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Explore tailored solutions for your application framework, cloud infrastructure and security architecture.
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Students, parents, faculty and staff at qualifying academic institutions are eligible for discounts.
With nearly 20 years of active development, VMware Workstation Player builds from the same platform as VMware Workstation Pro and VMware vSphere, making it one of the most mature and stable solutions for local desktop virtualization. Safely and easily run a second operating system as a virtual machine (VM) on a single PC without affecting your main desktop environment and without rebooting.
The isolation and sandbox capabilities of VMware Workstation Player make it the perfect tool to help you learn about operating systems, applications and how they work. Being able to run a server environment on a desktop PC also allows you to explore software and application development in a “real world” environment without interfering with the host desktop.
With VMware Workstation Player, you can isolate corporate desktops from end-user owned devices by disabling copy-and-paste, drag-and-drop, shared folders and access to USB devices. Run restricted VMs that are encrypted and password-protected to ensure only authorized users can interact with corporate data.
Run a secure second desktop with different privacy settings, tools and networking configurations to keep your host system safe and secure while browsing online.
Today’s technology landscape is evolving at an incredible pace, and virtualization tools from VMware not only lead the pack but allow you to test this technology in a virtual sandbox on your existing PC. Students get a simple environment for exploring new operating systems, and faculty can distribute repeatable lab environments for classroom activity without the need for an internal cloud.
VMware Workstation Player allows businesses to embrace ‘Work from Anywhere’ by providing a corporate desktop image that can run managed or unmanaged on an end user’s laptop or desktop PC. Users get easy access to corporate desktops and apps, while IT admins get the ability to centrally manage and enforce security policies when used with VMware Workspace ONE.
VMware Workstation runs on standard x86-based hardware with 64-bit Intel and AMD processors, and on 64-bit Windows or Linux host operating systems. For more detail, see our System Requirements documentation.
System Requirements
General Host OS Requirements
VMware Workstation Pro and Player run on most 64-bit Windows or Linux host operating systems:
Note that Windows 7 hosts are no longer supported, Workstation 16 will not function on them.
Workstation Pro installation:
VMware Workstation 16 supports hundreds of 32-bit and 64-bit guest operating systems.
Here is a list of the most popular:
See the VMware Compatibility Guide for a complete list of supported host and guest operating systems.
CPU Requirements:
Host Operating Systems:
Minimum Requirements to Run Container Runtime on workstation Windows Host Operating Systems:
Minimum Requirements to Dark Theme support on Workstation Windows Host Operating Systems:
For 3D Hardware Accelerated Graphics Support:
Hardware Requirements:
Software Requirements:
64-bit Host Operating System:
Guest Operating System
*With exception, the following CPUs are not supported:
In addition, the following CPUs are supported:
For a complete list of supported host and guest the operating systems visit the VMware Compatibility Guide.
The easiest way to run multiple operating systems at once on a single PC.
The easiest way to run Windows on a Mac.
General |
Workstation Player |
Workstation Pro |
Create New VMs |
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Create Large VMs (32CPU, 128GB RAM) |
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Convert PC into a virtual machine |
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Mass Deployment |
Host Guest Integration |
Workstation Player |
Workstation Pro |
Host/Guest File Sharing |
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Shared/Mirrored Folders |
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One-Click SSH to Linux VM |
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Run VMs with Different View Modes |
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Unity View Mode (Windows guests only) |
Graphics |
Workstation Player |
Workstation Pro |
3D graphics with DX11 and OpenGL 4.1 support |
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Large Graphics Memory: 8GB |
Device Support |
Workstation Player |
Workstation Pro |
4K / 5K / Retina Display Support |
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Support a Wide Range of Virtual Devices |
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USB Smart Card Reader Support |
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USB 3.1 Device Support |
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Assistive Device Support (Section 508 Compliant) |
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Multi-Language Keyboard Support |
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Virtual Trusted Platform Module Device |
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Virtual NVMe Device |
Security Features |
Workstation Player |
Workstation Pro |
Microsoft Virtualization Based Security (Guest) Support |
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Virtual Trusted Platform Module (vTPM) |
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UEFI Boot Support |
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UEFI Secure Boot Support |
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GPU Sandbox Renderer |
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Snapshots |
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Create/Manage Encrypted VM |
Host Operating Systems |
Workstation Player |
Workstation Pro |
Windows 10 Host |
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| Linux - Ubuntu, CentOS, Debian, Fedora,RHEL, SUSE, openSUSE | ||
| macOS 10.16 and greater |
Guest Operating Systems |
Workstation Player |
Workstation Pro |
Over 200 Supported OSs (Linux, older Windows, BSD) |
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Windows 10 Guests |
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macOS Guests |
Mac Host Specific Features |
Workstation Player |
Workstation Pro |
macOS 10.16 Host support |
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macOS Guest Support |
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Windows apps in the Mac Dock |
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One-Click SSH to Linux VM |
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Metal Graphics Engine |
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BootCamp Import / Launch |
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Application Menu |
*Workstation Player does not run on Mac Hosts
Windows Host Specific Features |
Workstation Player |
Workstation Pro |
Windows 10 Host |
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DX12 Rendering Engine |
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Hyper-V Mode Support (Device Guard, WSL) |
Linux Host Specific Features |
Workstation Player |
Workstation Pro |
Vulkan Rendering Engine |
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Host Support - Ubuntu, CentOS, Debian, Fedora, RHEL, SUSE, openSUSE |
Advanced Features |
Workstation Player |
Workstation Pro |
Command Line Operation: vmrun and VIX |
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vCenter Server Appliance Easy Deploy |
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REST API |
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"Nautilus Container Engine" |
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Virtual Network Customization (NAT, network rename) |
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Virtual Network Simulation (Packet Loss, Latency, Bandwidth) |
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Remote vSphere Host Power Control |
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Create Linked Clones |
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Create Full Clones |
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Encrypt VMs |
Licensing |
Workstation Player |
Workstation Pro |
Free for Personal Use |
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Commercial License |
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Trial License |
VMware Workstation Player (formerly known as Player Pro) is a desktop hypervisor application that delivers local virtualization features and is available for free for personal use. A Commercial License can be applied to enable Workstation Player to run Restricted Virtual Machines created by VMware Workstation Pro and Fusion Pro.
VMware Workstation Player is free for personal, non-commercial use (business and nonprofit use is considered commercial use). If you would like to learn about virtual machines or use them at home, you are welcome to use VMware Workstation Player for free. Students and faculty of accredited educational institutions can use VMware Workstation Player for free if they are members of the VMware Academic Program.
No. VMware Workstation Player is not designed to co-install with other VMware products. If an installation of VMware Workstation Pro or VMware Server is detected on a machine where Workstation Player is being installed, the Workstation Player installation will display an error message and abort. However, if you purchase and install Workstation Pro, a version of Workstation Player that will work is included with your purchase.
For a typical host system, we recommend that you have a 1 GHz or faster 64-bit processor (2GHz recommended) and 2GB RAM minimum (4GB RAM recommended). You must have enough memory to run the 64-bit host operating system, plus the memory required for each guest operating system and for applications on the host and guest. See your guest operating system and application documentation for their memory requirements. VMware Player requires approximately 150MB of disk space to install the application. For more details on minimum PC requirements, see the VMware Player Documentation.
