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VMWare Workstation Changelog

What's new in VMWare Workstation 15.5.1

Nov 13, 2019
  • Workstation 15.5.1 Pro addresses an out-of-bounds write vulnerability in the e1000e virtual network adapter. The Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures project (cve.mitre.org) has assigned the identifier CVE-2019-5541 to this issue. For more information, see VMSA-2019-0021.
  • Workstation 15.5.1 Pro addresses an information disclosure vulnerability in vmnetdhcp. The Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures project (cve.mitre.org) has assigned the identifier CVE-2019-5540 to this issue. For more information, see VMSA-2019-0021.
  • Workstation 15.5.1 Pro addresses a denial-of-service vulnerability in the RPC handler. The Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures project (cve.mitre.org) has assigned the identifier CVE-2019-5542 to this issue. For more information, see VMSA-2019-0021.
  • Workstation 15.5.1 Pro resolves TSX Asynchronous Abort (TAA), a speculative-execution vulnerability identified by CVE-2019-11135. For more information, see section 3b in VMSA-2019-0020.
  • Workstation 15.5.1 Pro resolves a regression introduced in Workstation 15.5.0 Pro which causes the Hypervisor-Specific mitigations for L1TF and MDS vulnerabilities to be ineffective. For more information on these mitigations, please see section 3a in VMSA-2019-0008.

New in VMWare Workstation 15.5.0 (Sep 27, 2019)

  • What's New:
  • Support for new guest operating systems:
  • Windows 10 19H2
  • Debian 10.0/10.1
  • Debian 9.11
  • Oracle Linux 8.0
  • SLE 15 SP1
  • FreeBSD 12.0
  • PhotonOS 3.0
  • Jumbo frame support: Virtual networks can now be configured with MTU size of up to 9000 bytes.
  • Preserve Network Configuration: Network settings are now preserved after upgrades. You can also import and export your network configurations.
  • Multiple display shortcut key: You can now quickly adjust the VM display layout with a new keyboard shortcut.
  • PVSCI device support: PVSCSI adapter is now officially supported by Workstation, which enhances the compatibility for VMs migration between Workstation and vSphere.
  • Open VM Tools is the default VMware Tools for applicable Linux virtual machine.
  • VMware Workstation 15.5 Pro also contains performance improvements, bug fixes and security updates.
  • Important Fixes:
  • Workstation 15.5 Player addresses the use-after-free and denial-of-service vulnerabilities. The Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures project (cve.mitre.org) has assigned the following IDs to these issues...
  • CVE-2019-5527 (use-after-free )
  • CVE-2019-5535 (denial-of-service)
  • Implemented DLL loading security improvements, suggested by Peleg Hadar of Safebreach.

New in VMWare Workstation 15.1.0 (May 15, 2019)

  • Support for new guest operating systems:
  • Windows 10 19H1
  • Ubuntu 19.04
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8.0
  • Fedora 30
  • ESXi 6.7 Update 2
  • Stretch guest display: This feature is now extended to support all guests running on Windows hosts. In Workstation 15.0.x, stretch guest for Windows was supported only for versions earlier than Windows 7. This limitation has been removed .

New in VMWare Workstation 15.0.3 (Mar 19, 2019)

  • VMware Workstation Player contained elevation of privilege vulnerabilities:
  • Workstation Player does not handle paths appropriately. This may allow the path to the VMX executable, on a Windows host, to be hijacked by a non-administrator leading to elevation of privilege. The Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures project (cve.mitre.org) has assigned the identifier CVE-2019-5511 to this issue. See VMSA-2019-0002 for further information.
  • COM classes are not handled appropriately. This may allow hijacking of COM classes used by the VMX process, on a Windows host, leading to elevation of privilege. The Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures project (cve.mitre.org) has assigned the identifier CVE-2019-5512 to this issue. See VMSA-2019-0002 for further information.
  • Updated OpenSSL library version to 1.0.2q.
  • Updated libxml2 library version to 2.9.9.

New in VMWare Workstation 15.0.2 (Nov 23, 2018)

  • Support has been added for the following host operating systems:
  • Windows 10, version 1809
  • Windows Server 2019
  • Support has been added for the following guest operating systems:
  • Windows 10, version 1809
  • Windows Server, version 1809
  • Windows Server 2019
  • This release of VMware Workstation Pro addresses the following issue:
  • VMware Workstation Pro contains an integer overflow vulnerability in the virtual network devices which may allow a guest to execute code on the host. The Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures project (cve.mitre.org) has assigned the identifier CVE-2018-6983 to this issue. See VMSA-2018-0030 for further information.

New in VMWare Workstation 15.0.1 (Nov 12, 2018)

  • Support added for the following operating systems as both host and guest:
  • Ubuntu 18.10
  • Fedora 29
  • RHEL 7.6
  • This release of VMware Workstation Player addresses the following issue:
  • VMware Workstation Player has an uninitialized stack memory usage vulnerability in the vmxnet3 virtual network adapter that might allow a guest to execute code on the host. The Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures project (cve.mitre.org) has assigned the identifier CVE-2018-6981 to this issue.

New in VMWare Workstation 15.0.0 (Sep 26, 2018)

  • New Guest operating systems support:
  • The following support is new in Workstation 15 Player:
  • Windows 10 1803
  • Ubuntu 18.04
  • Fedora 28
  • RHEL 7.5
  • CentOS 7.5
  • Debian 9.5
  • OpenSuse Leap 15.0
  • FreeBSD 11.2
  • ESXi 6.7
  • DirectX 10.1:
  • DirectX 10.1 is an incremental update over DirectX 10.0. It provides higher visual quality through the support of multi-sample anti-aliasing (MSAA). DirectX 10.1 also supports Shader Model 4.1 and Cubemap Array.
  • Hardware version 16:
  • DirectX 10.1 support
  • Graphics memory up to 3GB
  • REST API:
  • You can use Workstation RESTful API to automate common virtual machine tasks using standard JSON over HTTP or HTTPS. The following virtual machine operations are supported:
  • Virtual machine inventory management
  • Virtual machine power management
  • Networking management
  • VCSA 6.7 support
  • With Workstation 15 Player, you can import and run VCSA 6.7 (vCenter Server Appliance) in VMware Workstation 15 Player.
  • USB Auto connect to virtual machine:
  • USB devices can automatically connect to a powered on virtual machine when you configure Workstation 15 Pro to remember the connection rule. This is a Windows host only feature.
  • Hosts and Clusters view when you connect to vCenter:
  • Workstation 15 Pro adds a new Hosts and Clusters view when you connect to remote vSphere. The inventory tree now shows a hierarchical arrangement of objects in two different views: Hosts and Clusters and VMs. You can easily toggle between these two views with a single click. This is a Windows host only feature.
  • vSphere 6.7 support:
  • Workstation 15 Pro provides seamless support for vSphere 6.7. You can connect to a remote ESXi 6.7 host or vCenter Server 6.7 from Workstation 15 Pro to manage the remote the virtual machines running on vSphere. You can also upload a local virtual machine to vSphere 6.7 or download a remote virtual machine running on vSphere 6.7 to the local desktop.
  • You can also deploy a VMware VCSA 6.7 (vCenter Server Appliance) OVA package to run on Workstation 15 Pro.
  • High DPI support:
  • High DPI related features require that the operating system of the host and virtual machine be Windows 10 version 1703 or later.
  • Host level high DPI support - The Workstation interface auto detects the host level DPI change and auto adjusts the layout to meet the new DPI.
  • Guest DPI synch with host - When there is a DPI change on the host side, the guest operating system adjusts its DPI to match the host DPI. VMware Tools 10.3.2 is required for this feature.
  • SSH login to Linux virtual machine
  • You can now access Linux virtual machines using SSH provided by Workstation 15 Pro.
  • This feature requires that the operating system of the host be Windows 10 version 1803 or later.
  • Enhanced User Experience:
  • Stretch guest display:
  • The stretch guest display feature is enabled for Linux guests and Windows guests earlier than Windows XP. You can use the Keep Aspect Ratio Stretch feature to stretch the virtual machine display while maintaining the user interface aspect ratio or you can use the Free Stretch feature to stretch the virtual machine display to fill the user interface. This is a Windows host only feature.
  • Open virtual machine directory:
  • You can now easily access the virtual machine directory from a Windows host by right-clicking the virtual machine in the Workstation Pro library and selecting Open VM directory. Linux Workstation Pro already supports this feature.
  • Linux host Wayland support:
  • Workstation 15 Pro can now run on a Linux host Wayland desktop. To install Workstation Pro on a Wayland desktop, you must use terminal mode installation.
  • Performance improvements for virtual NVMe storage
  • Resolved Issues:
  • When a virtual machine directly uses a physical disk, after you power on the virtual machine, the virtual machine might display a black screen.
  • When a virtual machine is using parallel port and the parallel port is mapped to host OS physical parallel port, after you power on the virtual machine, the virtual machine might crash with following error: VMware Workstation unrecoverable error: (vcpu-0)
  • When you connect a USB device to a USB dock, such as DELL Thunderbolt, the USB device might not be able to connect to the virtual machine.
  • On Windows hosts, USB devices connected to some USB 3.1 controllers are not listed when you select VM > Removable Devices. Therefore, the device cannot pass through to the virtual machine.
  • For some Linux hosts, for example Ubuntu 18.04, when you use the Zoom utility, the Workstation Pro interface might crash.
  • Known Issues:
  • Mouse-clicking functionality might stop working in a virtual machine when certain third-party software is installed on the host
  • When you install certain software, such as WizMouse, on the host, the mouse-clicking functionality might stop working in virtual machines.
  • Workaround:
  • Power off the virtual machine.
  • Add the following entry to the .vmx file of the virtual machine:
  • mks.win32.processWin32MouseInput = "TRUE"
  • Power on the virtual machine.

New in VMWare Workstation 14.1.3 (Aug 15, 2018)

  • Security:
  • Updated VMware Workstation 14 Player Version 14.1.3 to use OpenSSL library version openssl-1.0.2o.
  • Addressed critical security issues as outlined in KB 55636
  • Resolved Issues:
  • After you upgrade Workstation 12.x Pro to Workstation 14.x Pro and power on a virtual machine, the virtual machine console might display a black screen.

New in VMWare Workstation 14.1.2 (May 23, 2018)

  • Windows 10 2018 Spring Creators Update (Version 1803) as host and guest
  • Ubuntu 18.04 support as host and guest

New in VMWare Workstation 14.1.1 (Jan 12, 2018)

  • This update of VMware Workstation Pro exposes hardware support for branch target injection mitigation to VMware guests. This hardware is used by some guest operating systems to mitigate CVE-2018-5715 (also called by the name "Spectre").
  • For a guest operating system to use hardware support for branch target injection mitigation, the following steps must be taken:
  • Install this update of VMware Workstation Pro.
  • Ensure that your VM is using Hardware Version 9 or higher. For best performance, Hardware Version 11 or higher is recommended.
  • Update your guest operating system with fixes for CVE-2018-5715 (consult the operating system vendor for these updates).
  • Update the host firmware (or CPU microcode, if host firmware cannot be updated).

New in VMWare Workstation 14.1 (Dec 27, 2017)

  • This release delivers improved guest support of Windows 10 Fall Creators Update (Version 1709)
  • Includes VMware Tools 10.2.0

New in VMWare Workstation 14.0 (Oct 25, 2017)

  • Windows 10 Creators Update support:
  • VMware Workstation Pro provides the following support for Windows 10 Creators Update:
  • Run Windows 10 Creators Update as a virtual machine
  • Run Windows 10 Creators Update as a host operating system
  • Windows 10 Creators Update Auto Detect and Easy Install
  • Unity support for Windows 10
  • New Guest operating systems support:
  • Ubuntu 17.04
  • Fedora 26
  • CentOS 7.4
  • RHEL 7.4
  • Debian 9.1
  • Oracle Linux 7.4
  • SLE 12 SP3
  • OpenSUSE 42.3
  • Guest VBS Support:
  • Enabling VBS (Virtualization Based Security) within Windows 10 and Windows Server 2016 running as guest operating systems is now supported on VMware Workstation. You can have advanced security features like Device Guard and Credential Guard within guest operating systems.
  • Guest VBS support currently is only supported for Intel CPUs. For best performance, use Intel Skylake generation CPUs and above.
  • Virtual TPM:
  • Workstation 14 Pro now provides a TPM 2.0 compatible virtual Trusted Platform Module for use with advanced security and encryption technologies, such as BitLocker.
  • VMware Hardware Version 14:
  • New CPU enablement, including Intel Skylake and AMD Ryzen CPU support.
  • Secure Boot, Workstation 14 Pro introduces Secure Boot support for virtual machines to ensure only trusted code is loaded by the UEFI firmware prior to the OS "handoff" process.
  • Virtual NVMe support Workstation 14 Pro introduces a new virtual NVMe storage controller for improved guest operating system performance on Host SSD drives and support for testing VMware vSAN. NVMe devices require virtual hardware version 13 / ESXi 6.5 compatibility and later.
  • Advanced Networking:
  • Rename Virtual Network (Windows host only), Workstation 14 Pro can rename networks in the Virtual Network Editor for better organization.
  • Network Latency simulation, As well as being able to introduce Packet Loss and Bandwidth caps, Workstation 14 Pro provides new virtual networking controls for introducing incoming and outgoing Latency to virtual machines on a per-NIC basis.
  • ESXi Host Power Operations
  • The following ESXi power operations can now be performed from Workstation 14 Pro:
  • Shutdown
  • Restart
  • Enter/Exit Maintenance Mode
  • Native OVF support:
  • With improved OVF/OVA support, Workstation 14 Pro provides an effortless walkthrough to deploy the VMware VCSA (vCenter Server Appliance) OVA package for testing and experimentation within Workstation. VCSA6.0 and 6.5 are supported.
  • Scan for Virtual Machines:
  • Workstation 14 Pro now allows users to quickly refresh their VM inventory by scanning for virtual machines. It supports VMs on local folders as well as on network shared storage and USB drives.
  • Automatically Suspend Shared Virtual Machines Upon Host Shutdown:
  • All running shared virtual machines will be automatically suspended(for both Windows and Linux hosts) or shutdown(Linux hosts only) when the host operating system initiates a shutdown.
  • Enhanced UI Experience:
  • IP Address Display on VM Console,The IP and MAC addresses of a VM are now displayed in the VM information area. VMware Tools 10.1.15 or greater is required.
  • Auto clean up Windows VM disk space, Clean Up Disks now can be automated upon a VM power off. (Windows hosts only)
  • New GTK+ 3 based UI for Linux
  • Linux Workstation UI has been rewritten to support GTK+ 3.

New in VMWare Workstation 12.5.7 (Jun 24, 2017)

  • This release of VMware Workstation Pro is a free upgrade for all VMware Workstation 12 Pro users. This release includes some bug fixes and security updates.

New in VMWare Workstation 12.5.6 (May 20, 2017)

  • End users can create virtual machines with the Windows 10 Creators Update or by installing VMware Workstation 12 Pro on a Windows 10 Creators Update operating system.
  • Bug fixes and security updates.

New in VMWare Workstation 12.5.2 (Nov 14, 2016)

  • Resolved Issues:
  • If you delete VMnet8 and VMnet1 in the Virtual Network Editor, then bridged networking is no longer available after the host is restarted. This issue could appear after upgrading to Workstation 12.5.
  • Trying to execute vmrun commands on a RHEL 6.8 or CentOS 6.8 host machine, results in errors.
  • If you install Workstation 12.5 on a RHEL 6.8 host machine, vmware-hostd cannot start. As a result, shared virtual machines are not available.
  • When powering on a virtual machine that uses EFI firmware instead of BIOS, the virtual machine sometimes crashes witha 0xc0000374 (Heap Corruption) exception.
  • vmciver.dll is not deleted after uninstalling VMware Workstation from a Windows host operating system
  • Known Issues:
  • When using multiple monitors with an Ubuntu 16.10 virtual machine, you may see a black screen or all the displays on one monitor. This issue can occur when you cycle through three or more monitors. The issue can occur when you are using VMware Tools or open-vm-tools.
  • Workaround: Reboot the virtul machine and cycle through the monitors again.
  • Virtual Machines running Linux kernel version 4.7 or above may crash during installation or during power-on with a crash in the intel_powerclamp driver. This issue has been reported with Ubuntu 16.10, but it is a generic Linux kernel issue.
  • Workaround: VMware is working with the OS vendors to have them fix their respective kernels. Until a fix is available, you can blacklist the intel_powerclamp driver so that the buggy code doesn't get loaded.
  • After installing VMware Tools in an Ubuntu 16.10 guest, the VMware Tools service is not started. As a result, functionality provided by the VMware Tools service, for example, shared folders, is not available.
  • Workaround: In the guest operating system, manually start the VMware Tools service.
  • After VMware Workstation is uninstalled, the following driver-related files remain on the Windows host operating system in C:WindowsSystem32drivers:
  • hcmon.sys
  • vmci.sys
  • vmx86.sys
  • vmkbd.sys in case Enhanced Keyboard Driver was installed.
  • Workaround: Manually delete hcmon.sys, vmci.sys, vmx86.sys, and vmkbd.sys.

New in VMWare Workstation 12.5 (Sep 20, 2016)

  • VMware Workstation 12 Pro version 12.5 is a free upgrade for all VMware Workstation 12 Pro users, it adds support for the following operating systems:
  • Windows 10 Anniversary Update
  • Windows Server 2016
  • Resolved Issues
  • A Linux host with kernel 4.6 fails to launch Workstation because the vmmon and vmnet drivers are not built successfully.
  • If you configure Revert to snapshot when a VM is powered off from Options-> Snapshots, the VM actually reverts to a snapshot when suspended.
  • With the latest Windows Server 2016 Technical Preview, this issue no longer exists.
  • Due to changes in the FreeBSD system-bundled Perl, you cannot install VMware Tools in a FreeBSD 10.3 guest OS and you get a vmware-install.real.pl: not found error when executing the ./vmware-install.pl script.
  • The issue occurs after you add a VMX entry to autoconnect the USB device to a VM by using VID and PID. This entry is getting removed when you disconnect the USB device from VM through VM > Removable device > Disconnect.
  • On RHEL 6.8 host with kernel 2.6.32-642.el6.x86_64, Workstation fails to launch due to vmnet driver compilation error.
  • Beginning with Windows 8, Microsoft implement a security policy (GPO) that prevents non-domain and domain simultaneous connections. When this GPO is enabled and Workstation is installed, Windows considers the virtual adapters that Workstation creates as physical connections. Therefore, the wireless connection cannot be established because Windows prefers the wired connection (virtual adapter) to wifi connections.
  • When you power on a Windows Vista guest with latest VMware Tools installed, and click Workstation menu View->Fit Guest Now, the guest screen does not change.
  • After installing Workstation on a host running Fedora 23, Workstation fails to launch.
  • When installing Workstation to a customized folder path, canceling the installation deletes all the contents in the destination folder.
  • If your Windows host has an NVDIA GPU, you might hit the VMware Workstation unrecoverable error: (svga) when running a 3D application in the guest.
  • VMware Workstation Pro cannot boot virtual machine on a 64-bit Braswell N3150 processor and the following error appears:
  • On a Linux host, when you try to connect smart card to guest via Workstation through VM->Removable Devices, the guest can detect the smart card reader, but is not able to access the smart card.
  • On the Ubuntu 15.10 and later versions guest OS, when you replace open-vm-tools with the VMware Tools version bundled with VMware Workstation Pro, VMware Tools does not work as expected. After you reboot the system, an Ubuntu crash report might appear and one of the services in VMware Tools might stop working.
  • The guest OS uses the full amount of memory allocated to the virtual machine even if you try to limit the amount of memory used by the guest OS through the BCDEdit 'truncatememory' option.
  • You cannot connect specific USB Ethernet adapter to a running VM.

New in VMWare Workstation 12.1 (Dec 10, 2015)

  • Resolved Issues:
  • When creating a new virtual machine, if you select a Windows 10 version 1511 ISO file in the New Virtual Machine Wizard, the wizard says "Windows 10 detected. The operating system will use Easy Install". But in the next step, the "Version of Windows to install" dialog box only displays options for Windows Server 2012 R2.
  • When you run Microsoft Excel 2013 on a Windows 10 virtual machine, the application responds to your input with a one-second delay.
  • When you start a virtual machine that was put into a suspended state with the vmware-kvm.exe command, the virtual machine starts successfully in the background. However, the desktop of the virtual machine does not respond to mouse or keyboard operations.
  • When you issue the vmrun command with the nogui option on VMware Workstation 12 Player, which is bundled with Workstation 12 Pro, the command fails
  • On an OpenSuse 13.2 host, dragging a virtual machine to a folder in the virtual machine library fails
  • When a UAS device is connected to a guest operating system and you turn the device off and back on, the device does not successfully reconnect to the guest. In Workstation Pro when you select VM > Removable Devices, the device is listed as connected to the guest, but the device does not appear in Windows Explorer within the guest.
  • When you add a network adapter on the Customize Hardware screen in the New Virtual Machine Wizard, the extra network adapter does not use the same network device type as the existing network adapter. Instead it uses the Vlance network device type, which might prevent the guest operating system from using the network device.

New in VMWare Workstation 12.0.1 (Nov 1, 2015)

  • When you use 64-bit VIX API to control virtual machines, the API breaks
  • When you use Easy Install to install CentOS 7.0, the installation might stop at "WELCOME TO CENTOS 7" page
  • When you use the Easy Install option with the Windows Server 2016 guest operating system, the virtual machine displays a black screen
  • After installing VMware Tools version 10.0.0 on a FreeBSD 10.x virtual machine, the guest might not shut down properly when performed from the VMware Workstation Pro interface
  • Virtual machines fail to start on a host with an Intel Skylake processor

New in VMWare Workstation 11.1.2 (Jun 17, 2015)

  • Resolved Issues:
  • Two interface items on the Access Control screen used the same hot-key combination
  • In a virtual machine, on the Access Control screen, VM > Settings > Options > Access Control, the Encrypt button and the Require the user to change the encryption password when this virtual machine is moved or copied check box both used the same hot-key combination.
  • This issue is resolved. These two items now use different hot-key combinations.
  • Attempting to suspend a Windows virtual machine with the Sensor Diagnostic Tool running caused the virtual machine to become unresponsive
  • When you attempted to suspend a Windows virtual machine while the Sensor Diagnostic Tool was running, the screen went black and provided no option to quit or power off the virtual machine.
  • Using audio conferencing software on a Windows 8 guest operating system caused a severe echo during both video and audio calls
  • When you used audio conferencing software on a Windows 8 guest, participants using the built in speaker, as opposed to headphones, received a severe echo during both video and audio calls.
  • On the Windows 95 guest operating system, the mouse cursor jumped
  • When you moved the mouse in a Windows 95 guest, the cursor sometimes jumped to the side.
  • This issue is resolved. The cursor moves smoothly in a Windows 95 guest now.
  • Symbolic links created within a Windows guest operating system on a Linux host did not list files under subdirectories
  • When you created a symbolic link, such as with the mklink command, from the local disk to a shared folder in a Windows guest on a Linux host, files and subdirectories were not listed under the shared folder.
  • This is resolved in this release, but requires a workaround. For the symbolic link to work successfully, configure sharedFolderX.hostDefaultCase = "FALSE" in the .vmx file, where X is the number of the shared folder that is used for the target of the symbolic link command you use.
  • Workstation did not display Regions in the VMware vCloud Air Subscription node
  • Workstation could not automatically detect the Fedora 21 ISO when creating a new Fedora 21 virtual machine
  • You had to manually select the Fedora 21 guest operating system.
  • Under specific conditions, when the alipaybsm.exe file was installed on the Workstation host, network service was disrupted
  • The alipaybsm.exe file is associated with the Alipay security control software developed by Alipay.com. A network service disturbance could occur when this EXE file was installed on the Workstation host.
  • After connecting to vCloud Air from Workstation, no virtual machines were listed in the Workstation virtual machine library
  • After connecting to vCloud Air from Workstation, no virtual machines were listed in the Workstation virtual machine library.
  • Using Easy Install for the Ubuntu 15.04 guest operating system with kernel 3.19.0-15-generic prevented you from enabling folder sharing
  • When you used Easy Install to install the Ubuntu 15.04 guest with kernel 3.19.0-15-generic, Open VMware Tools (open-vm-tools), which are installed automatically and do not include the Shared Folder feature, prevented you from enabling folder sharing, even when you installed VMware Tools by selecting VM > Reinstall VMware Tools.
  • This issue is resolved. Now, after you use Easy Install, you can install VMware Tools to enable folder sharing.
  • Reverting to a snapshot failed following a specific set of steps
  • When you powered off a virtual machine, changed its virtual device node setting, and powered the machine back on, an attempt to then revert to a snapshot failed.
  • A Windows 10 guest operating system running idly caused Workstation to crash
  • When you let a Windows 10 guest run idly for a couple of hours or more, Workstation sometimes crashed.
  • Using the Easy Install option to install the Ubuntu 14.04 or Ubuntu 15.04 guest operating system failed to install VMware Tools
  • Security Issues:
  • VMware Workstation 11.1.2 has been updated to OpenSSL library version openssl-1.0.1m. This OpenSSL library version addresses several OpenSSL security issues including CVE-2014-3571, CVE-2015-0206, CVE-2014-3569, CVE-2014-3572, CVE-2015-0204, CVE-2015-0205, CVE-2014-8275, and CVE-2014-3570.

New in VMWare Workstation 11.1.0 (Feb 18, 2015)

  • New: Virtual Private Cloud OnDemand:
  • Virtual Private Cloud OnDemand is a secure, pay-as-you-go, cloud computing service offered by VMware that gives IT organizations a VMware compatible platform to create virtual machines, dynamically scale virtual machines and resources up or down, and pay for resources allocated.
  • Virtual Private Cloud OnDemand provides on-demand resources with granular metering and usage-based billing.
  • Resources are pool-based, allowing deployment of virtual machines with customized configurations.
  • Costs are billed monthly only for the aggregate amount of resources consumed across all of your virtual machines.
  • On-demand resources complement the subscription services for vCloud Air.
  • The following issues were resolved in VMware Workstation 11.1:
  • A Linux guest OS booted on EFI firmware sometimes failed to respond to the keyboard and mouse if any mouse motion occurred during a short window of time during OS boot. This issue has been resolved.
  • Outlook 2010 would occasionally crash when running in Unity mode. This issue has been resolved.
  • You could not compact or defragment a persistent disk. This issue has been resolved.
  • The UI sometimes crashed when a user copied and pasted a file between two Windows guests. This issue has been resolved.
  • Rendering corruption in UI elements in Fedora 20 guests with 3D enabled has been resolved.
  • When creating a new virtual machine with SUSE Linux Enterprise (SLE) 12, the Easy Install path was not available. This issue has been resolved.
  • The following issues might occur in VMware Workstation 11.1:
  • 3D rendering is not available in some guest operating systems if you use virtual hardware version 11
  • If you upgrade a virtual machine from virtual hardware version 10 to 11, you might lose 3D functionality in the virtual machine.
  • Workaround: For Windows guest operating systems, upgrade VMware Tools to the latest version, which is included with Workstation 11. For Linux guests, only the following distributions are currently supported for virtual hardware version 11:
  • Ubuntu 14.04 LTS and above
  • Ubuntu 12.04.5 LTS and above
  • Fedora 20 with latest updates and above
  • For other Linux distributions and versions, if you plan to use 3D functionality, downgrade the virtual hardware version to 10.
  • Virtual machines that you upload to vCloud Air cannot access the Internet
  • You must use the VMware vCloud Air portal to configure outbound Internet connectivity.
  • Workaround: Follow the instructions in the Knowledge Base article Allowing outbound Internet connectivity to a virtual machine within VMware vCloud Air (2053464)
  • Using certain Microsoft Office 2013 applications in a Windows 7 or later guest operating system can cause the guest to crash or the Workstation UI to become unresponsive.
  • For example, if you use Outlook 2013 to compose and read email, after a while, the guest might crash, or after you use Word 2013 for a while, the Workstation UI might stop responding.
  • Workaround: Turn off the 3D acceleration feature. From the menu bar, select VM > Settings > Display, and deselect Accelerate 3D Graphics.
  • Using a USB headset with a Windows 8 or later guest operating system does not work
  • Because most USB headsets expect a USB 2.0 controller, whereas Windows 8 and later guest operating systems use a USB 3.0 controller by default, you cannot use USB headsets with Windows 8 or later guests.
  • Workaround: Change the USB controller of the guest from USB 3.0 to USB 2.0.
  • The Easy Install feature is not supported for OpenSUSE 13.2
  • Easy Install is not supported for the OpenSUSE 13.2 guest operating system.
  • Workaround: Manually install the guest operating system and VMware Tools.
  • Using the Easy Install feature with a virtual machine that uses EFI will fail if the disk size is larger than 2TB
  • If you attempt to select a hard disk larger than 2TB, the following error message appears: The specified virtual disk size is incompatible with Easy Install and may prevent the guest from booting properly. The disk must be smaller than 2 TB to use Easy Install.
  • Workaround: Either choose a hard disk whose size is equal to or smaller than 2TB, or manually install the guest operating system.
  • Uninstalling Workstation from a Linux host and removing the configuration can prevent a shared virtual machine from being opened again
  • If you are sharing virtual machines and then uninstall Workstation from a Linux host, remove the configuration, and then reinstall Workstation, you receive an error message when you attempt to open a shared virtual machine.
  • Workaround: Stop sharing any virtual machines before you uninstall Workstation from a Linux host.
  • The fusemount feature works only if the fuse module is installed
  • If you have a virtual machine with an operating system that does not have the fuse module installed, such as CentOS, you might receive an error when you select VM > Settings > Hardware > Hard Disk and select Mount Disk from the Utilities drop-down list. The error message reads The VMware fuse daemon failed to start.
  • Workaround: Install the fuse module in the host operating system.
  • Cannot upload a virtual machine to VMware vCloud Air Virtual Private Cloud OnDemand
  • Uploading a virtual machine to VMware vCloud Air Virtual Private Cloud OnDemand is not yet supported by Workstation 11.
  • Workaround: None.
  • Cannot access Help from Virtual Machine Settings dialog box
  • You cannot access the Help system by clicking Help on the Virtual Machine Settings dialog box.
  • Workaround: Select Help > Help Topics (Windows host) or Help > Contents (Linux host) to access the help system and use the Search tab or Contents tab to find the help topic.

New in VMWare Workstation 11.0.0 (Dec 2, 2014)

  • New Operating System Support
  • Support has been added for the following guest operating systems:
  • Windows 8.1 Update
  • Windows Server 2012 R2
  • Windows 10 Technical Preview (Experimental support)
  • Ubuntu 14.10
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7
  • CentOS 7
  • OpenSUSE 13.2
  • SUSE Linux Enterprise 12
  • VMware Hardware Version 11
  • Hardware versions introduce new virtual hardware functionality and new features while enabling VMware to run legacy operating systems in virtual machines.
  • New features included in this hardware version:
  • New CPU enablement, including Intel Haswell microarchitecture extension support.
  • Workstation 11 is optimized to take advantage of new Haswell extensions, delivering up to 45% improvement in CPU-intensive operations like multimedia, encryption/decryption, and other strenuous performance tests.
  • Updated xHCI controller
  • Updated NDIS drive
  • Unity improvements for Windows 8.1 virtual machines
  • Allocate up to 2GB video memory to a virtual machine
  • Improvements for high DPI displays
  • Workstation 11 has been optimized to support higher resolution displays such as the new QHD+ (3200x1800) displays used in laptops and x86 tablets.
  • Integration with VMware vCloud Air virtual private cloud
  • You can now extend and scale your virtual machines in the external cloud by connecting to vCloud Air and uploading, running, and viewing virtual machines from the Workstation 11 interface.
  • Boot virtual machines with EFI support
  • Create desktop shortcuts for virtual machines

New in VMWare Workstation 10.0.4 (Oct 31, 2014)

  • Fixes memory issue in Workstation on Microsoft Windows 8.1 and Windows Server 2012.

New in VMWare Workstation 10.0.3 (Jul 2, 2014)

  • VMware Workstation 10.0.3 has been updated to the OPENSSL library version openssl-0.9.8za where necessary to address CVE-2014-0224 , CVE-2014-0198, CVE-2010-5298, and CVE-2014-3470.

New in VMWare Workstation 10.0.2 (Apr 22, 2014)

  • Better audio performance and compatibility with certain USB audio/video devices.
  • The compatibility and performance of USB audio and video devices with virtual machines has been improved.
  • USB devices can be connected to the Linux RHEL 5 guest operating system.
  • Resolved an issue that prevents a USB device from being connected to Linux RHEL 5 guest operating system.
  • Windows 8.1 Update 1 and Windows Server 2012 R2 are supported as guest operating system through easy install.
  • Easy installation option supports Windows 8.1 Update 1 and Windows Server 2012 R2 as a guest operating system.
  • OpenSUSE 13.1 is officially supported as a host operating system.
  • OpenSUSE 13.1 is now supported as a host operating system.
  • Blueray drives can burn CDs when connected to the virtual machine.
  • Resolved an issue causing burning CDs with Blueray drives to fail while connected to the virtual machine.
  • Using Microsoft Word and Excel in unity mode no longer produces a beep.
  • Resolved an issue that caused using Microsoft Word and Excel in unity mode causes a beep.
  • The UAC dialog of the Windows 8 virtual machine no longer causes the host application windows to be blanked out on Linux Host.
  • Resolved an issue causing host application windows to be blanked out in the UAC dialog on the Linux host of the Windows 8 virtual machine.
  • The sound card can be automatically added to a virtual machine on a Linux host at power up.
  • Resolved an issue that prevented the Sound Card from being automatically added to the VM when powering on the virtual machine on a Linux host.
  • Windows 8.1 guest operating system no longer display a black screen when launching Metro style applications from the launch menu.
  • Resolved an issue that could cause a Windows 8.1 guest operating system to display a black screen when launching Metro style applications in the launch menu.
  • Hotkeys can be used in the Preference dialog in KVM mode.
  • Resolved a hotkey conflict in the Preference dialog of the KVM mode.
  • Improved compatibility of GL renderer with new Nvidia drivers.
  • Resolved a compatibility issue of GL renderer with some new Nvidia drivers.
  • Improved graphics quality with Solidworks applications.
  • Resolved graphics errors with for Solidworks applications.
  • Virtual machines imported from a physical PC no longer crash on startup.
  • Resolved an issue causing virtual machines imported from a physical PC to crash on startup.
  • Reading and writing to a file using two threads with a shared folder has been improved.
  • Resolved an issue about shared folder when the user read and write file using two threads.
  • Linux virtual machines access updated contents when using shared folders.
  • Resolved an issue that caused Linux virtual machines to see stale file contents when using shared folders.
  • Improved performance of the virtual machine using the E1000e adapter.
  • Resolved the virtual machine performance issues when using the E1000e adapter.
  • Workstation now launches on Ubuntu 14.04.
  • Resolved an issue preventing Workstation from starting on Ubuntu 14.04.

New in VMWare Workstation 10.0.1 (Oct 26, 2013)

  • Easy Install supports RTM versions of Windows 8.1 and Windows Server 2012 R2
  • Easy Install now supports RTM versions of Windows 8.1 and Windows Server 2012 R2.
  • Workstation or Player on Windows freezes if another application is frozen.
  • Other stuck Windows applications could cause Workstation or Player to freeze while waiting for the application to respond.
  • Virtual machine hangs when powering off
  • Rarely, virtual machines will cease functioning (hang) while powering off, particularly if the guest OS was in the middle of a BSOD or kernel panic.
  • Improved compatibility with some AMD CPUs
  • Updated masking to match capabilities of certain AMD PileDriver CPUs.
  • Virtual machines displayed incorrectly on a multi-monitor Windows host when the displays have differing pixel density (DPI.)
  • Boot from CD/DVD when Legacy Floppy is disabled

New in VMWare Workstation 9.0.2 (Mar 8, 2013)

  • On a Windows 7 host, when you plug and unplug a headset several times, the audio card of the guest would not work. This has been fixed in Workstation 9.0.2.
  • When installing VMware Tools in Linux virtual machines, the The default screen resolution options have been standardized to 640x480, 800x600, 1024x768, or 1280x800 for the initial login. After login, resolution can be set to any value the user desires or Autofit can be used.
  • You can now create full clones from a snapshot of a Windows XP Mode virtual machine.
  • Image copy/paste now correctly function with Solaris 10 and 11 guests.
  • In VMware Player, the list of available NICs in the Automatic Bridging Settings dialog window is now refreshed without restarting Player.
  • A virtual machine created using Use a physical disk (For advanced users) from the new virtual machine wizard may display the following error when powering on: A fault has occurred causing a virtual CPU to enter the shutdown state... The cause of this issue has been fixed.
  • More detailed PCI information has been added and a potential problem that resulted in risk of rebooting the host when selecting Collect Support Data has been fixed.
  • Previously, when you manually disabled networking in the Network Manager and then attempted to suspend the virtual machine, the operation would fail and Workstation would show thean error The request to suspend this virtual machine failed because the corresponding VMware Tools Script did not run successfully.... This has been fixed.
  • A memory leak that impacted Windows hosts and guests has been fixed.
  • When running in a Linux distribution using the GNOME 3 desktop environment, Desktop folders now open as expected.
  • The OVFTool has been updated to version 3.0.2.
  • Disk cleanup for encrypted virtual machines has been disabled until VMware can further investigate reports of encrypted disks being damaged by this operation.
  • Autostart virtual machines now power on automatically after upgrading Windows hosts to Windows 8 or Windows Server 2012.
  • VMware Tools no longer crashes on Windows 2008 Server Core x64 SP2 operating system, with the following error:
  • VMware Tools unrecoverable error: (vthread-3)
  • Exception 0xc0000005 (access violation) has occurred.
  • However, Windows 2008 Server Core x64 SP2 is not a supported operating system for VMware Workstation.
  • Scrolling with a Lenovo ThinkPad UltraNav scroll button no longer requires excessive force.
  • From the Linux version of Workstation, the Description field for a remote virtual machine now captures all characters entered.
  • When editing Workstation preferences on Windows hosts, occasionally a permissions error would be displayed. This issue has been resolved.
  • It is now possible to create a linked clone from a read-only template virtual machine.

New in VMWare Workstation 9.0.1 (Nov 8, 2012)

  • This release of Workstation 9.0.1 adds the following new features and support:
  • Support for Ubuntu 12.10 as a host and guest.
  • Solaris 11 has been added to guest OS list.
  • The following issues are resolved in this release of VMware Workstation:
  • When powering on a virtual machine with Binary Translation on a SMEP-capable CPU, Workstation no longer causes the host to reset. If you run Windows 8 hosts on IvyBridge processors, VMware strongly recommends that you update your installation of Workstation.
  • Several security vulnerabilities have been addressed, including updating third party libraries.
  • The Workstation plug-in for Visual Studio has been updated to work with Visual Studio 2012.
  • For host systems with more than 4GB of memory, Workstation will use more of the available memory to run virtual machines.
  • The ability to mount a .vmdk file as a drive by right-clicking the file in File Explorer has been restored.
  • Streaming a virtual machines has been fixed.
  • Occasionally, certain elements in the Windows 8 user interface were incorrectly displayed. This has been fixed.
  • After disconnecting certain USB devices from a virtual machine, Workstation would prevent devices from being reconnected without restarting the virtual machine. A more comprehensive error handling code has been added to prevent this problem from occurring.
  • To improve application startup performance, the data being collected as part of the optional User Experience Improvement Program will no longer be aggregated on every launch of Workstation.
  • Remotely retrieving the IP address of an Ubuntu virtual machine with an IPv6 address assigned failed unless an IPv4 address was also assigned to the virtual machine. This no longer occures.
  • With IPv6 disabled on the host, the Linux version of Workstation is now able to share virtual machines.
  • When you import an OVA file of a virtual machine running the Datacenter version of Windows Server, the network adapter failed to be configured correctly. This is now fixed.
  • Closing Workstation in the middle of a cut and paste operation no longer causes the Workstation user interface to crash.
  • After unsharing a virtual machine configured to use client-side devices, you can now reconfigure the device settings to use local devices.
  • Easy Install on the Linux version of Workstation now recognize all compatible operating systems.
  • The VMware monitor has been updated to work with Linux kernel 3.5.
  • On the Linux version of Workstation, entering a permanent license key after using an evaluation key now removes the days remaining evaluation indicator.
  • The network adapter configuration screen now correctly preserves the Custom network settings.
  • You can now remove a Network if network settings changes are pending.
  • The Use physical drive radio button for a floppy device was disabled when connecting to a shared virtual machine or remote virtual machine a on host without a physical floppy device. This is now fixed.
  • Animated cursors are now displayed correctly in a virtual machine.

New in VMWare Workstation 9.0.0 (Aug 23, 2012)

  • What’s New in Workstation?:
  • VMware Workstation 9 continues VMware’s tradition of delivering the virtual hardware that technical professionals deserve and rely on every day. With support for Windows 8, restricted VMs, Open GL support for Linux and a new web interface to access virtual machines, it’s the perfect tool for getting work done.
  • Best in Class Windows 8 Support:
  • To help you and your organization evaluate Windows 8, master the Metro UI and test your applications, VMware Workstation 9 is optimized for running Windows 8 virtual machines and running on Windows 8 PCs. Easy Install simplifies the task of creating Windows 8 virtual machines, Unity mode will intelligently scale windows with Metro applications and multi-touch support will ensure you get the true Windows 8 experience in a virtual machine.
  • Access from Almost any Device:
  • Workstation’s new web interface allows you to access your virtual machines running in Workstation or vSphere on a tablet, smart phone, PC or any device with a modern browser. No plugins necessary. Now you can power on, off, or suspend your virtual machines and interact with them from almost anywhere.
  • Set It and Send It:
  • Create virtual machines that are encrypted, block USB devices, require a runtime password, and another password to change virtual machine settings. Once set, send the virtual machine to anyone to run on their Mac, Windows, or Linux machines by using VMware Fusion Professional.
  • From PC to Datacenter and Back Again:
  • In Workstation 8 we introduced the ability to upload a virtual machine from your PC to vSphere. Workstation 9 takes the next step and allows you to drag and drop a virtual machines form vSphere to your PC. It’s the easiest way to move virtual machines between your PC and your internal cloud.
  • Better 3D Graphics:
  • With faster 3D graphics and support for DirectX 9.0c Shader Model 3 and OpenGL 2.1 3D graphics in a Windows and now Linux virtual machine, VMware Workstation easily handles demanding 3D applications like AutoCAD, Solidworks, and many current games.

New in VMWare Workstation 8.0.4 (Jun 14, 2012)

  • General Issues:
  • Linux guests running the Linux kernel version 2.6.34 or later could not be pinged from the host via an IPv6 address.
  • On rare occasions, Linux guests would suddenly fail to Autofit or enter Unity.
  • Unity mode would exit if the title bar of an application contained certain non UTF-8 encoded extended ASCII characters.
  • On Windows hosts, the VMware Workstation user interface sometimes became unresponsive when minimized from full-screen mode if the suggestion balloon was being displayed.
  • On Windows hosts, the user interface sometimes became unresponsive if the application was rendered on an extended display that was abruptly disconnected.
  • Security Issues:
  • VMware host Checkpoint file memory corruption
  • Input data was not properly validated when loading Checkpoint files. This issue could have allowed an attacker with the ability to load a specially crafted Checkpoint file to execute arbitrary code on the host.
  • The Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures project (cve.mitre.org) has assigned the name CVE-2012-3288 to this issue.
  • VMware virtual machine remote device denial of service
  • A device (such as CD-ROM or keyboard) that is available to a virtual machine while physically connected to a system that does not run the virtual machine is referred to as a remote device. Traffic coming from remote virtual devices was incorrectly handled. This issue could have allowed an attacker who was capable of manipulating the traffic from a remote virtual device to crash the virtual machine.
  • The Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures project (cve.mitre.org) has assigned the name CVE-2012-3289 to this issue.

New in VMWare Workstation 8.0.2 (Jan 26, 2012)

  • Highlights of VMware Workstation 8.0.2 functionality include:
  • Ubuntu 11.10 is supported as a host.
  • Fedora 16 is supported as a guest.
  • Many customer-reported issues have been resolved.
  • Resolved Issues:
  • The ACLs on the PID files needed improvement. VMware thanks Inode0 for bringing this to our attention.
  • Releasing input from the guest to the host, for example, moving the cursor from the virtual machine window to the host screen, failed with an unrecoverable error.
  • Copying and pasting from a guest to an Ubuntu 11.10 host failed.
  • Shared folders did not work in Fedora 16 and OpenSuse 12.1 guests.
  • In Ubuntu 11.10 hosts, key repeat was disabled after ungrabbing or quitting VMware Workstation.
  • On a Windows host, a virtual machine configured to use a physical disk or partition failed to power on if the host had a volume backed by more than one physical disk, for example, a RAID system.
  • On a machine with Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 SP1, vix-perl installation failed with dynamic link errors.

New in VMWare Workstation 8.0.1 (Nov 21, 2011)

  • Highlights of VMware Workstation 8.0.1 functionality include:
  • Graphics performance and compatibility enhancements.
  • Improvements in creating and using shared virtual machines and remote virtual machines.
  • Ubuntu 11.10 is officially supported as a guest operating system.
  • Disk and memory management issues have been addressed.
  • Many customer-reported issues have been resolved.
  • The following list the resolved issues in VMware Workstation 8.0.1:
  • Windows 7 guest installation failed after powering on the virtual machine with the error A required CD/DVD drive device driver is missing. If you have a driver floppy disk, CD, DVD, or USB flash drive, please insert it now.
  • VMware Tools failed with the message VMware Tools unrecoverable error.
  • VMware Tools failed to start in Fedora 15 guests.
  • An Ubuntu 11.10 guest crashed with a signal 11 error if you installed or upgraded VMware Tools.
  • On hosts with Nvidia GeForce and Quadro video cards, some of the clouds in the Unigine Heaven Benchmark application were drawn solid black.
  • Easy Install did not properly function on Ubuntu 11.10.
  • If remote virtual machines were open, you could not shut down the Windows hosts.
  • When transitioning from Full Screen mode to Exclusive mode, the Full Screen toolbar sometimes failed to hide.
  • Host memory reservation restrictions on Windows hosts are more relaxed in VMware Workstation 8.0.1 than in previous versions of VMware Workstation.
  • CD/DVD mount Linux.iso failed while installing VMware Tools in Ubuntu 11.10 guests.
  • The AltGr key was not working in an Ubuntu guest in Unity mode when the host and guest keyboards were both set to a layout that contained the AltGr key.

New in VMWare Workstation 7.1.4 build 385536 (Mar 30, 2011)

  • Security Fixes:
  • Workstation 7.1.4 addresses a local privilege escalation in the vmrun utility
  • VMware vmrun is a utility that is used to perform various tasks on virtual machines. The vmrun utility runs on any platform with VIX libraries installed. It is installed in Workstation by default. In non-standard filesystem configurations, an attacker with the ability to place files into a predefined library path could take execution control of vmrun. This issue is present only in the version of vmrun that runs on Linux
  • The Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures project (cve.mitre.org) has assigned the name CVE-2011-1126 to this issue.
  • Other Resolved Issues:
  • In Workstation 7.1, the default main memory VA cache size (mainMem.vaCacheSize) for 32-bit Windows guests was reduced to accommodate 3D emulation memory requirements. However, the reduced value resulted in performance loss. For 7.1.4, the default main memory VA cache size has been be increased to 1000 MB and performance is improved.
  • Because Workstation failed to identify more than 10 USB host controllers in newer Windows guests, some USB devices did not appear in the Removable Devices menu. Now Workstation shows all USB devices in the Removable Devices menu as long as they are connected to the first identified 16 USB controllers.
  • When using the Capture Movie option, the captured video stopped playing around the 1GB mark if the video file exceeded 1GB. Now you can capture and play video files that are greater than 1GB.
  • The application vmware-modconfig UI could not start up in a KDE 4 session in a SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop (SLED) 11 environment.
  • On Windows host systems that have more than 4GB of memory, Workstation sometimes crashed during cryptographic operations, for example, when performing disk encryption.
  • VMware Tools upgrade could be started by a non-administrator user from the VMware Tools Control Panel in a Windows guest. In this release, only administrator users can start VMware Tools upgrade from the VMware Tools Control Panel. To prevent non-administrator users from starting VMware Tools upgrade from a guest by using other applications, set isolation.tools.autoinstall.disable to TRUE in the virtual machine configuration (.vmx) file.
  • When a virtual machine running on a Windows host was used to access an Omron Industrial CP1L Programmable Logic Controller, Workstation generated an unrecoverable error.
  • When using NAT virtual networking on Windows hosts, the traceroute command did not work when used within virtual machines.
  • The Easy Install feature did not work for Fedora 14 guest operating systems.
  • During VMware Tools installation on a Fedora 14 64-bit guest operating system, the following warning message was generated while building the vsock module: case value '255' not in enumerated type 'socket_state'.
  • Workstation crashed with an access violation when a user tried to open the sidebar after closing all tabs in Quick Switch mode.
  • The Easy Install feature did not work for Red Hat Linux 6 guest operating systems.
  • The VMware Tools HGFS provider DLL caused a deadlock when making calls to the WNetAddConnection2 function from an application such as eEye Rentina in a Windows guest operating system.
  • There was no option to disable guest time sync when a host resumes. Now you can set time.synchronize.resume.host to FALSE in the virtual machine configuration (.vmx) file to disable guest time sync when a host resumes. See VMware Knowledge Base Article 1189 for other time sync options.
  • Setting a hidden attribute on a file in a shared folder from a Windows guest on a Linux host failed with an error. This problem caused applications such as SVN checkout to fail when checking out to shared folders on Linux hosts from Windows guests.

New in VMWare Workstation 7.1.3 Build 324285 (Nov 22, 2010)

  • When you install VMware Workstation on an operating system that uses a post-2.6.34 Linux kernel, the vmmon module fails to compile.
  • The vmxnet and vsock guest modules fail to compile on operating systems that use post-2.6.32 Linux kernels.
  • When you install VMware Tools on an operating system that uses a post-2.6.34 Linux kernel, the vsock.ko module fails to build.
  • Unity mode does not work with an Ubuntu 10.10 64-bit guest operating system.
  • An unrecoverable error occurs when you select the Novell NetWare, Sun Solaris, or Other guest operating system type in the New Virtual Machine wizard.
  • When you run bulkDeploy.exe to deploy a Pocket ACE package into one or more locations, it crashes with the error SSL Wrapper: invoked uninitilized function AES_set_encrypt_key!.

New in VMWare Workstation 7.1.2 Build 301548 (Sep 27, 2010)

  • Added Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 support for Integrated Virtual Debugger´s live debugging mode.
  • Many issues with running Windows 7 SP1 Beta, RHEL 6.0 Beta, and Fedora 13 in a virtual machine have been addressed. Each of these Operating System versions are still in development and have known issues, therefore they are not fully supported.
  • NAT networking includes several performance improvements.
  • VMware Workstation 7.1.2 has been tested with the new free standalone VMware vCenter Converter 4.3. VMware vCenter Converter can convert a single machine or an entire datacenter into virtual machines and it supports Windows 7. For more information on VMware vCenter Converter, see https://www.vmware.com/tryvmware/?p=converter.
  • Easy Install now supports older versions of CentOS.
  • Added Windows 2008R2 and Apache Server 2.2.15 support for ACE Management Server
  • Installation, Upgrade, and Compatibility:
  • In some cases copying an index.html file into the same directory as the VMware Workstation 7.1.1 installer executable on Windows hosts might cause the VMware Workstation installer user interface to fail.
  • On Linux hosts, if the screen saver becomes active during the VMware Workstation software update process, the update might fail.
  • When downloading software updates via a slow Internet connection, you might receive a timeout error resulting in an unsuccessful download.
  • Display:
  • To improve user experience when using Unity mode on Windows Vista and Windows 7 virtual machines, VMware Workstation disables Aero when entering Unity mode and re-enables it when you exit Unity mode. To override the disabling of Aero, open the vmx configuration file and add unity.allowCompositingInGuest="TRUE".
  • Rebooting an Ubuntu 10.04 host after installing VMware Workstation, might cause the System Tools option under the Application menu to disappear.
  • Attempting to power on a Windows 7 virtual machine named using non-ASCII characters on Ubuntu 10.04 hosts might cause display issues in the Unity Start menu.
  • Enabling Aero on hosts with Intel Integrated Graphics processing unit might cause display issues in a virtual machine.
  • On Windows hosts, you might experience some usability issues while attempting to interact with Fedora 13 virtual machine applications in Unity mode.
  • On Fedora 13 virtual machines, dragging guest applications along the edges of the guest display might cause the mouse functions to become unresponsive.
  • In some instances, virtual machines suspended in VMware Workstation 7.x might not resume in Workstation 6.0 or earlier versions.
  • On Japanese version of Windows, using non-ASCII characters to name the host might cause the Start menu to not show in Unity mode.
  • Miscellaneous:
  • The DNS server information might not refresh when the virtual machine switches between multiple NICs, such as wired and wireless. Thus leading to a failure in looking up hosts with their DNS names when guest is using NAT.
  • If your host system has three parallel ports you might not be able map these non-sequentially.
  • On Ubuntu guests, the vmware-user component of VMware Tools might become unresponsive after Autologon is enabled on the guest and cause drag and drop or copy and paste operations to fail.
  • USB devices with vendor ID 0x1366 might be identified as being manufactured by Asahi KASEI instead of SEGGER.
  • Pressing the Ctrl+Alt+Enter keys on an ACE virtual machine running in kiosk mode might cause the keyboard to become unresponsive.
  • PCI devices cannot be added back into encrypted ACE virtual machines if removed accidentally by non-ACE Administrators. To fix this issue, only ACE Administrators can add or remove PCI devices to ACE virtual machines after entering the Admin mode password.
  • Dragon Medical 10.1 from Nuance might not run with more than one core on Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit guests.
  • On Windows 7 guests, you must run a New Hardware scan from the Device Manager menu for Logitech USB audio devices to be recognized. USB devices disconnected from the guest might still appear to be connected in the guest, and the guest might not allow you to reconnect them.
  • On some Windows guests, the volume control keys and a few other multimedia keys might not work in a virtual machine.
  • Error in NetBIOS forwarding in NAT leads to incorrect resolution of WINS name of the virtual machine.
  • Recording or replaying some 3D applications with record/replay might cause memory allocation failures.
  • On Linux hosts, launching a virtual machine application shortcut that includes either non-ASCII characters or a long path might not work on the first attempt.

New in VMWare Workstation 7.1 Build 261024 (May 27, 2010)

  • Support for 8 virtual processors (or 8 virtual cores) and 2 TB virtual disks.
  • Support for OpenGL 2.1 for Windows Vista and Windows 7 guests.
  • Greatly improved DirectX 9.0 graphics performance for Windows Vista and Windows 7 guests. Up to 2x faster than Workstation 7.
  • Launch virtualized applications directly from the Windows 7 taskbar to create a seamless experience between applications in your virtual machines and the desktop.
  • Optimized performance for Intel's Core i3, i5, i7 processor family for faster virtual machine encryption and decryption.
  • Support for more Host and Guest Operating Systems, including: Hosts: Windows 2008 R2, Ubuntu 10.04, RHEL 5.4, and more Guests: Fedora 12, Ubuntu 10.04, RHEL 5.4, SEL 11 SP1, and more.
  • Now includes built in Automatic Updates feature to check, download, and install VMware Workstation updates.
  • Ability to import and export Open Virtualization Format (OVF 1.0) packaged virtual machines and upload directly to VMware vSphere, the industry's best platform for building cloud infrastructures.

New in VMWare Workstation 6.5.2 Build 156735 (Apr 3, 2009)

  • VMware provides support for the following operating systems for Workstation 6.5.2:
  • Windows Vista Service Pack 1 and Service Pack 2
  • Asianux Server 3.0 Service Pack 1
  • openSUSE 11.1
  • Ubuntu 8.10
  • Ubuntu 8.04 LTS
  • VMware provides experimental support to the following operating systems for Workstation:
  • Fedora 11
  • FreeBSD 7.1
  • Mandriva Linux 2009
  • Novell SLE11.0
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.3
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4.8
  • Sun Solaris 10 Update 6
  • Ubuntu 9.04

New in VMWare Workstation 6.5.0 (Sep 27, 2008)

  • Many enhancements were made, including support for several new operating systems, integration of ACE authoring features, the ability to start VMs in streaming mode, an installation wizard GUI with an alternative command line mode, an "Easy Install" option for unattended installation of several Windows OSs and Linux distributions, Unity mode, accelerated 3D graphics for Windows XP guests, a graphical virtual network editor for Linux hosts, enhancement of VM record and replay, virtual hardware updates for hot-plugging, and more.