I’ve been using VMware Workstation since college, then switched to Proxmox for my home lab, then had to come back to VMware on my work laptop for quick testing needs. That cycle taught me one thing: VMware Workstation isn’t the only option, but in many situations it’s still the most practical one.
I’m not going to rehash the hypervisor comparison topic here — there’s already a post on this blog for that. Instead, I’m going straight to the point: which version to choose, how to install it, how to create a VM — and the details that official docs tend to gloss over.
Comparing VMware Workstation Versions
VMware has 3 popular desktop products — and this is exactly what confuses newcomers the most:
- VMware Workstation Pro — paid, full-featured, for professional environments
- VMware Workstation Player — free (personal use), limited features
- VMware Fusion — exclusively for macOS (Intel + Apple Silicon)
In early 2024, Broadcom (the company that acquired VMware) quietly changed their pricing policy: Workstation Pro became free for personal use, with fees only for commercial/enterprise use. A significant change — previously the Pro version cost ~$250/license, which you no longer need to pay.
Pros and Cons of Each Version
Workstation Player (free, limited)
- ✅ Run pre-built VMs (.vmx)
- ✅ Simple VM creation
- ❌ No snapshots (a serious drawback for lab/testing)
- ❌ No VM cloning
- ❌ Cannot run multiple VMs simultaneously via the GUI
Workstation Pro (free for personal use since 2024)
- ✅ Unlimited snapshots — absolutely essential for testing
- ✅ VM cloning (linked clones save disk space)
- ✅ Create and manage custom virtual networks (vmnet)
- ✅ REST API (Workstation Pro 17+)
- ✅ Share VMs over LAN
- ❌ Requires a Broadcom account to download
Choosing the Right Version for Your Needs
Short answer: always use Workstation Pro. Since Pro became free for personal use, there’s no reason to use Player. Snapshots alone are enough to make the decision — I once lost an entire afternoon reinstalling an Ubuntu VM because I forgot to snapshot before testing a kernel module. That lesson stuck with me.
Proxmox is more powerful for clusters and HA, no argument there. But on a Windows work laptop, VMware Workstation still wins: no need to reboot, native integration with a Windows host, and it’s ready to use right after installation — no complex network bridge configuration needed.
Installing VMware Workstation Pro
Minimum System Requirements
- CPU: 64-bit, with Intel VT-x or AMD-V support (check in BIOS/UEFI)
- RAM: minimum 4GB on host, 16GB+ recommended if running multiple VMs
- Disk: at least 20GB free per VM
- Host OS: Windows 10/11 or Linux (Ubuntu, RHEL, Fedora…)
Before installing, verify that virtualization is enabled — this is the most common issue newcomers run into:
# On Linux host — check CPU virtualization support
grep -E 'vmx|svm' /proc/cpuinfo | head -5
# vmx = Intel VT-x, svm = AMD-V
# If no output → go into BIOS and enable Virtualization Technology# On Windows — check in PowerShell
Get-ComputerInfo -Property HyperVisorPresent,HyperVRequirementVMMonitorModeExtensionsDownloading and Installing
- Go to support.broadcom.com and register for a free account (required since 2024)
- Navigate to Software → VMware Workstation Pro → Download
- Select the latest version (17.x at the time of writing)
- Run the installer file with Administrator privileges
The installation wizard has 2 noteworthy options:
- Enhanced Keyboard Driver: enable this if you use a special keyboard layout or need to pass shortcuts into the VM
- VMware Workstation Server: enable if you want to share VMs over LAN for others to connect
# Silent install on Linux (headless server)
chmod +x VMware-Workstation-Full-17.x.x-xxxx.x86_64.bundle
sudo ./VMware-Workstation-Full-17.x.x-xxxx.x86_64.bundle --console --required --eulas-agreedCreating Your First VM — Ubuntu Server
I’ll use Ubuntu Server 22.04 LTS as an example — it’s the OS I use most for my DevOps labs.
Step 1: Create a New VM
- Open VMware Workstation Pro → File → New Virtual Machine (or Ctrl+N)
- Select Custom (Advanced) — don’t use Typical, you won’t have control over the configuration
- Hardware compatibility: keep the default (Workstation 17.x)
- Installer disc image: browse to the Ubuntu ISO you downloaded
- Guest OS: Linux → Ubuntu 64-bit
Step 2: Configure Resources
The resource configuration section is where newcomers make the most mistakes. For a dev/test VM, I typically go with:
- CPU: 2 cores (sufficient for most basic labs)
- RAM: 2048MB (2GB) — increase to 4GB if you need to run Docker inside the VM
- Disk: 40GB, SCSI type (faster than IDE), choose Store virtual disk as a single file if host disk is large enough
- Network: NAT (easiest way to get internet access immediately), or Bridged if you need the VM to have an IP on the same subnet as the host
# After installing Ubuntu, check if the VM received an IP address
ip addr show
# Or
hostname -IStep 3: Take a Snapshot Immediately After Installation
A habit I developed early: install the OS, update packages, then take a snapshot immediately before doing anything else.
# On Ubuntu guest — update before taking a snapshot
sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade -y
sudo apt install -y open-vm-tools # VMware Tools for Linux
sudo rebootThen: VM → Snapshot → Take Snapshot, name it something like clean-install-2024-03. From this point on, any experiment can be reverted to this state in under 30 seconds.
Useful Configurations After Setting Up Your VM
Shared Folder — Sharing Directories Between Host and VM
# On Linux guest, after enabling Shared Folders in VM Settings
ls /mnt/hgfs/
# Shared folders will appear here
# If not visible, mount manually
sudo vmhgfs-fuse .host:/ /mnt/hgfs -o allow_otherLinked Clone — Save Disk Space When You Need Multiple Similar VMs
Instead of copying the entire VM (40GB × N times), a linked clone only stores the changes relative to the base VM. I use this whenever I need to set up a 3-node Kubernetes cluster without burning through 120GB of disk space:
- Right-click the VM → Manage → Clone
- Select Create a linked clone
- Each linked clone only takes a few extra GB compared to the base VM
vmrun — Control VMs from the Command Line
# Windows — vmrun is located in the VMware installation directory
"C:\Program Files (x86)\VMware\VMware Workstation\vmrun.exe" -T ws list
# Start a VM
vmrun -T ws start "C:\VMs\ubuntu-server\ubuntu-server.vmx" nogui
# Stop a VM
vmrun -T ws stop "C:\VMs\ubuntu-server\ubuntu-server.vmx" soft
# Run a command in the guest (requires VMware Tools)
vmrun -T ws -gu username -gp password runProgramInGuest \
"C:\VMs\ubuntu-server\ubuntu-server.vmx" /bin/bash -c "uptime"vmrun really shines when you need to automate VM start/stop in an internal CI/CD pipeline — runs completely headless, no GUI required.
Closing Thoughts
VMware Workstation Pro going free for personal use is a pragmatic move by Broadcom — even if their enterprise licensing policies remain controversial. For individuals learning IT or small teams doing internal testing, there’s not much to debate: an intuitive GUI, extensive documentation, and solid performance on both Windows and Linux hosts.
Next steps after getting your first VM: try installing Docker inside it, or set up a 3-node cluster using linked clones to practice Kubernetes. I’ll cover those topics in upcoming posts.
