VMware Workstation Reviews

My company used to manufacture equipment that worked in conjunction with Citrix, VMware, or anything else that had either a cloud-based solution or a thin client or a thin client operating system requirement.

Our clients already were already a VMware Workstation, Citrix, Parallels, or a Microsoft customer, and we were only presenting them with the technology to physically connect to that solution. We provided a way in which they could present a connection to the target operating system or application. We were the OS that sat on the actual physical customer's desktop, and then they would connect to, for example, Citrix, VMware, or Microsoft.

Instead of having a whole full-blown copy of Microsoft Windows on a desktop to access another copy of Microsoft Windows, that's in the cloud, we are were presenting them with an alternative method to get to the virtual desktop or virtual application. We provided an endpoint computer solutions space. We didn't influence what the customers' endpoint was connecting to, we would facilitate the connection only.

The most valuable features of VMware Workstation are the speed of access and quality of upgrade. Those are the more important and pertinent aspects as far as we were concerned. Functionality and features were relevant for the customers. What a customer chose, we had to make sure that it operated. 

The big issue that we've always had with VMware, was the disparity between what was presented for a Windows-based client and a Linux-based client. The Windows client was always two or three releases ahead of the Linux client. We always wanted VMware to change and improve the feature sets between the client connector on Linux and on Windows.

We have used Citrix and they are very good because they keep both in step with one another. When they release a new endpoint client, very close to the same between the Microsoft Windows OS 10, Apple iOS, and Android.  VMware Workstation tends to leave Windows first for its client OS and sometimes doesn't catch up with the other OS's. A good example is the offloading of Teams. Teams works on Microsoft Windows, but there's no Linux client. 

I have been using VMware Workstation for approximately six years.

VMware Workstation is highly reliable and stable.

I have used Citrix previously. I would rate VMware Workstation and Citrix the same. They have small differences and they both have areas to improve.

VMware Workstation's initial setup is straightforward. It's not a difficult solution to implement. It's incredibly similar to Citrix. It's quite easy because most sites that employ Horizon or VMware Workstation have already a VMware implementation, it's not extensive in that respect. However, what is difficult for all clients, it's how to make it work reliably, quickly, and stream well. After the initial installation, it's the second configuration that is what takes more work.

I would recommend this solution for customers. However, the solution has to match the customer's use case.

I rate VMware Workstation a ten out of ten.

It's a very good tool for testing labs on my own computer. This is only the use.

VMware Workstation is great for migrating and patching operating systems. 

My experience with Workstation is limited, so I don't know all the functionalities of this tool. Maybe Workstation could add some more compatibility with other vendors.

I used VMware Workstation in a testing lab two months ago, but it was only for internal testing. We only tried it out for about five days.

Workstation is stable and scalable. 

Workstation is easy to set up. It only took about 15 minutes. 

I rate VMware Workstation nine out of 10. It's a very good product. 

The primary use case of this product is to connect to my virtual interpreter of VMs and the like. In the event of an emergency, or if the user wants to deploy a VM on his own virtual system, Workstation can create a number of VMs in their own system, without having to connect back to the network. We deploy this solution for our clients and have around 15 customers that are using it. We are resellers of VMware Workstation.  

This product has a lot of good features and the basic one is for solving connection problems. Users can deploy the test machines or the VM machines on their own system and do the testing part. They can set up their own lab or own test set up on their system and do what they need.

I think that performance could be improved by making it more effective and less resource consuming. It's a little clunky. 

The solution is stable, we haven't had any issues.

This solution is scalable - you can install it on your system and run a number of VMs which connect back to the central data, so it's inter-connectable, connecting access to VPNs.

The initial setup of this product was straightforward. 

I rate this solution an eight out of 10. 

Our primary use case for VMware Workstation is testing. We also provide some online services on VMware ESXi. 

The feature I find the most valuable is the product's usability. I prefer it over the Oracle solution, especially APEX. 

VMwate Workstation's virtualization is great as well. 

The price should be reduced. 

Visio stencils must be made available for technical documentation.

I have been using this solution for five years. 

I haven't faced any inconveniences working with this solution. It is very easy to use. 

I haven't had a reason to contact technical support. We have not had any significant difficulties with the product. 

I recommend this product. 

This product is solid and useful for quick test/dev environments. 

Found replicating client application upgrades and compatibility tests within a virtual environment makes upgrades very successful. 

We also use it for custom application testing to ensure compatibility and smooth transitions.  

 

Since I work with so many different customers, I deal with many operating systems and workstation configurations. When performing upgrades to servers, applications, windows, etc., I need to know the ramifications before we go live with production.  

Creating labs has been useful for my employees when working on certifications.

I am also not a big fan of adding and removing software over and over on my laptop, so I use my VM's when I need a temporary application installed. It also keeps the clutter down, keeping my main tools fast and efficient.  

They also come in handy when cleaning infected thumb drives.

I have found this product excellent for test/dev environments. This is 90% of what I use this product for. 

I have had issues with the virtual network adapters in the past that has taken some time to troubleshoot. 

Three to five years.

I have encountered stability issues with the virtual networks and have had run into issue with copying or moving VMs. Usually these all work great 9 out of 10 times, but when it doesn't work right it become very time consuming to fix and troubleshoot.

None thus far.

8 out of 10. Good SR system to communicate through emails and phone support.

No

Setup is very easy.

Using workstation saves money on big hardware using vSphere just for test/dev.

The pricing is a bit steep in my opinion for testing and there are other options.  None however that are so powerful and easy to use.

No

Ease of install. Ease of upgrade. We also got to check out w10 so we could see how we wanted it set up for everyone. 

It used to be a bit buggy with v7 when you wanted to suspend a machine but those issues seem to have been worked out with v12. 

It's enabled us to fire up speedy sandboxes to test software or malware in a closed environment. We can also run other operating systems at the click of a button. In general, it's saved us time and money. We can also run honeypots to capture information on exploit attempts. Three really great things to have more of. 

From my POV, I have no real niggles with it. It's fine as it is but I probably use about 40% of the capabilities so I've not delved into every single function provided by VMware player. 

To avoid problems you really do need to be on the most recent version, especially if you want to use W10 images. 

On and off I've used this for 7-8 years. 

The ability to drag a VM to an additional monitor and utilize VMs on separate windows, drag and drop. I like the newer network editor. Using a wireless guest network to keep my network separate from activities like downloading software and the like, this keeps the bandwidth for my users at an optimum level while allowing me to download an ISO image from MS or some other large file. I used to have to wait until after hours to perform bandwidth hogging work. But now, I can leverage our wireless guest network to accomplish these tasks and minimize late hours.

The ability to run Virtual machines in different networks and with different security levels. I can sandbox my windows machine when I need to use a non domain admin account for daily tasks but have another sandboxed machine to handle system admin tasks. I also have a wireless sand boxed Ubuntu machine that is in no way connected to our internal network for testing our websites, outside email etc. This has saved me a great deal of time and effort.

Performance is a needed improvement. I would like to see a faster response on my VMs. Linux support is so-so - many of the VM Tools you need are different packages downloadable from the distro you are using. Ubuntu 15.x seems to have improved the ability that plagued the product - getting the host share folder to be accessible from a Linux VM.

Pricing. When you purchase VMware workstation you get a great product but there is a cost. It is more expensive than Fusion or Player.

I have used VMware workstation 10 and now 12 - I skipped 11. It is an expensive upgrade too. With the versions listed above, I have been running this for several years.

Deploying using a LINUX OS - (especially CENTOS 7) seems to strip some functionality and is fraught with difficulties. Save yourself some headaches - deploy it in a Windows environment and then use Linux as a VM.

I have had a few issues prior to update1 - but I am unsure if this is due to my platform or if it is a VMware related issue. I also noticed that it uses a lot of RAM when running multiple instances of Windows VMs. Update - I have 32GB RAM now and it works flawlessly. I have been working in this newer environment for several months and I couldn't be more pleased.

On Windows 7 - I can run 2 VMs (I have a beefy Workstation with 2 quad core Xeon procs and two NVIDIA Quadro Cards as well as 16 GB RAM) It does not play well when there are more than 2 windows VMs running on top of a Windows host environment. Update - I have a new machine with an i7 6700 processor - it is more than adequate to run the base Windows 8.1 OS, another Windows 8.1 OS a Windows 7 OS, and an Ubuntu 16.04 OS simultaneously. I do this on a daily basis at work and the performance is great. I use a SSD for the base Windows OS and the other OS's live on a larger 3 TB drive that I use for virtual machine/server work.

Customer Service:

I think support is an issue for VMware - they only offer support for this product once you purchase more than 10 licenses. This is a show-stopper for smaller organizations like us. We would like to pay for support the same way we do for the Vsphere licenses and have the ability to upgrade the product under support without an additional charge. This is really a big deal for us.

Technical Support:

Not much there for technical support.

I have used Virtual box and Hyper-V. VMware workstation is more powerful than either of these. You can create virtual networks to test things on, you can emulate an entire network with outside, inside, DMZ, servers, clients, (use GNS3 to create a virtual firewall) then test things prior to rollouts. You can also connect to Vcenter or to esxi hosts. You can upload servers and change settings, you can even add HDD's from your SAN to a VM from VMworkstation when that VM is powered off

Pretty simple - the network editor is the one you have to pay attention to if you are trying to setup multiple networks. The defaults really do not unleash the power of the platform.

In house

It paid for itself multiple times. Especially when we had to pull in older Windows 2003 servers for disk manipulation. I also use this when vCenter is unavailable to manipulate machine settings.

Spendy - be prepared to buy multiple Windows OS's and to spend a couple hundred or more on the Workstation software. Look for a VMware sale if possible. I also use this at home to run my Ubuntu within Windows.

Yes, virtual box and Hyper-v (comes with Windows 8 and 10 professional for free so you really don't need to buy Hyper-V) VMware is far more powerful than either of the free ones. No Network editor, the ability to copy and paste on the fly etc. is limited on the freebies. See my comments below about network editor.

Use this to secure your Domain admin accounts - don't setup email, surf the web, or do anything outside of your internal network using your DA account. This product can help you immensely. Using the virtual network editor can also be a benefit to you in this regard you can setup a virtual machine using wireless on a totally different network, use the vm (I use Ubuntu) to perform web tasks like testing your web site externally or to download and scan for malware prior to letting it on your production network.

VM management - ability to very easily create and manage multiple VMs of various platforms. Portability and ease of saving and copying entire VMs from machine to machine.

As a systems admin, I use it to run multiple instances of systems on my host machine to get better usability and for testing new builds for our users as well as for server updates. 

It's been a struggle at times to keep drive shares and video drivers working across updates. So a bit of stability in those areas would be nice.

2 years

I've been hit with a few bugs and documented issues.Specifically with video not behaving for VM windows on multiple monitors. And shared printing from the host machine is very temperamental.

It always seems a bit steep to me on renewals, but it pairs very well with our existing vSphere architecture so it offers a few more benefits and ease of use.

I use Hyper-V for the same purposes but VMware Workstation performs well and scales down to our developers needs easily.

Network virtualisation allows the recreation of an entire network including multiple subnets, this is required to correctly recreate live deployment scenarios. It can interact with vSphere/Esxi to allow VMs to be moved directly into vSphere, or copied out and stood-up in Workstation; full support to import/export from OVF templates is also supported. This functionality has proved extremely beneficial in pre-staging supporting servers for DR recovery tests as well as testing system upgrades.

It has given us the flexibility to recreate live server scenarios including the supporting networks and AD domain controllers; these are then used to test upgrades or migrations with no impact on the live servers or network. These actions can then be repeated on the live servers, or the upgraded test VM can simply replace the original server (depending on the service requirements and server role). This can be completed by transferring the test VM directly from Workstation to the ESXI host or vSphere environment. If the transfer is the preferred method, the original VM remains available as a failback.

The addition of a built-in virtual router would be a good addition. Currently, I run my own virtual router in order to provide conectivity between virtual subnets.

I've been using it for several years; VMware Workstation since v6 (released in 2008). Initially, it was just for building test servers for training purposes, and versions 7, 8 and now 9 for creating test implementations of live server deployment scenarios, to assist in resolving live issues or to test change controls.

There were no issues.

In v6, it was a 32bit environment with a maximum memory of 4Gb RAM. Therefore, this required a high level of swap out of RAM to disk in order to provide sufficient memory space to run VMs, this occasionally caused system crashes. Since v8 this has not been an issue.

None, Workstation scales to 32Gb of RAM.

Customer Service:

No VMware support is provided with Workstation.

Technical Support:

No VMware technical support is available with VMware Workstation.

The initial set-up is straight forward, however, you need to ensure that virtualisation is switched on in the BIOS.

Workstation is a one off licence payment.

Make sure you have at least four cores available on an Intel i5 (i7 with eight cores recommended) a minimum of 8Gb RAM (32Gb recommended) and lots of internal storage (SSD preferable). Having a virtual SCSI SAN is also recommended if you wish to evaluate vSphere or Hyper-V deployments including shared storage for VM failover.

It was in March 2010, when I first experienced VMware Workstation when my superior asked me to setup a LAMP server in my desktop computer. At first I was hesitant but I started to love it because of the following reasons: • It is very easy to use and no complications in installation • It runs multiple operating systems such as Linux, Ubuntu, XP, Vista, Windows 7 and 8 at the same time without rebooting • It replicates server and desktop environments using snapshots, replays and clones • It has web interface which easily manage and control virtual machines • It integrates Visual Studio, Eclipse and many applications including MySQL, MSSQL and IBM DB2 • It supports 3D Graphics, HD audio, USB 2.0 and 3.0, folder sharing and hardware devices sharing such as Camera and Bluetooth

VMware Workstations is for desktop use only and is pricey. The latest VMware workstation which is Workstation 9 costs $249.

VMware workstation is expensive but with its excellent features and performance for a desktop, the cost is nothing. You can use VMware Workstation to develop softwares and applications, test, check and analyze the performance of softwares and experience different virtual network environments such as stand-alone or client–server environments. I am definitely recommending VMware workstation to my fellow programmers, IT professionals, software and systems engineers, teacher and students who want to explore and take advantage of the power of desktop virtualization.