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VMware Workstation Player Changelog

What's new in VMware Workstation Player 17.5.1 Build 23298084

Mar 9, 2024
  • This release resolves CVE-2024-22251. For more information on this vulnerability and its impact on VMware products, see VMSA-2024-0005.

New in VMware Workstation Player 17.5.0 Build 22583795 (Oct 20, 2023)

  • 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

New in VMware Workstation Player 17.0.2 Build 21581411 (Apr 26, 2023)

  • This release resolves CVE-2023-20869, and CVE-2023-20870. For more information on these vulnerabilities and their impact on VMware products

New in VMware Workstation Player 17.0.1 Build 21139696 (Feb 3, 2023)

  • Resolved Issues:
  • Unable to connect USB devices to a virtual machine
  • After you create a virtual machine, you cannot connect a USB device to the virtual machine. The issue occurs because the default value of the usb.restrictions.defaultAllow option is configured to FALSE in the VMX configuration file when the virtual machine is created.
  • This issue is resolved.
  • A host machine with Intel HD 4600 GPU might crash when you use a 3D-enabled virtual machine
  • When you power on a 3D-enabled virtual machine on a host with Intel HD 4600 GPU, the host machine might crash.
  • This issue is resolved.

New in VMware Workstation Player 17.0.0 Build 20800274 (Nov 18, 2022)

  • What's New:
  • This release of VMware Workstation Player is a free upgrade for all VMware Workstation 15 Player users. This release contains bug fixes and security updates.
  • Important Fixes:
  • VMware Workstation Player contains elevation of privilege vulnerabilities:
  • Workstation Player does not handle paths appropriately. This may allow the path to the VMX executable, on a Windows host, to be hijacked by a non-administrator leading to elevation of privilege. The Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures project (cve.mitre.org) has assigned the identifier CVE-2019-5511 to this issue. See VMSA-2019-0002 for further information.
  • COM classes are not handled appropriately. This may allow hijacking of COM classes used by the VMX process, on a Windows host, leading to elevation of privilege. The Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures project (cve.mitre.org) has assigned the identifier CVE-2019-5512 to this issue. See VMSA-2019-0002 for further information.
  • Updated OpenSSL library version to 1.0.2q.
  • Updated libxml2 library version to 2.9.9.

New in VMware Workstation Player 16.2.4 Build 20089737 (Jul 22, 2022)

  • This release contains bug fixes.

New in VMware Workstation Player 16.2.3 Build 19376536 (Mar 12, 2022)

  • This release contains bug fixes.
  • Resolved Issues:
  • Workstation hangs while copying files from the host to the guest operating system
  • When you try to copy a large number of small files from the host to the guest VM using Shared Folders, Workstation hangs.

New in VMware Workstation Player 16.2.2 Build 19200509 (Jan 18, 2022)

  • What's New:
  • This release resolves CVE-2022-22938.
  • Resolved Issues:
  • When Windows 11 GOS is powered ON, an exception appears
  • When Windows 11 GOS is powered ON, an exception (access violation) appears.
  • This issue is now resolved.

New in VMware Workstation Player 16.2.1 Build 18811642 (Nov 9, 2021)

  • Resolved Issues:
  • The Color Theme option is not visible in the VMware Workstation preferences.
  • The color theme is not visible in the VMware Workstation preferences because the feature is now deactivated by default. To use the color theme feature, the user must activate the feature manually.
  • The Custom Hardware button in the New Virtual Machine wizard is not working:
  • While creating a virtual machine, if you click the Customize Hardware button on the New Virtual Machine Wizard, the wizard crashes.

New in VMware Workstation Player 16.2.0 Build 18760230 (Oct 14, 2021)

  • This release contains security updates and bug fixes.

New in VMware Workstation Player 16.1.2 Build 17966106 (May 18, 2021)

  • This release contains security updates and updates VMware Tools to version 11.2.6.

New in VMware Workstation Player 16.1.1 Build 17801498 (Apr 2, 2021)

  • Important Fixes:
  • In this release of VMware Workstation Player, the VMNet driver related security improvements as suggested by BoB driverThru have been implemented.
  • Resolved Issues:
  • Microsoft console debugger is included in OVFTool in VMware Workstation
  • The functionality provided by Microsoft console debugger has been changed and Microsoft console debugger is no longer included with Workstation distribution. This issue is resolved.

New in VMware Workstation Player 16.1.0 Build 17198959 (Nov 20, 2020)

  • What's New:
  • Support for new host/guest operating systems:?
  • Windows 10 20H2
  • Ubuntu 20.10
  • Fedora 33
  • RHEL 8.3
  • Updated vctl kind to support KIND v0.9.0

New in VMware Workstation Player 16.0.0 Build 16894299 (Sep 15, 2020)

  • What's New:
  • Container and Kubernetes Support:
  • Build/run/pull/push container images using the vctl CLI.
  • Supports KIND kubernetes clusters running on top of Workstation Player.
  • Note: Windows 10 1809 or higher is required
  • New Guest Operating System Support:
  • RHEL 8.2
  • Debian 10.5
  • Fedora 32
  • CentOS 8.2
  • SLE 15 SP2 GA
  • FreeBSD 11.4
  • ESXi 7.0
  • Support for DirectX 11 and OpenGL 4.1 in the Guest:
  • Hardware Requirements:
  • For Windows hosts, a native GPU that supports DirectX 11.0 is required.
  • For Linux hosts, latest NVIDIA proprietary drivers are required.
  • Software Requirements:
  • Host Operating System (64-bit):
  • Windows 8 or higher
  • GNU/Linux with NVIDIA drivers that support OpenGL 4.5 and above
  • Guest Operating System
  • Windows 7 or higher
  • GNU/Linux with vmwgfx
  • Vulkan Render Support for Linux Workstation Player
  • Workstation 16 Player enables 3D support for Intel GPUs on Linux hosts to deliver DirectX 10.1 and OpenGL 3.3 to VMs using Vulkan Renderer.
  • Note: Linux host operating system with a recent Intel/Vulkan driver is needed, Mesa 20.1 or later is recommended.
  • Sandboxed Graphics:
  • Virtual machine security is enhanced by removing graphics render from vmx and running it as a separate sandbox process.
  • USB 3.1 Controller Support
  • The virtual machines virtual XHCI controller is changed from USB 3.0 to USB 3.1 to support 10 Gbps.
  • Larger VM
  • 32 virtual CPUs
  • 128 GB virtual memory
  • Note: Running virtual machines with 32 vCPUs requires that your host and guest operating systems both support 32 logical processors.
  • 8 GB virtual graphics memory
  • Dark Mode:
  • Workstation 16 Player supports Dark Mode for optimized user experience.
  • Note: Requires host operating systems to be Windows 10 1809 or higher
  • vSphere 7.0 Support:
  • In Workstation 16 you can perform the following:
  • Connect to vSphere 7.0.
  • Upload a local virtual machine to vSphere 7.0.
  • Download a remote virtual machine running on vSphere 7.0 to the local desktop.
  • Performance Improvements:
  • Improved file transfer speeds (Drag and Drop, Copy and Paste)
  • Improved virtual machine shutdown time.
  • Improved virtual NVMe storage performance.
  • Improved Accessibility Support:
  • Accessibility improvements have been added so Fusion is compliant with WCAG 2.1 criteria.
  • Product Support Notices:
  • Removal of restricted virtual machines
  • Restricted virtual machine has reached end of life and been removed from VMware Workstation 16 Player.
  • Important Fixes:
  • This release of VMware Workstation addresses the following issues:
  • Workstation addresses multiple out-of-bounds read vulnerabilities in Cortado Thinprint component. The Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures project (cve.mitre.org) has assigned the identifiers CVE-2020-3986, CVE-2020-3987, and CVE-2020-3988 to these issues. For more information, see VMSA-2020-0020.
  • Workstation addresses a denial of service vulnerability due to an out-of-bounds write issue in Cortado Thinprint component. The Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures project (cve.mitre.org) has assigned the identifier CVE-2020-3989 to this issue. For more information, see VMSA-2020-0020.
  • Workstation addresses an information disclosure vulnerability due to an integer overflow issue in Cortado Thinprint component. The Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures project (cve.mitre.org) has assigned the identifier CVE-2020-3990 to this issue. For more information, see VMSA-2020-0020.
  • Resolved Issues:
  • After priority.ungrabbed = "low" is set in the virtual machine configuration file, the priority of vmware-vmx process shows as Normal, when checked on the Host Task manager
  • This setting has always worked until Workstation Pro 15.5 was released, however with the 15.5.5 release the status of the process stays at Normal.
  • This issue is now resolved.
  • A Windows XP x64 virtual machine freezes during boot, when Workstation is running on Win10 host with Hyper-V Enabled
  • MSFT has bugs in APIC virtualization that block WinXP SP2 boot process.
  • This issue is now resolved.

New in VMware Workstation Player 15.5.6 Build 16341506 (Jun 10, 2020)

  • Resolved Issues:
  • Sound quality is degraded
  • The quality of sound playback and recording through the emulated ES1371 sound device is degraded when compared to Workstation 15.5.2 Player and earlier versions.
  • This issue is now resolved.
  • The Caps Lock, Num Lock and Scroll Lock keys and indicators don't operate as expected
  • The Caps Lock, Num Lock and Scroll Lock keys and indicators behave erratically in a Linux virtual machine running on Workstation 15.5.5 Player.
  • This issue is now resolved.

New in VMware Workstation Player 15.5.5 Build 16285975 (May 29, 2020)

  • This release of VMware Workstation Player is a free upgrade for all VMware Workstation 15 Player users. It includes the following updates:
  • Windows 10 host VBS support: VMware Workstation 15.5.5 now runs on Windows hosts with Hyper-V features (For example: virtualization based security) enabled.
  • The followings are minimum requirement to run VMware Workstation on a Hyper-V enabled host:
  • CPU Requirements:
  • Intel Sandy Bridge or a newer CPU
  • AMD Bulldozer or a newer CPU
  • Supported Host Operating Systems:
  • Windows 10 20H1 build 19041.264 or newer
  • Support for new Guest Operating Systems:
  • Windows 10 20H1
  • Ubuntu 20.04
  • Fedora 32
  • Support for new Host Operation Systems:
  • Windows 10 20H1
  • Ubuntu 20.04
  • VMware Workstation 15.5.5 Player also contains performance improvements, bug fixes and security updates.

New in VMware Workstation Player 15.5.2 Build 15785246 (Mar 13, 2020)

  • What's New:
  • This release of VMware Workstation Player is a free upgrade for all VMware Workstation 15 Player users. This release contains bug fixes and security updates.
  • Important Fixes:
  • VMware Workstation Player contains elevation of privilege vulnerabilities:
  • Workstation Player does not handle paths appropriately. This may allow the path to the VMX executable, on a Windows host, to be hijacked by a non-administrator leading to elevation of privilege. The Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures project (cve.mitre.org) has assigned the identifier CVE-2019-5511 to this issue. See VMSA-2019-0002 for further information.
  • COM classes are not handled appropriately. This may allow hijacking of COM classes used by the VMX process, on a Windows host, leading to elevation of privilege. The Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures project (cve.mitre.org) has assigned the identifier CVE-2019-5512 to this issue. See VMSA-2019-0002 for further information.
  • Updated OpenSSL library version to 1.0.2q.
  • Updated libxml2 library version to 2.9.9.

New in VMware Workstation Player 15.5.1 Build 15018445 (Nov 12, 2019)

  • Important Fixes:
  • This release of VMware Workstation Player addresses the following issues:
  • Workstation 15.5.1 Player addresses an out-of-bounds write vulnerability in the e1000e virtual network adapter. The Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures project (cve.mitre.org) has assigned the identifier CVE-2019-5541 to this issue. For more information, see VMSA-2019-0021.
  • Workstation 15.5.1 Player addresses an information disclosure vulnerability in vmnetdhcp. The Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures project (cve.mitre.org) has assigned the identifier CVE-2019-5540 to this issue. For more information, see VMSA-2019-0021.
  • Workstation 15.5.1 Player addresses a denial-of-service vulnerability in the RPC handler. The Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures project (cve.mitre.org) has assigned the identifier CVE-2019-5542 to this issue. For more information, see VMSA-2019-0021.
  • Workstation 15.5.1 Player resolves TSX Asynchronous Abort (TAA), a speculative-execution vulnerability identified by CVE-2019-11135. For more information, see section 3b in VMSA-2019-0020.
  • Workstation 15.5.1 Player resolves a regression introduced in Workstation 15.5.0 Player which causes the Hypervisor-Specific mitigations for for L1TF and MDS vulnerabilities to be ineffective. For more information on these mitigations, please see section 3a in VMSA-2019-0008

New in VMware Workstation Player 15.5.0 Build 14665864 (Sep 20, 2019)

  • 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.
  • Workstation 15.5 Player addresses the use-after-free and denial-of-service vulnerabilities. The Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures project (cve.mitre.org) has assigned the following IDs to these issues :
  • CVE-2019-5527 (use-after-free )
  • CVE-2019-5535 (denial-of-service)
  • For more information, see VMSA-2019-0014.
  • Implemented DLL loading security improvements, suggested by Peleg Hadar of Safebreach.
  • orkstation gets an unknown error when the SVGA settings is changed during the virtual machine installation wizard.
  • During virtual machine creation, after changing Display settings in Customize hardware window, saving the configuration can cause an unknown error.
  • This issue is now resolved.
  • Sometimes, Fedora 30 VM can't be powered on correctly, a black screen appears for a long time.
  • When a Fedora 30 virtual machine is created and powered on, it does not power on correctly and a black screen is displayed.
  • This issue is now resolved. VMware has fixed the issue and committed the kernel since kernel-5.1.8-300.fc30.
  • For users stuck on boot and cannot perform the kernel package upgrade, edit Grub during boot to delete rhgb option to boot-up successfully. After boot, perform the kernel upgrade.
  • Scrolling becomes erratic in Windows guest when a non-default keyboard layout is selected in Ubuntu host
  • In Ubuntu 18.04 (GNOME Desktop) host, when a non-default keyboard layout is selected, scrolling in Windows guests is erratic.
  • This screen randomly scrolls up or down when the mouse is moved in the virtual machine in some scrollable panes, such as the start menu.
  • This issue is now resolved.
  • Battery status report is incorrect in windows virtual machine running on Windows 10 1903 host
  • On a Windows 10 1903 host, battery status is incorrect in the windows virtual machine. The battery icon in the status bar remains red and not charging even though the laptop is plugged-in.

New in VMware Workstation Player 15.0.4 Build 12990004 (Mar 29, 2019)

  • This release of VMware Workstation Player addresses the following issue:
  • VMware Workstation Player contains an out-of-bounds read/write vulnerability and a Time-of-check Time-of-use (TOCTOU) vulnerability in the virtual USB UHCI (Universal Host Controller Interface). These issues may allow a guest to execute code on the host. The Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures project (cve.mitre.org) has assigned the identifiers CVE-2019-5518 (out-of-bounds read/write) and CVE-2019-5519 (TOCTOU) to these issues.

New in VMware Workstation Player 15.0.3 Build 12422535 (Mar 15, 2019)

  • Important Fixes:
  • VMware Workstation Player contains elevation of privilege vulnerabilities
  • Workstation Player does not handle paths appropriately. This may allow the path to the VMX executable, on a Windows host, to be hijacked by a non-administrator leading to elevation of privilege. The Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures project (cve.mitre.org) has assigned the identifier CVE-2019-5511 to this issue. See VMSA-2019-0002 for further information.
  • COM classes are not handled appropriately. This may allow hijacking of COM classes used by the VMX process, on a Windows host, leading to elevation of privilege. The Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures project (cve.mitre.org) has assigned the identifier CVE-2019-5512 to this issue. See VMSA-2019-0002 for further information.
  • Updated OpenSSL library version to 1.0.2q.
  • Updated libxml2 library version to 2.9.9.

New in VMware Workstation Player 14.1.3 Build 9474260 (Aug 16, 2018)

  • Updated VMware Workstation 14 Player Version 14.1.3 to use OpenSSL library version openssl-1.0.2o.
  • Addressed critical security issues as outlined in KB 55636

New in VMware Workstation Player 14.1.2 Build 8497320 (May 22, 2018)

  • Windows 10 2018 Spring Creators Update (Version 1803) as host and guest
  • Ubuntu 18.04 support as host and guest
  • VMware Workstation 14 Player Version 14.1.2 also contains bug fixes, security updates and performance improvements.

New in VMware Workstation Player 14.1.1 Build 7528167 (Jan 10, 2018)

  • This update of VMware Workstation Player exposes hardware support for branch target injection mitigation to VMware guests. This hardware is used by some guest operating systems to mitigate CVE-2018-5715 (also called by the name "Spectre").
  • For a guest operating system to use hardware support for branch target injection mitigation, the following steps must be taken:
  • Install this update of VMware Workstation Player
  • Ensure that your VM is using Hardware Version 9 or higher. For best performance, Hardware Version 11 or higher is recommended.
  • Update your guest operating system with fixes for CVE-2018-5715 (consult the operating system vendor for these updates).
  • Update the host firmware (or CPU microcode, if host firmware cannot be updated).

New in VMware Workstation Player 14.0.0 Build 6661328 (Sep 27, 2017)

  • Virtual Hardware Platform 14:
  • Workstation 14 Pro builds from the newest vSphere Virtual Hardware Platform, now at version 14, and with it delivers new features such as support for:
  • Microsoft Device Guard and Credential Guard “Virtualization Based Security” feature support for Windows 10 Guests (Guests only at this time)
  • A new Virtual NVMe device for faster disk access on SSD storage and a requirement for vSAN testing
  • UEFI Secure Boot, required for VBS and supported with ESXi 6.5 Virtual Guests.
  • A new Virtual Trusted Platform Module which is used to manage keys for guest encryption services such as BitLocker.
  • Support for the latest Intel Kabylake and AMD Ryzen CPUs
  • Workstation Pro: The Master of Local Desktop Virtualization:
  • Workstation 14 Pro adds upon this with new Virtual Network Simulation features. We’ve had Network Packet Loss and Bandwidth before, but we have now added Network Latency to the mix, configurable for both Incoming and Outgoing traffic for each virtual network adapter. This feature makes it easy to test the resiliency of your applications under harsh network conditions.
  • Workstation 14 Pro also allows users to stay organized with custom network renaming.
  • We’ve of course also added support for Windows 10 Fall Creators Update, known also as build 1709 or ‘Redstone 3’, which includes Windows Server 2016, as both Host and Guest. On the Linux side we have added support for Ubuntu 17.04 LTS, and Fedora 26 as both Host and Guest.
  • Seamless vCenter Deploy:
  • For users looking to test the vCenter Server Appliance, Workstation Pro now provides a guided wizard to make the deployment effortless.
  • New Remote Controls:
  • When connected to vSphere, users can now control Power operations for ESXi hosts. Power them off, Reboot them or bring them in or out of Maintenance mode right from Workstation Pro.
  • The Essential Virtualization Tool:
  • All this and numerous bug fixes, small enhancements, and performance gains leveraging newer CPU hardware features for virtualization are what continue to make Workstation Pro the essential tool for IT professionals, and Workstation Player the ideal solution for secure virtual desktops.

New in VMware Workstation Player 12.5.7 Build 5813279 (Jun 23, 2017)

  • This release of VMware Workstation Pro is a free upgrade for all VMware Workstation 12 Pro users. This release includes some bug fixes and security updates.

New in VMware Workstation Player 12.5.6 Build 5528349 (May 19, 2017)

  • This release of VMware Workstation Pro is a free upgrade for all VMware Workstation 12 Pro users. This release includes the following highlights:
  • Day 0 support of the Windows 10 Creators Update (version 1703). End users can create virtual machines with the Windows 10 Creators Update or by installing VMware Workstation 12 Pro on a Windows 10 Creators Update operating system.
  • Bug fixes and security updates.

New in VMware Workstation Player 12.5.5 Build 5234757 (Mar 28, 2017)

  • IMPORTANT FIXES:
  • VMware Workstation Player has a heap buffer overflow and uninitialized stack memory usage in SVGA. These issues might allow a guest virtual machine to execute code on the host. The Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures project (cve.mitre.org) has assigned the identifiers CVE-2017-4902 (heap issue) and CVE-2017-4903 (stack issue) to these issues.
  • The VMware Workstation Player XHCI driver has uninitialized memory usage. This issue might allow a guest virtual machine to execute code on the host. The Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures project (cve.mitre.org) has assigned the identifier CVE-2017-4904 to this issue.
  • VMware Workstation Player has uninitialized memory usage. This issue might lead to an information leak. The Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures project (cve.mitre.org) has assigned the identifier CVE-2017-4905 to this issue.
  • RESOLVED ISSUES:
  • Installing VMware Tools on a 64-bit Windows virtual machine might result in an error. After you install VMware Tools on a 64-bit Windows virtual machine, when the virtual machine boots up, the system might display the following error: VMware Tools unrecoverable error: (vthread-4). Exception 0xc0000005 (access violation) has occurred.This issue is resolved.

New in VMware Workstation Player 12.5.4 Build 5192485 (Mar 14, 2017)

  • This release of VMware Workstation Player addresses an out-of-bounds memory access vulnerability related to the drag-and-drop feature. This vulnerability might allow a guest to execute code on the operating system that runs VMware Workstation Player. The Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures project assigned the identifier CVE-2017-4901 to this issue.

New in VMware Workstation Player 12.5.3 Build 5115892 (Mar 10, 2017)

  • VMware Workstation 12 Player version 12.5.3 is a free upgrade for all VMware Workstation 12 Player users. It contains bug fixes, security updates, and performance improvements.
  • Resolved Issues:
  • When you use a USB device that does not follow USB specifications in a virtual machine in USB passthrough mode, the guest becomes unusable. When you attempt to pass through a USB device that does not follow USB specifications, such as the Broadcom 5880 smart card reader, to a Windows 7 or Windows 10 guest operating system, the device causes the guest CPU usage to increase to the maximum level, making the guest unusable.
  • Occasionally, Workstation Player crashes when you unplug a USB device after safely removing the device from the virtual machine. When you connect a USB device to a virtual machine, read from and write to the device, safely eject the device from the guest operating system, and unplug the device from the physical port, Workstation Player might crash.
  • When you connect a USB device to a virtual machine, read from and write to the device, safely eject the device from the guest operating system, and unplug the device from the physical port, Workstation Player might crash.
  • ThinPrint technology does not work in a Windows XP guest operating system with VMware Tools 10.0.10. When users use a Windows XP guest with VMware Tools 10.0.10, they cannot see host printers that are mapped to the guest with ThinPrint technology. This issue is resolved with VMware Tools 10.0.12 when you perform a clean installation. Upgrading from VMware Tools 10.0.10 to 10.0.12 does not resolve the issue.
  • Connecting an Active Braille device to the virtual machines fails
  • When Workstation Pro users select VM > Removable Devices to connect an Active Braille device to the virtual machine, the attempt fails and a "driver error" message appears in the message log. Also, the guest operating system shows no record of the device.
  • Connecting an Active Braille device to the virtual machines fails. When Workstation Pro users select VM > Removable Devices to connect an Active Braille device to the virtual machine, the attempt fails and a "driver error" message appears in the message log. Also, the guest operating system shows no record of the device.
  • After users execute Active FTP in the guest operating system, the vmnat.exe process continues to use a TCP port of the host. The vmnat.exe process consumes a new TCP port on the host when users execute Active FTP on the guest. The process does not release the TCP port even when the FTP session is closed.
  • You cannot connect a parallel port to a virtual machine. When you attempt to map a parallel port to a physical parallel port, you cannot use the parallel port in the virtual machine. The connecting parallel port listed when you select VM > Settings triggers the following error: Cannot open VMparport drivr for LPT1: the system cannot find the file specified.

New in VMware Workstation Player 12.5.2 Build 4638234 (Nov 14, 2016)

  • Addresses an out-of-bounds memory access vulnerability related to the drag-and-drop feature. This may allow a guest to execute code on the operating system that runs VMware Workstation Player.
  • VMware VIX API files installed to the incorrect location:
  • When you install the VMware VIX API files, some files install to C:, even when you select the default install path of C:Program Files (x86)VMwareVMware VIX. This issue is resolved.
  • Some driver files are not deleted after uninstalling VMware Workstation Player from a Windows host operating system:
  • After VMware Workstation Player is uninstalled, the following driver-related files remain on the Windows host operating system: In C:Program FilesCommon FilesVMwareDriversvmcidevice: vmciver.dll. This issue is resolved.

New in VMware Workstation Player 12.5.1 Build 4542065 (Oct 28, 2016)

  • This release of VMware Workstation Player is a free upgrade for all VMware Workstation 12 Player users, it contains bug fixes, security updates and performance improvements.
  • Known Issues:
  • Virtual machines running Linux kernel version 4.7 or above may crash or hang on hosts with Intel CPUs:
  • Virtual Machines running Linux kernel version 4.7 or above may crash during installation or during power-on with a crash in the intel_powerclamp driver. This issue has been reported with Ubuntu 16.10, but it is a generic Linux kernel issue.
  • Workaround: VMware is working with the OS vendors to have them fix their respective kernels. Until a fix is available, you can blacklist the intel_powerclamp driver so that the buggy code doesn't get loaded.
  • To blacklist the driver:
  • Add the kernel command-line option modprobe.blacklist=intel_powerclamp to the guest OS's default grub configuration or add it directly at the grub menu during boot.
  • Some driver files are not deleted after uninstalling VMware Workstation Player from a Windows host operating system:
  • After VMware Workstation Player is uninstalled, the following driver-related files remain on the Windows host operating system:
  • In C:WindowsSystem32drivers:
  • hcmon.sys
  • vmci.sys
  • vmx86.sys
  • vmkbd.sys in case Enhanced Keyboard Driver was installed.
  • Workaround: Navigate to C:WindowsSystem32drivers and delete hcmon.sys, vmci.sys, vmx86.sys, and vmkbd.sys.
  • Resolved Issues:
  • VMware VIX API files installed to the incorrect location:
  • When you install the VMware VIX API files, some files install to C:, even when you select the default install path of C:Program Files (x86)VMwareVMware VIX. This issue is resolved.
  • vmrun commands fail on RHEL 6.8 and CentOS 6.8 hosts:
  • Trying to execute vmrun commands on a RHEL 6.8 or CentOS 6.8 host machine, results in errors. This issue is resolved.
  • Some driver files are not deleted after uninstalling VMware Workstation Player from a Windows host operating system:
  • After VMware Workstation Player is uninstalled, the following driver-related files remain on the Windows host operating system:
  • In C:Program FilesCommon FilesVMwareDriversvmcidevice:
  • vmciver.dll. This issue is resolved.

New in VMware Workstation Player 12.5.0 Build 4352439 (Sep 13, 2016)

  • This release of VMware Workstation Player is a free upgrade for all VMware Workstation 12 Player users, it adds support for the following operating systems:
  • Windows 10 Anniversary Update
  • Windows Server 2016
  • Resolved Issues:
  • USB Ethernet adapter fails to connect to the VM:
  • You cannot connect specific USB Ethernet adapter to a running VM. This issue is resolved.
  • VMware Workstation Player throws Runtime Error when you disconnect Surface Camera from a VM:
  • On Surface Pro, you connect the Camera to the VM and it works correctly. When you disconnect the Camera from the VM, VMware Workstation Player throws Runtime error messages and stops working. This issue is resolved.
  • You experience incorrect resolution in Workstation Player:
  • Sometimes the guest OS resolution is incorrect when it changes from small to large in Workstation Player. This issue is resolved.
  • VMware Workstation Player cannot boot virtual machines on a 64-bit Braswell N3150 processor:
  • VMware Workstation Player cannot boot virtual machines on a 64-bit Braswell N3150 processor and the following error occurs: MONITOR PANIC: vcpu-0:VERIFY vmcore/vmm/main/cpuid.c:376 bugNr=1036521. This issue is resolved.

New in VMware Workstation Player 12.1.1 Build 3770994 (Apr 22, 2016)

  • Resolved issues:
  • Running graphic software with MSAA enabled causes VMware Workstation Player to crash:
  • In a Windows virtual machine, running graphic software, such as a Realtime Landscape Architect program, or a graphic game, such as Civilization 4, with Multisample anti-aliasing (MSAA) enabled causes VMware Workstation Player to crash. This issue is resolved.
  • DNS names are not resolved in a Windows virtual machine running on an Ubuntu 16.04 host:
  • When you select a Network Address Translation (NAT) network for a Windows virtual machine running on an Ubuntu 16.04 host, Domain Name System (DNS) names are not properly resolved. This issue is resolved.
  • Enabling port forwarding breaks NAT:
  • When you enable port forwarding, network address translation (NAT) breaks. This issue is resolved.
  • Attempting to format a USB flash drive in a Windows guest with a USB 3.0 controller fails with an error:
  • When you connect a flash drive to a guest operating system and try to format the drive using a built-in Windows utility, the flash drive fails with the error Windows was unable to complete the format. This issue is resolved.
  • When using an Android Debug Bridge (ADB) daemon in an Ubuntu or Debian guest, the VMware Workstation Player window becomes unresponsive over time:
  • Starting an ADB daemon in an Ubuntu or Debian guest operating system causes a memory leak, which in turn causes the VMware Workstation window to become less responsive over time. This issue is resolved.

New in VMware Workstation Player 12.1.0 Build 3272444 (Dec 8, 2015)

  • RESOLVED ISSUES:
  • During the Easy Install process, VMware Workstation Pro misinterprets Windows 10 Version 1511 ISO images as Windows server 2012 R2 images. When creating a new virtual machine, if you select a Windows 10 version 1511 ISO file in the New Virtual Machine Wizard, the wizard says "Windows 10 detected. The operating system will use Easy Install". But in the next step, the "Version of Windows to install" dialog box only displays options for Windows Server 2012 R2. This issue is resolved.
  • The Microsoft Excel application responds to input with a one-second delay. When you run Microsoft Excel 2013 on a Windows 10 virtual machine, the application responds to your input with a one-second delay. This issue is resolved.
  • When you issue the vmrun command with the nogui option on VMware Workstation 12 Player, the command fails. This issue is resolved.
  • A UAS device connected to a USB 3.0 port on a Windows 7 or later host might fail to successfully connect to the guest. When a UAS device is connected to a guest operating system and you turn the device off and back on, the device does not successfully reconnect to the guest. In Workstation Pro when you select VM > Removable Devices, the device is listed as connected to the guest, but the device does not appear in Windows Explorer within the guest. This issue is resolved.

New in VMware Workstation Player 12.0.1 Build 3160714 (Oct 30, 2015)

  • Virtual machines fail to start on a host with an Intel Skylake processor:
  • A compatibility issue might prevent a virtual machine from starting on a host with an Intel Skylake processor when the Gather Debugging Information option in the virtual machine's advanced settings is set to Full. The error message displayed includes ASSERT vmcore/vmm/cpu/fpu.c:347.
  • This issue is resolved.

New in VMware Workstation Player 12.0.0 Build 2985596 (Aug 25, 2015)

  • Support of Windows 10:
  • Run Windows 10 as a virtual machine
  • Run Windows 10 as a host operating system
  • Other new operating systems support:
  • Ubuntu 15.04
  • Fedora 22
  • CentOS 7.1
  • RHEL 7.1
  • Oracle Linux 7.1
  • VMware Project Photon
  • Advanced graphics:
  • DirectX 10
  • OpenGL 3.3
  • Performance improvements for suspending and resuming encrypted virtual machines
  • Support for 4K monitors with high resolution UI
  • Support for multiple monitors with different DPI settings
  • Echo cancellation for voice and video calls with Microsoft Lync and Skype
  • Added USB 3.0 support to Windows 7 virtual machines (with the latest Intel USB driver)
  • Improved standard installer
  • Respect left-handed mouse setting on Windows host
  • The following features have reached end of life in Workstation 12 Player and have been removed:
  • Unity mode on Linux guest and host operating systems

New in VMware Workstation Player 7.1.2 Build 2780323 (Jun 16, 2015)

  • The following issues were resolved in VMware Player 7.1.2:
  • Using audio conferencing software on a Windows 8 guest operating system caused a severe echo during both video and audio calls. When you used audio conferencing software on a Windows 8 guest, participants using the built in speaker, as opposed to headphones, received a severe echo during both video and audio calls. This issue is resolved.
  • Could not access Help from Virtual Machine Settings dialog box. You could not access the Help system by clicking Help on the Virtual Machine Settings dialog box. This issue is resolved.

New in VMware Workstation Player 7.1.1 Build 2771112 (Jun 10, 2015)

  • Vmware Player 7.1.1 is a free maintenance release that provides a security fix for users.
  • VMware Player contain an input validation issue on an RPC command. This issue may allow for a Denial of Service of the Guest Operating System (32-bit) or a Denial of Service of the Host Operating System (64-bit).
  • The Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures project (cve.mitre.org) has assigned the identifier CVE-2015-2341 to this issue.

New in VMware Workstation Player 7.1.0 Build 2496824 (Feb 18, 2015)

  • What's New:
  • This release of VMware Player includes bug fixes. It also enables a user to edit Memory and Processors settings for a restricted virtual machine without entering the restrictions password for the virtual machine.
  • Resolved Issues:
  • A Linux guest OS booted on EFI firmware sometimes failed to respond to the keyboard and mouse if any mouse motion occurred during a short window of time during OS boot. This issue has been resolved.
  • You could not compact or defragment a persistent disk. This issue has been resolved.
  • The UI sometimes crashed when a user copied and pasted a file between two Windows guests. This issue has been resolved.
  • Rendering corruption in UI elements in Fedora 20 guests with 3D enabled has been resolved.

New in VMware Workstation Player 7.0.0 Build 2305329 (Dec 2, 2014)

  • This release of VMware Player adds the following new features and support.
  • New Operating System Support
  • Support has been added for the following guest operating systems:
  • Windows 8.1 Update
  • Windows Server 2012 R2
  • Windows 10 Technical Preview (Experimental support)
  • Ubuntu 14.10
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7
  • CentOS 7
  • OpenSUSE 13.2
  • SUSE Linux Enterprise 12
  • VMware Hardware Version 11
  • Hardware versions introduce new virtual hardware functionality and new features while enabling VMware to run legacy operating systems in virtual machines. New features included in this hardware version:
  • New CPU enablement, including Intel Haswell microarchitecture extension support.
  • VMware Player 7 is optimized to take advantage of new Haswell extensions, delivering up to 45% improvement in CPU-intensive operations like multimedia, encryption/decryption, and other strenuous performance tests.
  • Updated xHCI controller
  • Updated NDIS drive
  • Allocate up to 2GB video memory to a virtual machine

New in VMware Workstation Player 6.0.4 Build 2249910 (Oct 31, 2014)

  • Resolved Issues:
  • Fixes memory issue in Workstation on Microsoft Windows 8.1 and Windows Server 2012.

New in VMware Workstation Player 6.0.3 Build 1895310 (Jul 2, 2014)

  • Security Issues:
  • Updated to the OPENSSL library version openssl-0.9.8za where necessary to address CVE-2014-0224 , CVE-2014-0198, CVE-2010-5298, and CVE-2014-3470.

New in VMware Workstation Player 6.0.2 Build 1744117 (Apr 18, 2014)

  • KVM mode has been added to VMware Player
  • Improved compatibility and audio performance with certain USB audio and video devices
  • The VMware Tools can be properly updated when upgrading VMware Player to a newer version
  • The VMware Player UI now displays correctly when powering on an old hardware version

New in VMware Workstation Player 6.0.1 Build 1379776 (Oct 25, 2013)

  • Download All Components Now button not working:
  • When you navigate to Player > File > Player Preferences and click the Download All Components Now button, the button does not work as intended.
  • Workaround: Update your installation of Player by selecting Check for software components as needed in the Player Preferences dialog.
  • Workstation or Player on Windows freezes if another application is frozen:
  • What's going on: Workstation or Player incorrectly attempts to communicate with the frozen application and is stuck waiting for it to respond.
  • Virtual machine hangs while powering off:
  • Rarely, virtual machines will cease functioning (hang) while powering off, particularly if the guest OS was in the middle of a BSOD or kernel panic.
  • Workaround: If the virtual machine hangs while powering off, you may have to terminate the vmx process manually. Updating to Workstation 10.0.1 should resolve the issue.
  • Easy Install does not recognize RTM builds of Windows 8.1 and Windows Server 2012 R2 disc:
  • In the new virtual machine wizard, when you select a disc or ISO of the RTM build of Windows 8.1 or Windows Server 2012 R2, the image is not recognized. Easy Install does not work with the RTM builds of those operating systems.

New in VMware Workstation Player 6.0.0 Build 1295980 (Sep 9, 2013)

  • VMware Player 6 Plus:
  • With the release of VMware Player 6 VMware is introducing a commercial version of VMware Player called VMware Player 6 Plus. A license key for VMware Player can be purchased from the VMware online store - http://store.vmware.com. Licensed versions of VMware Player can be used for commercial purposes, the warning text in the title bar will be suppressed and VMware Player 6 Plus can run restricted virtual machines. VMware Player is still available for Free for personal use. Please read the End User License Agreement for specific terms and conditions.
  • Installation Options:
  • VMware Player installation has been enhanced with configuration settings to allow unattended installation of VMware Player using enterprise software configuration management tools. VMware Player now allows the EULA to be suppressed, a destination directory to be set, to opt out of the User Experience Improvement Program, Desktop and start menu shortcuts to not be created, the serial key to be passed automatically installed, the software update URL and a support contact URL to be configured.
  • Simplified UI Mode:
  • Many of our customers would like to create virtual machines and provide them to their employees and students without enabling them to create virtual machines or modify VMware Player settings. VMware Player 6 includes a Simplified UI mode that can be set to hide these menu items.
  • New Operating System Support:
  • Support for Windows 8.1 and Windows 8.1 Enterprise, Windows Server 2012 R2, Ubuntu 13.10 and the latest Fedora, CentOS, Red Hat and OpenSUSE releases.
  • VMware Hardware Version 10:
  • This version of VMware Player includes VMware hardware Version 10. Hardware versions introduce new virtual hardware functionality and new features while enabling VMware to run legacy operating systems in our virtual machines. New features included in this hardware version -
  • 16 vCPUs
  • Virtual Machines can now run with up to 16 virtual CPUs. This enables very processor intensive applications to be run in a virtual machine.
  • Note: Running Virtual Machines with 16 vCPUs requires that both your host and guest operating system support 16 logical processors. Your physical machine must have at least 8 cores with hyper-threading enabled to power on a virtual machine with this configuration.
  • 8 Terabyte disks
  • Virtual machines can now include virtual disks greater than 2 Terabytes. Given the limitations of most operating systems to boot from disks greater than 2 Terabytes, These large disks are most useful as secondary drives for file storage.
  • Note: To use a disk greater than 2TB for a boot disk, your guest operating system would need to boot using EFI in order to read a GPT formatted disk which is required to access all of the sectors on a disk of this size. Additionally, the Buslogic controller is not capable of supporting a disk greater than 2TB.
  • USB Improvements
  • USB 3 Streams have been implemented to enable high speed transfer of files from USB 3 external storage devices that support this technology. For customers running on Workstation 10 on laptops with small hard disks, large data files, video files etc., can be stored on an external USB 3 storage device and accessed quickly from within the virtual machine.
  • VMware has also addressed issues Intel, NEC, AMD, TI and Linux Kernel host xHCI drivers to improve overall USB 3 compatibility and performance.
  • SSD Pass-through
  • Windows 8 is capable of detecting when it is being run from a solid state drive (SSD) and optimizes itself for this hardware. In Workstation 10, the guest operating system will be able to detect when the Virtual Machine Disk file is being stored on an SSD drive and the operating system can make the same optimizations when it is running in a virtual machine.
  • Many additional changes have been made to this Hardware Version including some performance improvements, power savings and compatibility with new processors. We have also made significant improvements in the startup time of VMware Player and in Windows boot time when running Windows virtual machines.
  • Expiring Virtual Machines:
  • VMware has enhanced the capabilities of Restricted Virtual Machines to include the ability to expire on a specified date and time. This capability enables our customers to create virtual machines to be shared with employees, students, customers, contractors etc. that will run until their contract terminates, demo runs out or course ends.
  • These restricted and expiring virtual machines can be run in VMware Player 6 Plus but requires VMware Workstation or VMware Fusion Professional to create the Expiring Restricted virtual machine.

New in VMware Workstation Player 5.0.2 Build 1031769 (Mar 8, 2013)

  • On a Windows 7 host, when you plug and unplug a headset several times, the audio card of the guest would not work. This has been fixed in Workstation 9.0.2.
  • When installing VMware Tools in Linux virtual machines, the The default screen resolution options have been standardized to 640x480, 800x600, 1024x768, or 1280x800 for the initial login. After login, resolution can be set to any value the user desires or Autofit can be used.
  • Image copy/paste now correctly function with Solaris 10 and 11 guests.
  • The list of available NICs in the Automatic Bridging Settings dialog window is now refreshed without restarting Player.
  • A memory leak that impacted Windows hosts and guests has been fixed.
  • When running in a Linux distribution using the GNOME 3 desktop environment, Desktop folders now open as expected.
  • VMware Tools no longer crashes on Windows 2008 Server Core x64 SP2 operating system, with the following error:
  • VMware Tools unrecoverable error: (vthread-3)
  • Exception 0xc0000005 (access violation) has occurred.
  • However, Windows 2008 Server Core x64 SP2 is not a supported operating system for VMware Workstation.
  • Scrolling with a Lenovo ThinkPad UltraNav scroll button no longer requires excessive force.

New in VMware Workstation Player 5.0.1 Build 894247 (Nov 7, 2012)

  • This release of VMware Player adds the following new features and support:
  • Support for Ubuntu 12.10 as a host and guest has been added to Player 5.0.1
  • Solaris 11 has been added to guest OS list.
  • The following issues are resolved in VMware Player 5.0.1:
  • When powering on a virtual machine with Binary Translation on a SMEP-capable CPU, Player no longer causes the host to reset. If you run Windows 8 hosts on IvyBridge processors, VMware strongly recommends that you update your installation of Player.
  • Several security vulnerabilities have been addressed, including updating third party libraries.
  • For host systems with more than 4GB of memory, Player will use more of the available memory to run virtual machines.
  • The ability to mount a .vmdk file as a drive by right-clicking the file in File Explorer has been restored.
  • Occasionally, certain elements in the Windows 8 user interface were incorrectly displayed. This has been fixed.
  • After disconnecting certain USB devices from a virtual machine, Player would prevent devices from being reconnected without restarting the virtual machine. A more comprehensive error handling code has been added to prevent this problem from occurring.
  • To improve application startup performance, the data being collected as part of the optional User Experience Improvement Program will no longer be aggregated on every launch of Player.
  • Easy Install on the Linux version of Player now recognize all compatible operating systems.
  • The VMware monitor has been updated to work with Linux kernel 3.5.
  • Animated cursors are now displayed correctly in a virtual machine.

New in VMware Workstation Player 5.0.0 Build 812388 (Aug 23, 2012)

  • User Interface Improvements for Windows-Based VMware Player:
  • The VMware Player user interface has been completely revamped. The new user interface conforms with Windows standards, menus have been updated, the toolbar now matches Workstation in regular and full screen mode, new device icons have been added, along with many more improvements.
  • Virtual Hardware Improvements:
  • This version of VMware Player includes the same virtual hardware improvements included with Workstation. See VMware Workstation 9.0 Release Notes To try new hardware features, you must upgrade the hardware version of your virtual machine or create a new virtual machine that uses the latest virtual hardware version.
  • Commercial Use:
  • VMware Player is also now available for commercial use. A commercial license for VMware Player 5 is included with VMware Fusion 5 Professional to enable customers to run virtual machines on Windows or Linux PCs and on Macs using a single license key!
  • Ability to Configure Network Adapters:
  • Previously, the standalone version of VMware Player did not give users a way to select what adapter would be used for a virtual machine. With standalone VMware Player, from the menu bar, you can now select VM > Settings > Network, and use the button next to "Bridged" that says "Configure Adapters."
  • If you launched VMware Player without admin privileges, the button displays a UAC shield. You can click the button and respond to the UAC prompt. This button displays a dialog box for specifying which adapters can be used for automatic bridging. This is the same dialog box currently used in Workstation, in the Virtual Network Editor, under Bridged > Automatic Settings.

New in VMware Workstation Player 4.0.4 Build 744019 (Jun 14, 2012)

  • Resolved Issues:
  • General Issues:
  • On Windows hosts, the VMware Workstation user interface sometimes became unresponsive when minimized from full-screen mode if the suggestion balloon was being displayed.
  • On Windows hosts, the user interface sometimes
  • Security Issues:
  • VMware host Checkpoint file memory corruption:
  • Input data was not properly validated when loading Checkpoint files. This issue could have allowed an attacker with the ability to load a specially crafted Checkpoint file to execute arbitrary code on the host.
  • The Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures project (cve.mitre.org) has assigned the name CVE-2012-3288 to this issue.
  • VMware virtual machine remote device denial of service:
  • A device (such as CD-ROM or keyboard) that is available to a virtual machine while physically connected to a system that does not run the virtual machine is referred to as a remote device. Traffic coming from remote virtual devices was incorrectly handled. This issue could have allowed an attacker who was capable of manipulating the traffic from a remote virtual device to crash the virtual machine.
  • The Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures project (cve.mitre.org) has assigned the name CVE-2012-3289 to this issue.

New in VMware Workstation Player 4.0.3 Build 703057 (May 3, 2012)

  • VMware floppy device out-of-bounds memory write:
  • Due to a flaw in the virtual floppy configuration it was possible to perform an out-of-bounds memory write. This vulnerability allowed a guest user to crash the VMX process or to potentially execute code on the host.
  • The Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures project (cve.mitre.org) has assigned the name CVE-2012-2449 to this issue.
  • VMware SCSI device unchecked memory write:
  • Due to a flaw in the SCSI device registration it was possible to perform an unchecked write into memory. This vulnerability allowed a guest user to crash the VMX process or to potentially execute code on the host.
  • The Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures project (cve.mitre.org) has assigned the name CVE-2012-2450 to this issue.

New in VMware Workstation Player 4.0.2 Build 591240 (Jan 25, 2012)

  • The following issues are resolved in VMware Player 4.0.2:
  • The ACLs on the PID files needed improvement. VMware thanks Inode0 for bringing this to our attention.
  • Releasing input from the guest to the host, for example, moving the cursor from the virtual machine window to the host screen, failed with an unrecoverable error.
  • Copying and pasting from a guest to an Ubuntu 11.10 host failed.
  • Shared folders did not work in Fedora 16 and OpenSuse 12.1 guests.
  • In Ubuntu 11.10 hosts, key repeat was disabled after ungrabbing or quitting VMware Player.
  • On a Windows host, a virtual machine configured to use a physical disk or partition failed to power on if the host had a volume backed by more than one physical disk, for example, a RAID system.

New in VMware Workstation Player 4.0.1 Build 528992 (Nov 18, 2011)

  • Graphics performance and compatibility enhancements.
  • Disk and memory management issues have been addressed.
  • Many customer-reported issues have been resolved.
  • Resolved Issues:
  • Windows 7 guest installation failed after powering on the virtual machine with the error A required CD/DVD drive device driver is missing. If you have a driver floppy disk, CD, DVD, or USB flash drive, please insert it now.
  • VMware Tools failed with the message VMware Tools unrecoverable error.
  • VMware Tools failed to start in Fedora 15 guests.
  • On hosts with Nvidia GeForce and Quadro video cards, some of the clouds in the Unigine Heaven Benchmark application were drawn solid black.
  • The AltGr key was not working in an Ubuntu guest in Unity mode when the host and guest keyboards were both set to a layout that contained the AltGr key.

New in VMware Workstation Player 4.0 Build 471780 (Oct 5, 2011)

  • Installation Changes and Enhanced Keyboards:
  • The hardware requirements to install this version of Workstation have changed. Workstation now requires a relatively modern 64-bit CPU.
  • Virtual Hardware Improvements:
  • The display technology has been changed to provide a better experience for Unity users and users who have multiple monitors. These changes also allow you to add a projector to your laptop without restarting your virtual machine.
  • Virtual machines can now support up to 64GB of memory. The host system should have more than 64GB of memory to use this feature.
  • An HD Audio device is available for Windows Vista, Windows 7, Windows 2008, and Windows 2008 R2 guests. The HD Audio device is compatible with the RealTek ALC888 7.1 Channel High Definition Audio Codec.
  • USB 3.0 support is available for Linux guests running kernel version 2.6.35 or later (Ubuntu 10.10) through a new virtual xHCI USB controller. To enable this feature, add the following line to the .vmx file: usb_xhci.present = “true”. Do not enable this feature for Windows guests. Because Windows does not currently have a generic xHCI driver, this feature will not work in Windows.
  • Bluetooth devices on the host can now be shared with Windows guests. With the latest hardware version, Bluetooth devices that are paired to the host system radio are available to Windows guests and can be paired from within the guest. You should not pair Bluetooth audio devices, such as headphones, or Bluetooth input devices, such as keyboards and mice, to a guest.
  • Documentation Changes:
  • Getting Started with VMware Player (previously VMware Player Getting Started Guide) - Now contains complete information on installing and using Player.
  • Online help - Has been redesigned to provide context-sensitive help and information on performing common tasks. For complete information on using Workstation and Player, see the guides.
  • (NEW) Installing and Configuring VMware Tools - Contains comprehensive information on installing, upgrading, and configuring VMware

New in VMware Workstation Player 3.1.4 Build 3385536 (Mar 30, 2011)

  • Adds support for Windows 7 SP1 and Ubuntu 10.10 guest and host operating systems.
  • The following issues are resolved in VMware Player 3.1.4:
  • In Player 3.1, the default main memory VA cache size (mainMem.vaCacheSize) for 32-bit Windows guests was reduced to accommodate 3D emulation memory requirements. However, the reduced value resulted in performance loss. For 3.1.4, the default main memory VA cache size has been be increased to 1000 MB and performance is improved.
  • Because Player failed to identify more than 10 USB host controllers in newer Windows guests, some USB devices did not appear in the Removable Devices menu. Now Player shows all USB devices in the Removable Devices menu as long as they are connected to the first identified 16 USB controllers.
  • The application vmware-modconfig UI could not start up in a KDE 4 session in a SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop (SLED) 11 environment.
  • VMware Tools upgrade could be started by a non-administrator user from the VMware Tools Control Panel in a Windows guest. In this release, only administrator users can start VMware Tools upgrade from the VMware Tools Control Panel. To prevent non-administrator users from starting VMware Tools upgrade from a guest by using other applications, set isolation.tools.autoinstall.disable to TRUE in the virtual machine configuration (.vmx) file.
  • When a virtual machine running on a Windows host was used to access an Omron Industrial CP1L Programmable Logic Controller, Player generated an unrecoverable error.
  • When using NAT virtual networking on Windows hosts, the traceroute command did not work when used within virtual machines.
  • The Easy Install feature did not work for Fedora 14 guest operating systems.
  • During VMware Tools installation on a Fedora 14 64-bit guest operating system, the following warning message was generated while building the vsock module: case value '255' not in enumerated type 'socket_state'.
  • The Easy Install feature did not work for Red Hat Linux 6 guest operating systems.
  • The VMware Tools HGFS provider DLL caused a deadlock when making calls to the WNetAddConnection2 function from an application such as eEye Rentina in a Windows guest operating system.
  • There was no option to disable guest time sync when a host resumes. Now you can set time.synchronize.resume.host to FALSE in the virtual machine configuration (.vmx) file to disable guest time sync when a host resumes. See VMware Knowledge Base Article 1189 for other time sync options.
  • Setting a hidden attribute on a file in a shared folder from a Windows guest on a Linux host failed with an error. This problem caused applications such as SVN checkout to fail when checking out to shared folders on Linux hosts from Windows guests.

New in VMware Workstation Player 3.1.3 Build 324285 (Nov 20, 2010)

  • The following issues are resolved:
  • When you install VMware Player on an operating system that uses a post-2.6.34 Linux kernel, the vmmon module fails to compile.
  • The vmxnet and vsock guest modules fail to compile on operating systems that use post-2.6.32 Linux kernels.
  • When you install VMware Tools on an operating system that uses a post-2.6.34 Linux kernel, the vsock.ko module fails to build.
  • Unity mode does not work with an Ubuntu 10.10 64-bit guest operating system.
  • An unrecoverable error occurs when you select the Novell NetWare, Sun Solaris, or Other guest operating system type in the New Virtual Machine wizard.

New in VMware Workstation Player 3.1.2 Build 301548 (Nov 20, 2010)

  • Security Fixes:
  • VMware Player 3.x addresses an installer security issue
  • The VMware Player 3.x installer loads an index.htm file located in the current working directory on which VMware Player 3.x is being installed. This might enable attackers to display a malicious file if they manage to get their file onto the system prior to installation.
  • The Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures project (cve.mitre.org) has assigned the name CVE-2010-3277 to this issue.
  • Third party libpng updated to version 1.2.44
  • A buffer overflow condition in libpng is addressed that could potentially lead to code execution with the privileges of the application using libpng. Two potential denial of service issues are also addressed in the update.
  • The Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures project (cve.mitre.org) has assigned the names CVE-2010-1205, CVE-2010-0205, and CVE-2010-2249 to these issues.
  • Installation, Upgrade, and Compatibility:
  • In some cases copying an index.html file into the same directory as the VMware Player 3.1.1 installer executable on Windows hosts might cause the VMware Player installer user interface to fail.
  • When downloading software updates via a slow Internet connection, you might receive a timeout error resulting in an unsuccessful download.
  • Currently available pre-release versions of OpenSUSE 11.3 might not work properly with Easy Install.
  • Display:
  • To improve user experience when using Unity mode on Windows Vista and Windows 7 virtual machines, VMware Player disables Aero when entering Unity mode and re-enables it when you exit Unity mode. To override the disabling of Aero, open the vmx configuration file and add unity.allowCompositingInGuest="TRUE".
  • Attempting to power on a Windows 7 virtual machine named using non-ASCII characters on Ubuntu 10.04 hosts might cause display issues in the Unity mode Start menu.
  • Enabling Aero on hosts with Intel Integrated Graphics processing unit might cause display issues in a virtual machine.
  • On Windows hosts, you might experience some usability issues while attempting to interact with Fedora 13 virtual machine applications in Unity mode.
  • On Japanese version of Windows, using non-ASCII characters to name the host might cause the Start menu to not show in Unity mode.
  • Miscellaneous:
  • The DNS server information might not refresh when the virtual machine switches between multiple NICs, such as wired and wireless. Thus, leading to a failure in looking up hosts with their DNS names when the guest is using NAT.
  • If your host system has three parallel ports you might not be able map them non-sequentially.
  • USB devices with vendor ID 0x1366 might be identified as being manufactured by Asahi KASEI instead of SEGGER.
  • Dragon Medical 10.1 from Nuance might not run with more than one core on Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit guests.
  • On Windows 7 guests, you must run a New Hardware scan from the Device Manager menu for Logitech USB audio devices to be recognized. USB devices disconnected from the guest might still appear to be connected in the guest, and the guest might not allow you to reconnect them.
  • On some Windows guests, the volume control keys and a few other multimedia keys might not work in a virtual machine.
  • Error that occurs in NetBIOS forwarding in NAT leads to an incorrect resolution of the virtual machine WINS name.

New in VMware Workstation Player 3.1.1 Build 282343 (Nov 20, 2010)

  • Resolves the following issues:
  • In some cases upon starting a virtual machine, the USB arbitration service might fail to start on systems that do not have a device identified as USBFDO-0 and prevent the use of USB devices in the virtual machine. The following error message appears, "Host USB device connections disabled". For this release, the USB arbitration service is updated to start whenever a USB device exists even if no devices meet this criteria.
  • When a host system failure occurs during a virtual machine disk operation, attempting to power on the virtual machine or mount the virtual disk using the VMware Disk Mount utility causes the following error messages to appear, " Cannot open the disk... The specified virtual disk needs repair" and "Error reading volume information. Please select another disk file". There is no data lost during this process. VMware Player 3.1.1 fixes this issue and enables virtual machine operations to resume.
  • Mapping a virtual disk with multiple partitions to a drive on the host machine and enabling write access only succeeds if you are mounting the first partition. This update enables other partitions to be successfully mounted and accessible to the host operating system.

New in VMware Workstation Player 3.1.0 Build 261024 (May 26, 2010)

  • OpenGL 2.1 support for Windows 7 and Windows Vista guests — Improves the ability to run graphics-based applications in virtual machines.
  • Improved Graphics Performance — Enhanced performance with better benchmarks, frame rates, and improved rendering on Windows 7 and Windows Vista guests allows you to run various graphics-based applications. In addition, major improvements in video playback enable you to play high-resolution videos in virtual machines.
  • Automatic Software Updates — Download and install VMware Tools and receive maintenance updates when available.
  • Direct Launch — Drag guest applications from the Unity start menu directly onto the host desktop. Double-click the shortcut to open the guest application. The shortcut remains on the desktop after you exit Unity and close VMware Player.
  • Autologon — Save your login credentials and bypass the login dialog box when you power on a Windows guest. Use this feature if you restart the guest frequently and want to avoid entering your login credentials. You can enable Autologon and use direct launch to open guest applications from the host.
  • OVF 1.1 Support — Import or export virtual machines and vApps to upload them to VMware vSphere or VMware vCloud. The VMware OVF Tool is a command-line utility bundled in the VMware Player installer. Use this tool along with VMware Player to convert VMware .vmx files to .ovf format or vice versa. VMware recommends that you use the OVF command-line utility.
  • Eight-Way SMP Support — Create and run virtual machines with a total of up to eight-processor cores.
  • 2TB Virtual Disk Support — Maximum virtual disks and raw disks size increased from 950GB to 2TB.
  • Encryption Enhancements — VMware Player includes support for Intel's Advanced Encryption Standard instruction set (AES-NI) to improve performance while encrypting and decrypting virtual machines and faster run-time access to encrypted virtual machines on new processors.
  • Memory Management — User interface enhancements have simplified the handling of increased virtual memory capacity.
  • User Experience Improvement Program — Help VMware improve future versions of the product by participating in the User Experience Improvement Program. Participation in the program is voluntary and you can opt out at any time. When you participate in the User Experience Improvement Program, your computer sends anonymous information to VMware, which may include product configuration; usage and performance data, virtual machine configuration; usage and performance data, and information about your host system specifications and configuration.
  • The User Experience Improvement Program does not collect any personal data, such as your name, address, telephone number, or email address that can be used to identify or contact you. No user identifiable data such as the product license key or MAC address are sent to VMware. VMware does not store your IP address with the data that is collected.

New in VMware Workstation Player 2.0.5 Build 109488 (Aug 29, 2008)

  • Starting from this release, VMware has set the killbit on its ActiveX controls. Setting the killbit ensures that ActiveX controls cannot run in Internet Explorer (IE), and avoids security issues involving ActiveX controls in IE. See the KB article 240797 available from Microsoft and the related references on this topic.
  • Security vulnerabilities have been reported for ActiveX controls provided by VMware when run in IE. Under specific circumstances, exploitation of these ActiveX controls might result in denial-of-service or allow running of arbitrary code when the user browses a malicious Web site or opens a malicious file in IE browser. An attempt to run unsafe ActiveX controls in Internet Explorer might result in pop-up windows warning the user.
  • Note: IE can be configured to run unsafe ActiveX controls without prompting. VMware recommends that you retain the default settings in IE, which prompts when unsafe actions are requested.
  • Earlier, VMware had issued knowledge base articles, KB 5965318 and KB 9078920 on security issues with ActiveX controls.
  • To avoid malicious scripts that exploit ActiveX controls, do not enable unsafe ActiveX objects in your browser settings. As a best practice, do not browse untrusted Web sites as an administrator and do not click OK or Yes if prompted by IE to allow certain actions.
  • The Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures has assigned the names CVE-2008-3691, CVE-2008-3692, CVE-2008-3693, CVE-2008-3694, CVE-2008-3695, CVE-2007-5438, and CVE-2008-3696 to the security issues with VMware ActiveX controls.
  • Update to FreeType: FreeType 2.3.6 resolves an integer overflow vulnerability and other vulnerabilities that can allow malicious users to run arbitrary code or might cause a denial-of-service after reading a maliciously crafted file. This release updates FreeType to its latest version 2.3.7.
  • The Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures has assigned the names CVE-2008-1806, CVE-2008-1807, and CVE-2008-1808 to the issues resolved in FreeType 2.3.6.
  • Update to Cairo: Cairo 1.4.12 resolves an integer overflow vulnerability that can allow malicious users to run arbitrary code or might cause a denial-of-service after reading a maliciously crafted PNG file. This release updates Cairo to its latest version 1.4.14. The Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures has assigned the name CVE-2007-5503 to the issue resolved in Cairo 1.4.12.

New in VMware Workstation Player 2.0.3.80004 (Mar 20, 2008)

  • On Windows hosts, if you have configured and enabled a shared folder, it is possible for an attacker to write arbitrary content from a guest system to arbitrary locations on the host system (CORE-2007-0930). (bug 200360)
  • This release updates the libpng library to version 1.2.22 to remove various security vulnerabilities. (bug 224453) On openSUSE Linux 10.3 hosts, USB devices cannot be used in a virtual machine unless you plug the USB device in to the host before powering on the virtual machine. (bug 177615)
  • On Windows hosts, after disabling shared folders the Properties button remains enabled. (bug 194070)