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VMware Workstation Pro

VMware Workstation Pro

Overview

What is VMware Workstation Pro?

VMware Workstation Pro is virtualization software which allows running multiple x86-based operating systems on one PC. Users can run Windows, Linux and BSD virtual machines on a Windows or Linux desktop.

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Recent Reviews

TrustRadius Insights

VMware Workstation Pro provides a versatile solution for a range of use cases across different industries. For businesses, it offers a …
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Awards

Products that are considered exceptional by their customers based on a variety of criteria win TrustRadius awards. Learn more about the types of TrustRadius awards to make the best purchase decision. More about TrustRadius Awards

Popular Features

View all 5 features
  • Live virtual machine backup (20)
    9.5
    95%
  • Virtual machine automated provisioning (19)
    8.9
    89%
  • Management console (21)
    8.1
    81%
  • Live virtual machine migration (20)
    7.7
    77%

Reviewer Pros & Cons

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Pricing

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Unavailable

What is VMware Workstation Pro?

VMware Workstation Pro is virtualization software which allows running multiple x86-based operating systems on one PC. Users can run Windows, Linux and BSD virtual machines on a Windows or Linux desktop.

Entry-level set up fee?

  • No setup fee

Offerings

  • Free Trial
  • Free/Freemium Version
  • Premium Consulting/Integration Services

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What is IBM Cloud for VMware Solutions?

IBM Cloud for VMware Solutions is designed to make cloud adoption easier, allowing the user to optimize the value of existing on-premises infrastructure, while leveraging the same tools, technologies and skills in the cloud. The solution provides rapid scalability, deployment in 35+ global data…

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Product Demos

VmWare WorkStation Pro 15 Demo installation Procedure in Tamil

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VMware Workstation pro 16 Download new install windows 10

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How to access BIOS screen on VMware Workstation Pro

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VMWare 15 5 Demo

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VMware Workstation Pro 14 Crack Tutorial - Latest Version for Windows - free install

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VMware Workstation Pro v14.0.0 FULL Installation

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Features

Server Virtualization

Server virtualization allows multiple operating systems to be run completely independently on a single server

8.5
Avg 8.3
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Product Details

What is VMware Workstation Pro?

VMware Workstation Pro is virtualization software which allows running multiple x86-based operating systems on one PC. Users can run Windows, Linux and BSD virtual machines on a Windows or Linux desktop.

This enable users to build, test and demo software across an array of different devices, platforms and clouds. IT professionals, developers and businesses can use Workstation Pro every day to support their projects and customers. Workstation Pro makes it easy to run complex local virtual environments to simulate operating systems, platforms and clouds, all from the same desktop PC.

Workstation Pro Features

  • Virtual Machines - Uses the same hypervisor technology that powers vSphere to run virtual machines and guest operating systems.
  • High-Performance 3D Graphics - Provides a fluid and responsive experience for running 3D applications. Workstation Pro supports DirectX 11 and now OpenGL 4.3 in virtual machines.
  • Containers and Kubernetes Clusters - Developers on Windows have a new CLI tool, vctl, that can build and run containers and Kubernetes clusters with VM-level isolation and networking.
  • Virtual Networking - Supports complex IPv4 and IPv6 virtual networks for VMs, with added network latency and bandwidth simulations to help recreate real-world scenarios.

VMware Workstation Pro Technical Details

Operating SystemsUnspecified
Mobile ApplicationNo

Frequently Asked Questions

VMware Workstation Pro is virtualization software which allows running multiple x86-based operating systems on one PC. Users can run Windows, Linux and BSD virtual machines on a Windows or Linux desktop.

Reviewers rate Live virtual machine backup highest, with a score of 9.5.

The most common users of VMware Workstation Pro are from Mid-sized Companies (51-1,000 employees).
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Comparisons

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Reviews and Ratings

(89)

Community Insights

TrustRadius Insights are summaries of user sentiment data from TrustRadius reviews and, when necessary, 3rd-party data sources. Have feedback on this content? Let us know!

VMware Workstation Pro provides a versatile solution for a range of use cases across different industries. For businesses, it offers a secure environment to test software and ensure its safety by running it in a virtual setting with malware. This feature has been widely appreciated by users looking to safeguard their systems. Additionally, users leverage VMware Workstation Pro to deploy development web servers in Linux on Windows machines, enabling efficient software testing. The ability to easily simulate different networking conditions using the Network Editor feature is another valuable use case, as it allows users to test scenarios that would be difficult to replicate physically. IT operations teams rely on VMware Workstation Pro for running lab environments, conducting tests, and validating software solutions and updates. This capability has proven to be indispensable in minimizing risks and ensuring smooth transitions in production infrastructure changes. Furthermore, departments find value in VMware Workstation Pro for running Android applications by virtualizing the Android platform. The software's ability to virtualize old applications that require maintenance has provided an efficient solution compared to running them on outdated hardware. In addition, users appreciate being able to try new features, software, or system updates without encountering real problems through the use of VMware Workstation Pro. This feature has allowed for seamless experimentation and risk-free exploration of new technologies. Overall, from simulating and testing operating systems or production machines to managing virtual labs or supporting older software versions, VMware Workstation Pro serves as a reliable tool for diverse user needs. Its optimized performance, resource utilization capabilities, and flexibility have made it a popular choice among users across various sectors and fields.

Users recommend trying out Hyper-V first for minimal needs, but overall, they believe VMWare is the best hypervisor in its budget range. They find VMWare easier to use and more feature-rich than Oracle VM Virtual Box.

The most common recommendations from users include:

Using VMWare Workstation for testing new security features and bugs. Users find it slightly difficult to set up initially, but once configured appropriately, it becomes easy to use. Although VMWare Workstation Pro is expensive, it provides a rich virtual machine experience with customizable settings. Users suggest using it as a sandbox for testing applications or programs before installing them on the actual system.

Running multiple virtual machines on a single host machine and creating multiple environments. Users highly recommend VMWare Workstation for this purpose. It allows for easy rollbacks to previous instances of virtual machines and is beneficial for teams working on the same project globally. It is also valuable for IT professionals who need to test code or actions in a virtual environment before deploying to a live production environment.

Considering an upgrade to the new version of VMWare Workstation and utilizing features such as a user-friendly interface and RDP access point. Users suggest exploring the additional features available in the latest version of VMWare Workstation. They also recommend using one computer as an access point to remote desktop into multiple virtual machines. This allows for streamlined management of multiple VM containers in a business use case.

Overall, users highly recommend VMWare Workstation due to its ease of use, extensive features, and ability to create multiple environments efficiently.

Attribute Ratings

Reviews

(1-25 of 27)
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Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
  • It offers a safe working environment.
  • Fast and solution-oriented work.
  • It does very well creating temporary or virtual machines.
  • It creates safe areas for your new and testing projects.
  • I think the resource consumption is too much. Improvements can be made, especially in terms of CPU usage.
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
  • Testing Environment
  • Supports pretty much every OS
  • Networking options for VM's
  • Sometimes the networking setup can be a little confusing. Kind of wish there was a network map with the current setup with vSwitches and vNics which would make it easier to visually be able to see all network connections and what adapters they are running through.
  • There might be a reason, but I wish snapshots would run a little faster. I know when I snapshot a VM in vSphere it is almost instant. Again, there might be a reason behind why it takes so long compared to vSphere, just can get annoying waiting for it to complete before testing.
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
  • allow virtualization of physical system
  • creation of a wide range of virtual systems from linux to windows
  • adapting to your current networking
  • ability to virtualize with other software such as GNS3
  • as with the latest, option for shared vm
  • improved network configuration manager
  • improved compatibility with other virtual machine software
Johnson Martins | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
  • I like the easy to integrate the solution.
  • Functionalities on data migration is good.
  • Useful platform for the project time management.
  • Very easy platform but the interface is not that friendly to new user.
  • For those new providing productive data analytics for multiple data is challenging.
  • The performance on poor hardware machine is very poor.
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
  • Easy to install and use.
  • Doesn't lag even on extensive usage.
  • Probably the best tool for managing different virtual environments simultaneously.
  • Network setup could be tricky at times.
  • I didn't really find anything negative for my level of usage other than network issues.
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
  • Virtualize physical machines to test new updates.
  • Provide a controlled environment to try out new software without compromising your production system.
  • Great tool to try on new features or updates.
  • For my level of utilization I didn't find any feature that was missing.
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
  • It uses tabs to navigate between VM's when opened, which is great when updating multiple servers
  • The management for VM's stored locally works great
  • I like it's integration with Vcenter
  • It could use more monitoring features
  • They should rethink the licensing, such as having to pay for an upgrade right after purchasing
  • The version I'm on randomly freezes sometimes when launching, then works fine after a few minutes.
Tyler Twitchell | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
  • Create test systems to validate specific builds.
  • Allow for a separation of duties as well as keep network traffic segregated.
  • Some changes could be made to help with multi screen support.
  • VMware Workstation is difficult to span between different host OS (Windows vs Mac).
Nick Darnell | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
  • Not HTML based - Web applications are not always the best method to access VM's
  • Isolation - VM's can be pulled off production networks for testing in a safe environment
  • Operability - The interface mirrors the HTML format giving the user all of the features necessary to modify, access and manage VM's
  • Stability - The client will sometimes randomly crash
  • Consistency - I have run into issues where VM hardware can only be modified through vSphere so you must bounce back and fourth from time to time
Vlad VARNA | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
  • You can have different test machines on a single developer host.
  • It's almost as fast as a physical machine.
  • You can use snapshots to quickly experiment with new things and updates without worrying you will lose everything.
  • With the Network Editor, you can configure whole LANs, which would require a lot of effort and equipment to set up physically.
  • The VMX configuration file is easily editable for more advanced features.
  • 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.
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
  • 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.
  • It's not free? With all the money spent on a VMware environment, they could easily give this product away as a tool to use with the overarching products.
  • Initial licensing can be a bit of a challenge as with any VMware product.
  • We have never needed support as the product is very easy to use, but VMware as a company doesn't provide the greatest support.
  • As you read the three things above, you will notice that we really don't have any ideas on how to improve the product as it works very well over all.
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
  • VMware Workstation is very easy to use and learn. Little to no knowledge of virtual computing is needed to operate Workstation.
  • The price point is not that bad. While there are free solutions out there that provide simple and basic virtualization solutions, VMware Workstation is definitely worth the money. Also, they offer educational discounts.
  • While being easy to use it has advanced options, it can integrate into remote clouds as well.
  • The snapshots offered on Workstation is a great feature many of the free virtual tools do not have. This allows you to save a live state or dead state of a machine. Allowing immediate rollback or roll forward to points you've saved.
  • Making it easy to export VMS is something that Workstation struggles with; exporting to OVA which is the primary type of VM we export to is cumbersome and can be difficult without proper knowledge on how to do this.
  • Management of VMS could be a little bit more in depth.
  • I think the networking portion of Workstation could use some slight improvements, more in-depth segmentation to support containers, however, this is a small issue and not something many people will miss or need.
Stefan Trbojevic | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
  • Mounting and creating multiple images.
  • Creating restore point.
  • Managing your PC resources efficiently.
  • Multi-monitor setup can be a problem.
  • Some random problems with the mouse cursor not clicking where it should but on some other spot.
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
  • I love VMWare Workstation because it is software that is fairly easy to use. The most exciting use of VMware Workstation is that it allows anyone to create a virtual machine in order to prevent viruses.
  • Able to install any operating system you want quickly.
  • Able to customize the machine operating system with RAM, Hard Disk, CPU, etc.
  • Audio can be a bit on the laggy side.
  • Having to reboot for every update and VM reboots for VMtools updates.
Michael Timms | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
  • Extremely fast image creation.
  • VMware allows the user to boot into bios, unlike some other virtualization software.
  • Customer support is remarkable, always willing to assist with even the smallest issues.
  • VMware to me is a little too simplistic during setup, and this has led to me having to go back through and change some of the options afterward. This, however, is subjective.
  • Occasionally after an update, I have experienced freezing.
  • I have had issues when backing up a VM to another PC, I would get an error when I start the machine on the new PC.
February 08, 2018

A Perfect VM Manager

Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
  • immediate rollback speed with VM Snapshot
  • connection with VSphere
  • no risk of unwanted impacts
  • requires a minimum of system knowledge
  • different VMs running at the same time can use a lot of resources
  • the machine running VM Workstation must be very high performing
Bert Scalzo | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
  • Excellent tool for creating, running and sharing virtual machines
  • Straightforward and easy to create and manage numerous virtual machines of different types
  • Has the ability to deploy from VMware Workstation to the VMware corporate product - ESX
  • Better built in and automated support for keeping virtual machine file growth to a minimum without 3rd party tools user must download and install
  • A simple wizard for exporting a complete working VM from VMware Workstation to Oracle Virtual Box with minimal user effort and expertise
  • A simple wizard for importing a complete working VM from Oracle Virtual Box to VMware Workstation with minimal user effort and expertise
Evan Miller | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
  • Managing multiple virtual machines. I can have many virtual machines open and the resources it utilizes puts a minimum drain on hardware it is running on.
  • Snapshot management is great in this software. Being able to take snapshots before a major update or software install is great to rollback to when or if something goes wrong.
  • The interface for the software is pretty intuitive. Not a whole lot of things buried in menus that you have to dig around to find.
  • Don't have much negative to say about it. The GUI could maybe use a little more modernization but that's really pushing it.
Ulf Thornander | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
  • Network Connections.
  • Mounting images.
  • Smooth and easily configurable interaction with the host.
  • The networking part could benefit from a more visual view so you see what is connected to where.
  • Some sort of tool so you can easily understand what is causing slowdowns of your guest OS such as your hosts I/O or too little memory provisioned for the guest.
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