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VMware Workstation 5.0

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Product Overview

Thank you for choosing VMwareŽ Workstation, the powerful virtual machine software for enterprise IT professionals.

VMware Workstation is desktop software for developers and IT professionals that allows you to run multiple x86-based desktop and server operating systems simultaneously on a single PC, in fully networked, portable virtual machines — with no rebooting or hard drive partitioning required.

With VMware Workstation, you spend less time procuring and configuring, and more time testing and deploying. Over three million software development, quality assurance, and IT professionals worldwide find VMware Workstation an indispensable tool.

VMware Workstation Is Ideal for:

  • Streamlining software development and testing
  • Enhancing enterprise IT productivity
  • Facilitating team collaboration among software developers and IT professionals
  • Help desk and technical support
  • Computer-based training and software sales demos
  • Reducing hardware costs

    • Overview of This Manual

    If you're a veteran user of VMware products, take a few minutes to see What's New in Version 5, and check out Upgrading VMware Workstation.

    If you're new to VMware Workstation, this is the place to start.

  • The first chapters of this manual — through Running VMware Workstation — introduce you to some of the things you can do with VMware Workstation and guide you through the key steps for installing the software and putting it to work.
  • Later chapters provide in-depth reference material for getting the most out of the sophisticated features of VMware Workstation.

    • About the Host and Guest Computers

    The terms host and guest describe your physical and virtual machines:

  • The physical computer on which you install the VMware Workstation software is called the host computer, and its operating system is called the host operating system.
  • The operating system running inside a virtual machine is called a guest operating system.
  • For definitions of these and other special terms, see Glossary.

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