VMware Workstation 17 Pro It has already been published as the new stable version of the well-known virtualization solution oriented, as its name indicates, to the professional sector. The highlight of this release is the official support for Windows 11 guests (virtual machines) and the virtual support of TPM 2.0, one of the features required by the latest version of Microsoft’s operating system to officially run on a computer.
VMware Workstation 17 Pro is an application that needs no introduction at this point, since it is a widely used solution for both virtualizing servers and desktop systems in corporate environments. On the other hand, there is VMware Workstation Player, the version limited in features and aimed at the home sector. VMware is a prestigious company within its segment and stands out for the good performance offered by its solutions when running operating systems in its virtualized environments.
According to the company, VMware Workstation 17 Pro is compatible with all Intel and AMD (x86) processors released since 2011 and officially supports Windows and Linux (for macOS there is VMware Fusion) at the host level. However, despite its multiplatform support, it is a proprietary application and in Linux it lacks installers adapted to the standards that have been used on the desktop for years.
VMware Workstation Player 17 on Fedora Linux.
Regarding the novelties, we find the automatic start of the virtual machines after the boot of the host system; new supported operating systems, which are Windows 11, Windows Server 2022, Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9, Debian 11 and Ubuntu 22.04; Virtual TPM 2.0 support to properly support Windows 11 and other operating systems that may require such a feature; the ability to choose between full or fast encryption of a virtual machine; OpenGL 4.3 for virtual machine level graphics rendering, although Windows 7 or later and Linux 5.16 along with Mesa 22.2 are required; plus support for version 1.2 of Windows Display Driver Model (WDDM).
Among the recognized issues is one where the application shows the wrong version of FreeBSD when creating a virtual machine from an ISO image of version 12 or 13 of the operating system. This can be resolved by manually setting the system type to the correct version. On the other hand, on 64-bit Fedora Linux guests there is no choice between using a UEFI firmware and BIOS.
Full details about VMware Workstation 17 Pro are available in the release notes, while the paid application can be obtained from the corresponding download section on the company’s website. We remember that for domestic users there is VMWare Workstation Player.
