VMware Workstation Player

Score9.9 out of 10

31 Reviews and Ratings

Community insights

TrustRadius Insights for VMware Workstation Player are summaries of user sentiment data from TrustRadius reviews and, when necessary, third party data sources.

Pros

Easy to use: Many users have found VMware Player to be easy to use and beginner-friendly. They appreciate the intuitive interface that makes it easy to navigate and operate the software.

Wide variety of operating systems supported: Reviewers have mentioned that they appreciate the fact that VMware Player supports a wide variety of operating systems. This allows them to create virtual machines of different OSes on different host machines, providing flexibility and convenience.

Seamless performance: Several users have praised VMware Player for its seamless performance. They mention that the program works smoothly with other applications, ensuring smooth performance even when running a virtual machine.

Reviews

9 Reviews

VMware Workstation Player is solid

Rating: 6 out of 10

March 29, 2022

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

I use VMware Workstation Player to run virtual machines on Windows or Linux PCs. I can easily run multiple operating systems as virtual machines on my Windows or Linux PCs.

Pros

Create VM of Linux OSes on my WIndows machine.
Create VM of Windows OSes on my Linux machine.
Create VM of WIndows OSes on my MAC.

Cons

Easier use with MAC machines.
Support for x32 computers.
Easier sharing of host physical drives and usb devices.

Likelihood to Recommend

I think Vmware Workstation Player is great for test, dev environments allowing you to easily spin up virtual machines on a number of OSes. It is not as well suited for large enterprise environments as there are other more robust solutions from VMware that would work better. If you want to spend little or nothing this is your solution.

Verified User

Administrator in Information Technology (501-1000 employees)

Vetted Review

10 years of experience

VMware Workstation ability to create easy VM environment

Rating: 9 out of 10

January 5, 2022

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

I have been using this VM ware for virtual machines and it appears to be working well.

Pros

easy to load new VM
VM works seamlessly with other applications
works very well
Good software

Cons

Documentation could be more robust
Needs higher technological knowledge than most users
can be very expensive

Likelihood to Recommend

very good

steven mikutel

Information Technology Auditor in Information Technology at Medicareinsurance.com (201-500 employees)

Vetted Review

2 years of experience

Virtual machine management "on the go"

Rating: 8 out of 10

Incentivized

May 13, 2021

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

WMware Player is a great little and handy tool to use VMs locally or to install, handle and manage VMs on your laptop, workstation, and so on. It enables you to change settings or to install, as an example, a test machine in your environment without touching or affecting production machines and their settings.

Pros

Small installation footprint.
Easy to install and manage.
You have a small virtual environment "to-go".

Cons

All depends on the power of your workstation.
Network management can sometimes be tricky.

Likelihood to Recommend

Mange, transfer, test, change, [and] install virtual machines in different locations and environments. With a laptop you can take parts of your environment with you to test and develop. You can easily create a copy or clone of a VM to test out things without affecting the production environment or network.

Verified User

Administrator in Information Technology (201-500 employees)

Vetted Review

2 years of experience

VMware Workstation Player for all your OS sandboxing needs

Rating: 8 out of 10

Incentivized

April 8, 2019

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

It is probably used more heavily in other groups (like for software testing and QA for example). In my case, I've used it mainly to run virtual machines that were built and shared. More specifically SAS University which is a free "light" version of SAS base. So I was using it as a form of software visualization tool where it allowed me to run a program that wasn't installed on my machine but rather "emulated". However, I know that this kind of tool and this one also, in particular, are very often used as sandboxes to test software installs and overall behavior.
You can install a piece of software on one of your virtual machines, do all sorts of testing and then if you must, restore the initial state at the click of a button.

Pros

Overall performance is great, the program feels light (and should be) when running a virtual machine.
The interface is really user friendly and you quickly get the hang of it.
Ability to go full screen is also really convenient but make sure to remember how to leave full screen!

Cons

Managing the VMs is not really handled (unless I used it wrong). If you have just a few VM available it's ok but keep in mind that you can't really regroup them. Using a naming convention is an easy way around the problem though.
I had occurrences where my VM was corrupted and the error message was mentioning the possibility of restoring the state but stating that it could corrupt the VM itself. I had to do it a couple of times over the last year and a half and never got any problems but this warning always scared the heck out of me. I wish VMware would be able to provide some more details on why this thing happens every once in a while and how to avoid it.

Likelihood to Recommend

VMware will work great for the following test scenarios:

Testing windows updates on a system
Testing a new software or a new software version
Creating a sandbox to test options/features of an OS
Creating different VM to test a software on different OS without the need to have physical machines for all of them

You can also use it as a "player" only where you have that static VM that you run from time to time as with my use for SAS University. Whenever you need to use the software, you simply start that VM.

Verified User

Consultant in Information Technology (10,001+ employees)

Vetted Review

2 years of experience

Still a great workstation

Rating: 9 out of 10

Incentivized

July 21, 2016

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

It is a very user friendly interface that allows you to run multiple operating systems at the same time on your PC. Not having to reboot to switch between them is very convenient. It is easier to use VMware Player than installing them directly to your PC, as it would take much longer.

Pros

Ideal for testing new software
Can switch between OS without restarting
Supports 4k and multiple monitors

Likelihood to Recommend

Great way to test out different software or OS without having to install them directly to your PC. Switching between operating systems is fluid and easy, without the hassle of needing to restart. Great for quick developing or tweaking of minor settings without having to apply them directly to your PC using trial and error.

Tom Thomas

Student Lab Instructor (SLI) for Computer Science II at Rochester Institute of Technology (1001-5000 employees)

Vetted Review

2 years of experience

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VMware Player

Rating: 7 out of 10

Incentivized

June 6, 2016

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

I personally use VMware for many reasons such as being able to access Linux OS for my project or testing a program.

Pros

Free
Easy to use
Built-in DHCP service which is shared by all NATed VMs

Cons

No VM snapshot
No support for a virtual monitor
Limited cmd line interfance for managing
Can't be installed on OS - X

Likelihood to Recommend

If you can't afford VMware Fusion and are ok with limited features, this is excellent program to use and best of all, it's free!

Fareed Abolhassani

Information Technology Manager in Information Technology at rit (51-200 employees)

Vetted Review

6 years of experience

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Quick review of VMware Player

Rating: 3 out of 10

Incentivized

May 4, 2016

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

I have been using VMware Player for open source and software-defined development.
I use it for running open network operating system , distributed architecture . I had no issues
spawning the vm and running my setup on the virtual machine.

Pros

Easy to create VMs
Portable
Reliable

Cons

Licensing
Easy access to OS images
Networking connecting to internet

Likelihood to Recommend

VMware Player is appropriate for educational purposes. It needs to be more reliable for company development.

Neeranjan Deone

Senior Software Engineer in Engineering at Calix (501-1000 employees)

Vetted Review

6 years of experience

View profile

VMware Player used to support legacy applications, while keeping your system up to date

Rating: 8 out of 10

Incentivized

October 9, 2015

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

VMware Player has been used in multiple applications that address software compatibility issues and operating system compliance. With VMware Player we have been able to continue the use of legacy applications running on VMs of older OSs while maintaining an up to date host OS across our network.

Pros

VMware Player is easy to use.
VMware Player supports a wide variety operating systems.
Unity mode makes it easy for the end user to utilize needed legacy applications while maintaining their familiar Host OS desktop. It's seamless to the point where the end user doesn't know they're running applications from a VM.

Cons

As intended, VMware Player is capable of running a single VM at a time and you must be logged into the host machine in order to run the guest VMs. In order to run VMs without logging in and/or to run multiple VMs simultaneously requires VMware Workstation.

Likelihood to Recommend

VMware Player is well suited for a desktop end user who needs to run applications that require very specific settings or restrictions that would effect the host OS too greatly. For example if an application requires an old version of Java or an old browser to function then VMware Player is a better place to host a guest OS with those configurations. This way the host machine can still utilize a newer browser and Java version for safety and compliance while the VM can be used for compatibility and access.

Jeremy Kendzierski

Senior Systems Administrator in Information Technology at MNX Global Logistics (201-500 employees)

Vetted Review

2 years of experience

Players gonna play

Rating: 8 out of 10

Incentivized

October 7, 2015

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

I used VMWare Player to give myself an introduction to virtualization. It allows you to get your feet wet without committing money to a paid product, such as VMware Workstation or VMware Fusion. The features are limited, but as a beginner, you will be mainly concerned with the creation and maintenance of basic VMs, which is doable with VMware Player.

Pros

Allows beginners to experience virtualization
Simple to use
Lightweight

Cons

Would be nice to use more VMs at once, but this is basically trial software, so it's hard to fault them.

Likelihood to Recommend

Better suited for personal use, more-than-likely in an academic environment. For business you're better off with a paid product such as VMware Workstation or VMware Fusion. The Pro version of VMware Player may be a better choice for some, but again you're committing to purchasing and may as well go with Workstation/Fusion at that point.

Stephen Demsky

IT Engineer in Information Technology at Fluid IT Services (11-50 employees)

Vetted Review

2 years of experience

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VMware Workstation Player for all your OS sandboxing needs

Rating: 8 out of 10

Incentivized

April 8, 2019

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

Pros

Overall performance is great, the program feels light (and should be) when running a virtual machine.
The interface is really user friendly and you quickly get the hang of it.
Ability to go full screen is also really convenient but make sure to remember how to leave full screen!

Cons

Managing the VMs is not really handled (unless I used it wrong). If you have just a few VM available it's ok but keep in mind that you can't really regroup them. Using a naming convention is an easy way around the problem though.
I had occurrences where my VM was corrupted and the error message was mentioning the possibility of restoring the state but stating that it could corrupt the VM itself. I had to do it a couple of times over the last year and a half and never got any problems but this warning always scared the heck out of me. I wish VMware would be able to provide some more details on why this thing happens every once in a while and how to avoid it.

Likelihood to Recommend

VMware will work great for the following test scenarios:

Testing windows updates on a system
Testing a new software or a new software version
Creating a sandbox to test options/features of an OS
Creating different VM to test a software on different OS without the need to have physical machines for all of them

You can also use it as a "player" only where you have that static VM that you run from time to time as with my use for SAS University. Whenever you need to use the software, you simply start that VM.

Verified User

Consultant in Information Technology (10,001+ employees)

Vetted Review

2 years of experience