Is there a freeware version of vmware workstation?

liamcrane · 10 Jan 2010 at 14:10

Hi i had to reformat and i have lost all my virtual machines i setup but i cant seem to find a freeware version of vmware workstation, do they do one or are they all just trials?

many thanks

Deleted member 77746 · 10 Jan 2010 at 15:43

It's called vmware player this is the free version of vmware workstation, version 3 allows you to create virtual machines.

Aod · 10 Jan 2010 at 17:22

virtualbox is a similar but free equivalent to VMware incase you were interested...

Django x2 · 10 Jan 2010 at 18:11

use vmware server instead. It does all the vmware workstation stuff but is free

marc2003 · 10 Jan 2010 at 19:14

Lucero said:
use vmware server instead. It does all the vmware workstation stuff but is free

vmware server is horrible. vmware player is much nicer to use.

liamcrane · 10 Jan 2010 at 19:20

Aod said:
virtualbox is a similar but free equivalent to VMware incase you were interested...

thanks very much everyone fo the input i have downloaded virtualbox and vmware player gonna have a play around with both and see which one i find more user friendly, im going to install my oem xp on one machine how much HD space should i allocate for it? also i have 4gb of ram in my machine and was going to allow 512mb to the virtual machine would that be enough?

thanks again

Deleted member 77746 · 10 Jan 2010 at 19:37

liamcrane said:
thanks very much everyone fo the input i have downloaded virtualbox and vmware player gonna have a play around with both and see which one i find more user friendly, im going to install my oem xp on one machine how much HD space should i allocate for it? also i have 4gb of ram in my machine and was going to allow 512mb to the virtual machine would that be enough?

thanks again

You will probably like virtualbox better run on java. You will be fine with about 8GB of space depends what your going to install on the vm. 512 mb will be enough allocated to the vm and you have plenty room for more vms.

liamcrane · 10 Jan 2010 at 20:13

optitech-uk said:
You will probably like virtualbox better run on java. You will be fine with about 8GB of space depends what your going to install on the vm. 512 mb will be enough allocated to the vm and you have plenty room for more vms.

cool thanks mate i dont tend to have loads of machines maybe 3 max im studying for my A+ so just wanna have a play around with XP and PRO. Im not going to install much on the machines just simple things like service pack 2 for XP and maybe an antivirus so hopefully 10GB should cover it. Will my XP oem be ok to use even tho i have it installed on my other HD?

thanks as always

Pawnless Endgame · 10 Jan 2010 at 21:08

Liamcrane, if you're going to want to use USB pass-thru, then VMWare Player will be the one for you.

The one main drawback I've found with any virtualisation program so far is that I haven't been able to emulate 3D acceleration. That's MS Virtual Machine, VMWare and Virtualbox. Bit of a bummer when you're trying to run an old 3D-accelerated Win 98 game that refuses to run on 2k/xp/7 even with compatibility mode switched on.

lokkers · 11 Jan 2010 at 06:45

marc2003 said:
vmware server is horrible. vmware player is much nicer to use.

VMware Server isn't horrible, and VMware Player doesn't allow you to take snapshots (which is why I am using Server).

liamcrane said:
Will my XP oem be ok to use even tho i have it installed on my other HD?

It's a breach of the licence agreement for Windows, as OEM is tied to the original motherboard it was activated on.