirements:
- Host Operating System (64-bit):
- Windows 8 or higher
- GNU/Linux with NVIDIA drivers that support OpenGL 4.5 and above
- Guest Operating System
- Windows 7 or higher
- GNU/Linux with vmwgfx
- Vulkan Render Support for Linux Workstation
Workstation 16 Pro enables 3D support for Intel GPUs on Linux host to deliver DirectX 10.1 and OpenGL 3.3 to VMs using Vulkan renderer.
- Sandboxed Graphics
Virtual machine security is enhanced by removing graphics render from vmx and running it as a separate sandbox process.
- USB 3.1 Controller Support
The virtual machines virtual XHCI controller is changed from USB 3.0 to USB 3.1 to support 10 Gbps.
- Larger VM
- 32 virtual CPUs
- 128 GB virtual memory
Note: Running virtual machines with 32 vCPUs requires that your host and guest operating systems both support 32 logical processors.
- 8 GB virtual graphics memory
- Dark Mode
Workstation 16 Pro supports Dark Mode for optimized user experience.
Note: Requires host operating systems to be Windows 10 1809 or higher
- vSphere 7.0 Support
In Workstation 16 you can perform the following:
- Connect to vSphere 7.0.
- Upload a local virtual machine to vSphere 7.0.
- Download a remote virtual machine running on vSphere 7.0 to the local desktop.
- Performance Improvements
- Improved file transfer speeds (Drag and Drop, Copy and Paste)
- Improved virtual machine shutdown time.
- Improved virtual NVMe storage performance.
- Improved Accessibility Support
Accessibility improvements have been added so Workstation Pro is compliant with WCAG 2.1 criteria.
Product Support Notices
- Removal of Shared VM feature
Shared virtual machines (Workstation as server) has reached end of life and been removed from VMware Workstation 16.
- Removal of restricted virtual machines
Restricted virtual machine has reached end of life and been removed from VMware Workstation 16.
Important Fixes
This release of VMware Workstation addresses the following issues:
- Workstation addresses multiple out-of-bounds read vulnerabilities in Cortado Thinprint component. The Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures project (cve.mitre.org) has assigned the identifiers CVE-2020-3986, CVE-2020-3987, and CVE-2020-3988 to these issues. For more information, see VMSA-2020-0020.
- Workstation addresses a denial of service vulnerability due to an out-of-bounds write issue in Cortado Thinprint component. The Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures project (cve.mitre.org) has assigned the identifier CVE-2020-3989 to this issue. For more information, see VMSA-2020-0020.
- Workstation addresses an information disclosure vulnerability due to an integer overflow issue in Cortado Thinprint component. The Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures project (cve.mitre.org) has assigned the identifier CVE-2020-3990 to this issue. For more information, see VMSA-2020-0020.
Resolved Issues
- After priority.ungrabbed = "low" is set in the virtual machine configuration file, the priority of vmware-vmx process shows as Normal, when checked on the Host Task manager
This setting has always worked until Workstation Pro 15.5 was released, however with the 15.5.5 release the status of the process stays at Normal.
This issue is now resolved.
- A Windows XP x64 virtual machine freezes during boot, when Workstation is running on Win10 host with Hyper-V Enabled
MSFT has bugs in APIC virtualization that block WinXP SP2 boot process.
This issue is now resolved.
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