Features

  • Run any virtual machine. Run virtual machines created by VMware Workstation, GSX Server or ESX Server. VMware Player also supports Microsoft virtual machines and Symantec LiveState Recovery disk formats.
  • Access host PC devices. Use host CD/DVD drives, network adapters, and plug-and-play USB devices.
  • Copy and paste. Copy text and files between the virtual machine and the host PC.
  • Drag and drop. Drag and drop files between a Windows host PC and a Windows virtual machine.
  • Multiple networking options. Virtual machines can share or obtain new IP addresses or be isolated from the network and host.
  • 32- and 64-bit host and guest operating system support. Run a wide variety of virtual machines containing 32- and 64-bit operating systems simultaneously on the same physical PC. Compatible 64-bit guest operating systems include select Microsoft Windows, Red Hat, SUSE, and FreeBSD distributions.
  • Adjustable memory. Tune virtual machine memory for optimal performance.
  • Configurable shutdown. Power down or suspend the virtual machine when closing VMware Player.
  • Integrated Google Search. VMware Player includes Google search capabilities, fully integrated for conveniently searching the web without launching a browser.

What’s New

New Security Enhancement

  • This release introduces new security enhancement by providing an improved encryption scheme (XTS instead of CBC) for maximum protection with a reduced performance overhead. Please see https://kb.vmware.com/s/article/93071 for more information.
  • This release resolves CVE-2023-34044. For more information on these vulnerabilities and their impact on VMware products, see VMSA-2023-0022.

Control Virtual Machines using the VMRUN Commands

  • You can now control virtual machines using the VMRUN command line utility in Workstation Player. You can use commands to perform various guest operations such as power on or off, capture snapshots for data backup, manage network adapters, run an executable program, manage files and directories, manage processes running on the operating system, and so on.

Import and Export Virtual Machines with vTPM device

  • You can now import or export a virtual machine with a vTPM device enabled using the OVF Tool. You can export a virtual machine with vTPM device into an OVF file, and then use the OVF file to import the virtual machine with a vTPM.

Manage Power Operations of Encrypted Virtual Machines using VMREST API

  • You can now power on/off, suspend, pause, unpause, or retrieve the state of an encrypted virtual machine using the VMREST API service.

VMware Hardware Version 21

  • Support for up to 256 NVMe devices: 4 controllers and 64 devices per controller
  • Support for NVMe 1.3 in the following guest operating systems:
  • Microsoft Windows 11
  • Microsoft Windows Server 2022

Previous Release Notes:

  • This release resolves CVE-2022-22938. For more information on this vulnerability and its impact on VMware products please visit: https://www.vmware.com/security/advisories/VMSA-2022-0002.html
  • VMware Workstation 16 Player is a free upgrade for all VMware Workstation 15 Player users. It includes the following updates:
  • 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 sizes of up to 9000 bytes.
  • Open VM Tools is the default VMware Tools for applicable Linux virtual machine

Previous release notes:

This release of VMware Workstation Player is a free upgrade for all VMware Workstation 15 Player users.

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 contains bug fixes and security updates:

Important Fixes

  • This release of VMware Workstation Player addresses the following issue:

VMware Workstation Player 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.

This release of VMware Workstation Player is a free upgrade for all VMware Workstation 15 Player users.

  • Support has been added for the following operating systems as both host and guest.
    • Ubuntu 18.10
    • Fedora 29
    • RHEL 7.6
  • This release contains bug fixes and security updates.

Important Fixes:

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.

Previous release notes:

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

VMware Workstation Player 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

Support has been added for the following operating systems:

  • Ubuntu 17.04
  • Fedora 26
  • CentOS 7.4
  • RHEL 7.4
  • Debian 9.1
  • Oracle Linux 7.4
  • SLE 12 SP3
  • OpenSUSE 42.3

New CPU enablement

  • Intel Skylake and AMD Ryzen CPU support is enabled.

Virtual NVMe support

  • Workstation 14 Player introduces a new virtual NVMe storage controller. NVMe devices require virtual hardware version 13 / ESXi 6.5 compatibility and later.

Secure Boot

  • Workstation 14 Player introduces Secure Boot support for Virtual Machines to ensure only trusted code is loaded by the UEFI firmware prior to the OS “handoff” process.

Network Latency simulation

  • With new Network Latency Simulation feature, you can simulate a specific network environment along with existing network speed and packet loss simulator.

Native OVF support

  • With improved OVF/OVA support, Workstation Player 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.

New GTK+ 3 based UI for Linux

  • Linux Workstation Player UI has been rewritten to support GTK+ 3.

Source link

RELATED ARTICLESMORE FROM AUTHOR