VMware Workstation Zealot

Official blog of VMware Workstation

Category Archives: VMware Player

We’re Giving Away 20 Oculus Rift Headsets. Want One?

Yes, you read that right. Twenty virtual reality headsets. Wow.

Of course, writing to me and asking for one won’t cut it; you have to work a little harder than that.

PlayerPro is one amazing hypervisor

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Type 2 hypervisors are cool.

If you’re looking at the ones from VMware (Workstation, Player Pro, Fusion Pro & Fusion) then you should know that the core technology in those is not only the same, but it’s the same as in vSphere – the solution that powers many of the world’s most in-demand and high performance data centers.

Why should you care about that? Because it means that the care and attention to detail that drives billions of seamless internet transactions every day is available to work for you should you need to run Linux on your Windows, Windows on your Windows, or just about anything else you can think of.

In this demo I thought I’d be crazy and see how far I could push them. While it certainly wasn’t without its scary moments, I hit no walls, encountered no unrecoverable errors, and barely even caused the iMac’s fan to spin. I’m using a combination of Fusion Pro and Player Pro.

The only reason I stopped at 25 was that it was taking too much time to build all those operating systems – I have a day job according to my boss.

Here’s the 25 nested OS’s you can see in the video running ALL AT THE SAME TIME on a late-2014 27” iMac with 32Gb RAM, 4GHz Intel i7.

Windows 10 Pro Technical Preview
Windows 8.1 Enterprise N
Windows 7 Enterprise N
Windows Vista Business
Windows XP SP2
Windows 2000 SP2
Windows 98
Windows 95
Windows NT 4 SP6
Windows 3.1
OS/X 10.11 El Capitan
OS/X 10.10 Yosemite
OS/X 10.9 Mavericks
OS/X 10.8 Mountain Lion
OS/X 10.7 Lion
OS/X 10.6 Snow Leopard Server
OS/X 10.5 Leopard Server
Ubuntu 14.04 LTS
Debian 8.1 (Jessie)
Red Hat Enterprise Linux Workstation 7.1 (maipo)
openSUSE 13.2 (harlequin)
Fedora 22
Zorin OS 9 (trusty)
OS/2 Warp v4
Android 4.4.2 (kitkat)

Clearly, if you try this yourself don’t phone support. They’ll be impressed but I doubt they help you. This was fun. I wonder what I can do next?

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Thanks for watching.

VMware Workstation 11 and Player 7 Update Now Available

A new update is available for VMware Workstation 11 and Player 7 Pro. The new update included fixes for Workstation 11 and Player 7 in addition to new features in Workstation 11.

What’s New for Workstation 11.1.0

This specific release of Workstation 11 adds support for VMware vCloud Air Virtual Private Cloud OnDemand and includes bug fixes.

About Virtual Private Cloud OnDemand:

Virtual Private Cloud OnDemand is a secure, pay-as-you-go, cloud computing service offered by VMware that gives IT organizations a VMware compatible platform to create virtual machines, dynamically scale virtual machines and resources up or down, and pay for resources allocated.

Virtual Private Cloud OnDemand provides on-demand resources with granular metering and usage-based billing.
Resources are pool-based, allowing deployment of virtual machines with customized configurations.
Costs are billed monthly only for the aggregate amount of resources consumed across all of your virtual machines.
On-demand resources complement the subscription services for vCloud Air.

Note: VMware vCloud Air connection features are only available in VMware Workstation 11 and requires a subscription/account to VMware vCloud Air. More information on VMware vCloud Air services is available HERE.

VMware Workstation 11.1.0

VMware Workstation 11.1.0 is a maintenance release that is a free update for all VMware Workstation 11.x customers. Read the Release Notes for more details.

VMware Player Pro 7.1.0

VMware Player 7.1.0 is a maintenance release that is a free update for all VMware Player 7.x customers. Read the Release Notes for more details.

How to get the updates

VMware Workstation 11 will prompt you to download the update the next time you run it. You can manually check for the update from the “Help” -> “Software Updates” menu item.

VMware Player 7 will prompt you to download the update the next time you run it. You can manually check for the update from the “Player” -> “Help” -> “Software Updates” menu item.

PLEASE NOTE: VMware Workstation 11 includes a copy of VMware Player 7 for commercial use. If you have VMware Workstation 11 you do not need to download VMware Player 7 separately since it is included in the VMware Workstation 11 download.

Many thanks to the Workstation 11 and Player 7 customers reporting these issues to Workstation Support and discussing them with the VMware Workstation Community.

VMware Workstation 11 and Player 7 Pro Now Available WorldWide!

We’re pleased and excited to announce the worldwide General Availability of VMware Workstation 11 and VMware Player 7 Pro.

VMware Workstation 11

VMware Workstation™ 11 continues VMware’s tradition of delivering leading edge features and performance that technical professionals rely on every day when working with virtual machines. With support for the latest version of Windows and Linux, the latest processors and hardware, and the ability to connect to VMware vCloud Air, it’s the perfect tool to increase productivity, save time and conquer the cloud.

Key Features Include:

Unmatched OS Support – VMware Workstation delivers unsurpassed platform compatibility for hundreds of operating systems. Workstation 11 fully supports the latest Microsoft operating systems, from the Windows 8.1 update for the desktop to Windows 2012 R2 for the server. For organizations and technical users that run the latest Linux distribution, Workstation 11 supports Ubuntu 14.10, RHEL 7, CentOS 7, OpenSUSE 13.2 and many more.

Ready for Windows 10 Technical Preview – Workstation makes it really easy to evaluate new operating systems, test software applications and patches, and reference architectures in an isolated and safe virtual environment. Leverage Workstation’s Snapshot feature to preserves the state of a virtual machine so you can return to a known good state or prior preview build at any time.

State of the Art Performance – VMware Workstation supports the latest Intel 64-bit x86 processors, including the new Haswell microarchitecture for maximum performance. Taking advantage of key new Haswell extensions, the solution also delivers up to 45 percent improvement in CPU intensive operations like multimedia and encryption/decryption compared to Workstation 10.

WS11-Features-Page---Support for the Latest Processors - Rev

Powerful Virtual Machines and Graphics – Create virtual machines with up to 16 vCPUs, 8 TB virtual disks, 64 GB memory, and now 2GB video memory. Graphics-intensive applications can now be given an additional boost by allocating up to 2 GB of video memory per virtual machine.

Connection to VMware vCloud Air – Connect to VMware vCloud Air to extend and scale virtual machines on a public cloud. Developers can easily connect to VMware vCloud Air and upload, run, and view virtual machines right from the Workstation interface to easily collaborate with remote team members and scale through a public cloud.

Read the VMware Workstation 11 Release Notes for a complete list of new features and updates.

VMware Player 7 Pro

VMware Player 7 Pro™ is a streamlined desktop virtualization application that runs multiple operating systems on the same computer without rebooting. With its simple user interface, unmatched operating system support and portability, it’s now easier than ever for IT professionals to get their users up and running with a corporate desktop. Player 7 Pro is licensed for commercial use and is enabled to run restricted virtual machines created by VMware Workstation 11 and Fusion® Pro 7.

Key Features Include:

Enhanced Operating System Compatibility – VMware Player 7 Pro will run on the latest release of Windows including Windows 8.1 and will support prevalent operating systems like Windows XP and Windows 7 in a virtual environment so users can continue to run legacy applications as long as they need.
Greater Hardware Compatibility – VMware Player 7 Pro will be optimized to run on today’s modern hardware including the latest PC laptops and high-resolution tablets.
Updated VMware Compatibility – VMware Player 7 Pro will be able to run restricted virtual machines created by VMware Workstation 11 or VMware Fusion 7 Pro. Restricted virtual machines secure corporate desktops with encryption, runtime password protection, USB access restriction, isolation between the host and guest OS, and time limitation.

Read the VMware Player 7 Pro Release Notes for a complete list of new features and updates.

New System Requirements

While 32 bit operating systems are supported inside virtual machines, VMware Workstation 11 and Player 7 Pro require 64 bit processor and 64 bit host operating systems for advanced computing and enhanced performance.

Availability and Pricing

VMware Workstation 11 and VMware Player 7 Pro are available immediately for purchase and download from http://www.vmware.com for $249.99 and $149.99 respectively.

Upgrades from VMware Workstation 9.x and 10.x to Workstation 11 are priced at $149.99 and upgrades from VMware Player 6 Plus to VMware Player 7 Pro are priced at $79.99. VMware Workstation 11 and Player 7 Pro are also available via VMware channel partners.

Customers who purchased VMware Workstation 10 and VMware Player 6 Plus between October 2014 and December 2014 will receive a free electronic upgrade to VMware Workstation 11 and VMware Player 7 Pro respectively. For more details, visit the Workstation 11 upgrade page and the Player 7 Pro upgrade page.

We hope you enjoy using VMware Workstation 11 and Player 7 Pro as much as we enjoyed creating it.

– The VMware Workstation Team