Workstation Player
Run a Second, Isolated Operating System on a Single PC with VMware Workstation Player
VMware Workstation Player allows you to run a second, isolated operating system on a single PC. With many uses ranging from a personal educational tool, to a business tool for providing a simplified experience to run a corporate desktop on a BYO device, Workstation Player leverages the VMware vSphere hypervisor to provide a simple yet mature and stable, local virtualization solution.
Buy Workstation Player Today
Order today for streamlined desktop virtualization at your fingertips.
Exclusive Education Discounts
Students, parents, faculty and staff at qualifying academic institutions are eligible for discounts.
WORKSTATION PLAYER DELIVERS
Simple but Powerful Virtualization
With nearly 20 years of active development, VMware Workstation Player builds from the same platform as VMware Workstation Pro and 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 Perfect Tool for Learning
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.
Your Path to BYO
With VMware Workstation Player, you can isolate corporate desktops from BYO 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.
A Secure and Isolated Environment
Run a secure second desktop with different privacy settings, tools and networking configurations to keep your host system safe and secure while browsing online.
USE CASES
Workstation Player is perfect for students, faculty, businesses and corporate users who need a small sandbox environment for testing or control. A simple user interface provides a streamlined approach and enables more focused use cases.
Education
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.
Business
VMware Workstation Player allows businesses to embrace BYO 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 Horizon FLEX.
TECH SPECS
Host Operating Systems (64-bit)
- Ubuntu 14.04 and above
- Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 & above
- CentOS 6.0 and above
- Oracle Linux 6.0 and above
- openSUSE Leap 42.2 and above
- SUSE Linux 12 and above
Guest Operating Systems
More than 200 operating systems are supported, including:
- Windows 10
- Windows 8.X
- Windows 7
- Windows XP
- Ubuntu
- Red Hat
- SUSE
- Oracle Linux
- Debian
- Fedora
- openSUSE
- Mint
- CentOS
For a complete list of supported host and guest operating systems visit the VMware Compatibility Guide.
COMPARE
Workstation Player or Workstation Pro - Choose the Right Version for You
Workstation Player
Workstation Pro
General
Host/Guest Integration
Device Support
Advanced Features
FAQS
Product
See AllWhat is VMware Workstation Player?
VMware Workstation Player (formerly known as Player Pro) is a desktop virtualization application that 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.
Can I still use VMware Workstation Player for free?
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.
Installation
See AllCan VMware Workstation Player be installed on the same machine with other VMware products?
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.
What are the minimum PC requirements to install and use VMware Workstation Player?
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.
For more answers to frequently asked questions, check out the full Workstation Player FAQs.
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CHOOSE YOUR OS
Run the apps that keep you most productive, wherever you want to use them. Discover the full capabilities of Workstation Pro or learn about VMware Fusion for Mac.
Workstation Pro
The easiest way to run multiple operating systems at once on a single PC.