Until a few weeks ago, you needed a paid license to operate Broadcom’s VMware Workstation Pro. However, the company recently modified the licensing terms of Workstation Pro and its Mac-oriented sibling, Fusion Pro, allowing you to use them for non-commercial use cases.
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As such, you have more options besides Hyper-V and VirtualBox if you want to set up a virtual machine or two. However, setting up Workstation Pro can be a bit daunting, especially if you’re new to hypervisors. So, we’ve created this guide to help you familiarize yourself with the newest addition to the hypervisor landscape!
What is VMware Workstation Pro?
And should you use it?
VMware Workstation Pro is a hypervisor that provides all the utilities you’ll need to create, deploy, and manage virtual machines. In simpler terms, Workstation Pro is a tool that uses your system resources to create independent machines (with their own operating systems) inside your PC. Just like its rival VirtualBox, Workstation Pro is a Type-2 hypervisor, meaning it’s installed on top of your existing OS. Compared to Type-1 hypervisors like ESXi (and to some extent, Proxmox), Workstation Pro doesn’t require you to wipe out your existing OS. As such, it gives you the flexibility to test multiple operating systems without modifying your boot settings. Sure, you do get a minor reduction in performance due to your existing operating system, but Workstation Pro’s convenience and ease-of-access makes it a great option for everyday users who just want to try out a new OS.
Enabling virtualization in your BIOS
Like other hypervisors and virtualization-centric tools, you’ll need to enable virtualization in your motherboard BIOS. For the uninitiated, virtualization is a facility that allows you to split your PC’s computing prowess across multiple virtual environments, including containers and virtual machines. We have a dedicated article on how to enable virtualization on Windows 11, but here’s a short method that you can follow along:
- Restart your PC and mash the Of the key as it boots up. Laptop users may need to consult the manufacturer’s website for the BIOS key. In most cases, it’s either Of the, F2, F10or F12.
- Depending on your motherboard, you may need to head to the Advanced CPU settings or Security tab.
- Make sure SVM Mode or CPUVirtualization is set to Enabled.
- Navigate to the Save & Exit tab, press Save & Exit Setupand agree to Save the changes made to the BIOS before resuming the normal startup process.
Setting up Workstation Pro
Interestingly, grabbing the setup.exe file for Workstation Pro is harder than installing the hypervisor, as you’ll need to go through a rather annoying process to get access to it.
- Head to the official download link for Workstation Pro and press the Register button located in the top-right corner.
- Once you’ve filled in your emailBroadcom will send you a verification codewhich you’ll need to enter before proceeding onward.
- Enter the necessary credentialsagree to Broadcom’s Terms of Useand click on Create Account.
- Inside the My Downloads tab, select VMware Workstation Pro.
- Click on the drop-down arrow next to VMware Workstation Pro 17.0 for Personal Use (Windows/Linux) and choose the latest version of the hypervisor.
- Finally, click on the HTTPS Download button.
In case the button is inaccessible, you may need to agree to the Terms and Conditions. Doing so will open another page, where you’ll have to enter even more personal details.
Once you’ve acquired the setup.exe file, installing Workstation Pro is a piece of cake. All you have to do is:
- Run the setup file as an administrator.
- Press Next on the welcome page and agree to yet another ToC contract.
- Use the Change button to pick the installation directory.
- Feel free to uncheck all the user experience and shortcut settings in the next two pages and hit the Next option twice.
- Click on the Install button and wait for the wizard to finish adding all the Workstation Pro files.
Creating virtual machines in VMware Workstation Pro
Now that you’ve installed Workstation Pro, it’s time to launch the hypervisor and deploy some VMs. Since you’ll need an operating system to go with the virtual machine, I recommend downloading the ISO file of your preferred OS before proceeding further.
- Head to the folder where you installed Workstation Pro and run vmware.exe as an admin.
- Click on the Create a new Virtual Machine option and tap Next on the VM setup wizard.
- Toggle the Installer disc image (ISO) checkbox and press Browse.
- Select the ISO file of the OS you wish to install and tap Open.
We’ll be going with Fedora in this tutorial because it’s one of the easiest OS to set up. As always, be sure to hit Next after each step.
- (Optional) If you’ve picked an obscure operating system, you may need to select the Guest operating system and the correct Version of the OS.
- Give a Name to your VM and use the Browse option if you want to switch its Location.
- Enter the Maximum disk size you wish to assign to the virtual machine.
- Tap the Finish button to create the virtual machine with your chosen parameters.
- You can deploy the VM by pressing Power on this virtual machine.
- (Optional) If you wish to modify the memory, processor count, or hard disk space, you press Ctrl+D to open the Virtual Machine settings window and change the parameters accordingly.
Testing out your favorite OS in VMware Workstation Pro
Creating virtual machines has plenty of advantages. For one, you get to experiment with multiple operating systems without actually going through the hassle of installing them physically on your system. Likewise, you don’t have to worry about breaking the virtual machine, as VMware Workstation Pro lets you create regular snapshots that you can reload in case things go wrong.
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That said, Workstation Pro is still a Type-2 hypervisor, meaning you might run into performance issues if you try to perform heavy-duty workloads on the VMs. So, if you want more horsepower in your virtual machines, you might want to set up Proxmox instead. But for those who require maximum performance, it’s a good idea to skip hypervisors altogether and switch to a dual-boot setup instead.