VMware Workstation also known as Workstation Pro is the premium version of the free Workstation Player virtualization software. It is a hypervisor software which runs on 64 bit computers and supports Windows and Linux operating systems.
VMware Workstation is a software which gives users the ability to create and use virtual machines on their physical machine i.e. computer or server.
The virtual machines created by the software can be run concurrently with the main machine and each virtual machine can run on a separate operating system.
VMware Workstation Features
VMware Workstation supports many operating systems and has lots of features. It has far better features than the Workstation Player because it is the paid version. Some of its features are:
- Support for bridging existing host network adapters
- Physical Storage Drive (Disk & USB) sharing
- Disk drive simulation
- Snapshot – Ability to save a virtual machine’s state at any time and restore when needed
- Multiple virtual machine grouping
- Record Replay
- Virtual Machine Sharing
- Restricted Virtual Machines
- Support for Windows, Linux, Ubuntu, Windows Server, Cent OS, Fedora, Debian, REL and other OS.
- Supports up to 16 virtual CPUs
- Supports up to 8TB disk
- Virtual SATA disk controller
- SSD support
- Virtual tablet sensors – Accelerometer, Gyroscope, Compass, Ambient light sensor
- Cloud Management Tools
- 2GB video memory for each virtual machine
- Virtual networking
Workstation software is owned by VMware Inc., a cloud computing company which is a subsidiary of Dell Technologies. The software was written in F#, C and C++ programming languages. Workstation Pro has a 30 day free trial period.
VMware Tools
VMware Tools is a set of tools – drivers and software used to manage the guest operating systems on the VMware virtual machines.
VMware Workstation for 32 bit PCs
Most VMware workstation software versions do not support 32 bit systems but VMware Workstation 9.0 does.
VMware Workstation for Mac
Workstation does not support the Mac OS but VMware offers another visualization software called VMware Fusion which works like Workstation for Mac.