Kelvin Chua posted this in Discord and asked me to repost here.
VMWare Workstation is now free. Tested and confirmed that it is much faster then VirtualBox. I installed my Clarion 5505 and basically it compiled at a much better speed then in VirtualBox.
But if you are trying to run Windows 7, you will have to install the following patches, else you will not be able to install VMWare Tools.
KB4490628
KB4474419
KB3125574
KB3020369
All the above KBs can still be downloaded from Microsoft Catalog (simply enter the KB, for example KB4490628, at the google search)
Installed Windows 10 32-bit without any issues at all.
We’re thrilled to announce a significant change that reflects our commitment to making VMware Fusion and VMware Workstation more accessible than ever. Starting November 11, 2024, these powerful desktop hypervisor products will be available for free to everyone—commercial, educational, and personal users alike.
What’s changing and what does this mean for current subscribed customers?
Effective immediately, both VMware Fusion and VMware Workstation will transition away from the paid subscription model, meaning you can now utilize these tools without any cost. The paid versions of these offerings – Workstation Pro and Fusion Pro – are no longer available for purchase.
If you’re currently under a commercial contract, you can rest easy knowing that your agreement will remain in effect until the end of your term. You will continue to receive the full level of service and enterprise-grade support as per your contract. Our commitment to maintaining high standards of support remains unchanged throughout your contract duration.
How do these changes impact Desktop Hypervisor’s current support and features?
The free version will include all the features you’ve come to rely on from the paid version. You’ll have the tools necessary to successfully complete your projects without compromise.
For our customers with active support agreements, you will still have access to support through our standard channels—whether via our support portal or by contacting our support team directly. Once your current contract concludes, you can continue using the product. However, please note that support ticketing for troubleshooting will no longer be available. All users will have access to a wealth of online resources, including documentation, user guides, and community forums, to assist you in making the most of your desktop hypervisor experience.
The Free Tier Support Model
For new users joining us under the free model, we’re providing a robust support ecosystem designed to help you succeed:
Another post in Discord about VMWare. It’s important to keep it updated, and that has changed to be a manual process.
Also note to be sure to update the VMWare Tools as they are obsolete in all of the installs.
Broadcom has stopped delivering automated updates to #VMware Fusion and Workstation. All updates have to be downloaded and installed manually from the Broadcom Support Portal (as a side note: This portal is one of the worst corporate “support” websites I’ve seen in the last decade).
This is terrible. It will lead to tens of thousands of VMware installations remaining vulnerable to trivially exploitable flaws, for example, local privilege escalation via CVE-2025-41244 support.broadcom.com/web/ecx/s…
BTW, Please note that to fix CVE-2025-41244 you must now manually download the correct VMware Tools package from the support portal, unpack the zip, mount the ISO image, and then execute the setup.exe from the mounted ISO image.
There is currently no VMware releases that include the fixed VMware Tools, so if you create any new VMs you MUST install the update manually to each new VM.
I’m just awaiting some new NVMe drives and then I’m going to have a look at Proxmox ( Proxmox - Powerful open-source server solutions ). One of my clients has it installed and the management tools seem quite comprehensive. It also has back up features. It’s rather fast and uses the ZFS file system.
The client was running VMWare but their new hardware IT company moved them to Proxmox.
The great thing is that, like VirtualBox no licence fees.
The product update feature is no longer available in VMware Workstation, Player, Fusion.
On clicking the Check for Updates option, an error stating "Unable to connect for updates at the moment.
Moving forward, updates will need to be manually downloaded from the Broadcom Support Portal.
Once the appropriate product update is downloaded, it can be manually installed.
Follow the step-by-step instructions provided in the following articles for the respective products: