Run Virtual Machines on your PC for Free

VMware Player is free software that enables users to easily run any virtual machine on a Windows or Linux PC. VMware Player runs virtual machines created by VMware Workstation, VMware Server, or VMware ESX and also supports Microsoft virtual machines and Symantec LiveState Recovery disk formats.

No. VMware Player enables you to run virtual machines created with another VMware product. However, if you need to create virtual machines as well as leverage powerful developer-centric features such as Teams, multiple Snapshots and Clones, or Virtual Rights Management features for end-point security, you will need the appropriate VMware product.

VMware Player installs like a standard desktop application. Once installed, VMware Player runs virtual machines in a separate window. VMware Player includes features that enable users to configure their machines for optimal performance as well as access host PC devices.

Use VMware Player to run, evaluate, and share software running in virtual machines:

• Run: VMware Player can be used by anyone to run 32- and 64-bit guests in virtual machines on a Windows or Linux PC. VMware Player makes it quick and easy to take advantage of the security, flexibility, and portability of virtual machines.
• Evaluate: VMware Player is ideal for safely evaluating software distributed as a virtual appliance.  Virtual appliances are pre-built, pre-configured and ready-to-run enterprise software applications packaged along with an operating system in a virtual machine. With VMware Player, anyone can quickly and easily experience the benefits of preconfigured products without any installation or configuration hassles. Run over 900 virtual appliances from leading software vendors available from the VMware Virtual Appliance Marketplace.
• Share: VMware Player can be used by anyone to run a virtual machine shared by a colleague or friend. For example, customer support and development teams can share a customer scenario encapsulated within a virtual machine.

No. VMware virtual machines can only be created with VMware Workstation, VMware Fusion, VMware ACE, VMware Server, VMware ESX, or VMware VirtualCenter products.

ACEs are policy-wrapped virtual machines created with VMware ACE for additional control and security. VMware Player can run ACEs but the appropriate ACE client license must be installed.

The Browser Appliance is a free virtual machine that allows users to securely browse the Internet using Firefox. Users can run the Browser Appliance with VMware Player to do the following:

• Protect against adware, spyware: Users protect their PCs against adware, spyware and other malware by browsing the Internet with the Firefox browser within a virtual machine. The Browser Appliance leverages virtual machine isolation capabilities to prevent malware downloaded in the browser from propagating to the normal desktop.
• Safeguard personal information: By automatically resetting the environment after every use, users can safeguard personal information such as passwords, account numbers, browsing history and other personally identifying information. The Browser Appliance can be configured to automatically reset itself after each use; so, personal information is never stored permanently.

VMware Player is available as a free download. We also recommend that you download a virtual appliance from VMware Virtual Appliance Marketplace. The Browser Appliance is a great way to experience a virtual machine and securely browse the Internet. It’s available, along with other virtual machines at the VMware Virtual Appliance Marketplace.

For a typical host system, we recommend that you have a 400MHz or faster processor (500MHz recommended) and 512MB RAM minimum (1GB RAM recommended). You must have enough memory to run the host operating system, plus the memory required for each guest operating system and for applications on the host and guest. See your guest operating system and application documentation for their memory requirements. VMware Player requires approximately 150MB of disk space to install the application. For more details on minimum PC requirements, see the Player specs.

Download virtual appliances from leading ISVs at the VMware Virtual Appliance Marketplace.

VMware Player enables you to quickly and easily run virtual machines. However, VMware Player does not offer the ability to create new virtual machines and it also lacks many powerful features found in VMware Workstation and VMware ACE.

Yes, with permission. If you are interested in redistributing VMware Player, please apply now.

Yes. Please refer to the VMware Player End-User License Agreement (EULA) for using VMware Player according to VMware design and licensing guidelines.

No. VMware Player is not designed to co-install with other VMware products. If an installation of VMware Workstation, VMware ACE, or VMware Server is detected on a machine where VMware Player is being installed, the VMware Player installation will display an error message and abort. However, if you purchase and install VMware Workstation 5.5 or later, VMware Player is included.

No. VMware Player is available in English only.

No. Support and Subscription is not available for VMware Player. However, VMware provides self-help resources such as:

• VMware Player Documentation — Getting Started product documentation
• Discussion Forums — Users can share their information and experiences with others