Likelihood to Recommend VMware is well suited to a business where there will be many remote users needing to connect to the companies desktop. The installation on a remote computer is simple and is easy to use remotely but can be complicated to set up on the back end on the office system. It may not be worth the effort for a company that has few people who need remote access.
Read full review I would not recommend using a VM as a complete replacement for your everyday driver, but I would recommend it for testing. One way that I use Workstation Pro is with testing GPO's. I can make a change to a user or computer GPO, take a snapshot, reboot the computer to pull the GPO, see if it worked. If it didn't, I revert to the last snapshot before the GPO was pulled, make some changes to the GPO again, and test on the test VM. The same style of testing can be used with creating and changing scripts for computer changes. We have a whole computer setup script that installs software and changes a ton of settings. On a VM you can test over and over to make sure the script runs how you want it to and revert if you didn't like the script outcome. Especially handy with software installs, so you don't have to wait for a program to uninstall and then edit the script and run the script again. Using snapshots save me so much time in testing!
Read full review Pros It provides a robust, secure, rich desktop environment that is able to access all internal network resources. Addresses security and compliance concerns as all data resides within the internal network. All data accessed stays within the internal network and does not need to traverse a VPN to the local desktop where it may be cached, etc. The connection is thin client that does not require large amount of bandwidth. Client application is available for all common devices and O/S’s. No need to install, configure and maintain applications on local desktop. Read full review It provides a great remote access tool for accessing and managing servers in virtual environment. With the security risks surround remote desktop this provides a good alternative to do the same functions. The app itself is very lightweight and easy to install/maintain. Sandbox testing can be a time consuming thing to setup and do. Workstation makes this easy to create, use, and put away. This make you more willing to put new things in the sandbox and test them before production usage. The cost of workstation is very affordable for the functionality that you get and you can try it for free before you buy it. We use it to run apps that can be difficult to setup or conflict with other apps. We just spin this app VM up run it, and then shut it back down. The startup and shutdown is very quick. Read full review Cons Move away from Adobe Flash version in UI, currently on the path but they need to hurry up Speed up the boot process of the environment when servers need maintenance Provide clear steps on what should be upgrade path in terms of components, the order price! A bit too much Read full review At the moment, it's incompatible with Microsoft's HyperVM, which is used in Docker and the Linux Subsystem on Windows 2 (WSL 2). VMware shared files sometimes stop working and need to be reset. 3D support is limited to Windows and only certain scenarios. Read full review Likelihood to Renew We are committed to VMware Horizon and we plan to stick with it for the future unless something drastically changes.
Read full review It's a solid product, and if they make it compatible with HyperVM (WSL, Docker, etc.) it would be great
Read full review Usability VMware Horizon is very easy to use. It is very easy and quick to log in remotely. It is very easy to install remotely. It is usable easily on many different operating systems. It is easy to set up which tools are available to each remote user so that each user has just what they need to perform their work without any extra tools cluttering up their space or bogging down the system.
Read full review There are some settings that can only be done by editing the VMX file. However, that is easily done, and you can find examples on the internet easily.
Read full review Performance Performance is excellent of you provide the needed hardware to support the sessions/connections. Pages load very quickly at the client end as the thin client application does a very good job and requires very little bandwidth. All applications function well, as they are running on a session on an internal server that is accessing data directly on the network
Read full review Support Rating It is surely way better than Citrix, but it could improve a bit. Usually, they send us the solution without saying what was the root cause so we can avoid breaking something in the future. Besides that, VMWare support answers in an OK time-frame and even speaks our language (Portuguese).
Read full review I haven't had to call VMware Workstation support. The majority of the time, whenever I have a problem, I can perform an online search and find the answers I need. Online forums and users with similar situations are generally sufficient to answer any questions I have had, though, from previous experience at another company, their support is outstanding and responsive to circumstances. However, that is generally for a paid support contract and should be expected when you are paying for that support.
Read full review Alternatives Considered Although I really prefer Microsoft Remote Desktop for accessing Windows servers (from Windows machines especially), and this can be done from off-site with a VPN, this entails much more effort, namely getting everyone's Active Directory in the correct group to have access. VMWare Horizon is a much simpler solution in terms of granting access.
Chrome Remote Desktop and
TeamViewer are really not viable solutions for remotely accessing servers in business settings, although they work alright for home servers and such, especially from off-site.
Read full review VMware ESXi is more enterprise based whereas VMware Workstation offers capabilities at a lower cost and smaller scale. VMware Workstation Pro is also user friendly and easy to install. It can be utilized on a regular desktop system as the name implies. It helps with also demonstrations when needed to clients without having bulky hardware every time.
Read full review Return on Investment Saved money on PC purchases. Save a lot of man hours by not having to image new PCs. We just create one Template VM and clone the others from that. Bit of a learning curve to get the deployment right for the environment. Ability to make sure VMs always turn back on once they are shutdown. This speeds up load times for users. Less management for our PCs. If one gets a virus or something corrupts we just refresh it and within 5 minutes the user is back to work. Read full review When updating multiple VM's, this is a much quicker option vs trying to either RDP to them or console using Vcenter We are required to run a VM locally for certain tasks, and this has been the most effective way to use it The ability to manage a VM without having to worry about the console freezing up helps with management Read full review ScreenShots