VMware Player 2.5.3.185404

4.7 out of 5 stars 4.7 (91 votes)

(August 21, 2009)

Windows 2000/2003/Vista/XP / Freeware / 32,320 downloads

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

VMware Player is ideal for safely evaluating pre-built application environments, beta software, or other software distributed in virtual machines. With VMware Player, anyone can easily experience the benefits of preconfigured products rapidly without any installation or configuration hassles.

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Reviews of VMware Player

  1. 5 out of 5 stars
    wadedesk

    Reviewing 2.5.2.156735 (Apr 3, 2009)

    I have found VMware Player the best way to run Windows applications on Linux (Ubuntu). For example: running WinXp in VMware Player allows you to use TaxCut for your taxesI Or for that matter QuickBooks for your accounting.
    I have found the performance of VMware Player much better on a 1-GHz host than QtEmu or VirtualBox. And Wine is fine for many portable win32 apps, but does not yet have enough compatibility for things like Tax Preparation software.
    I look forward to the day when serious financial software will be available in for Linux so there is no need for emulators. Office productivity and Internet applications are pretty much there now.

  2. 4 out of 5 stars
    spiked

    Reviewing 2.0.4-93057 (Jun 1, 2008)

    The ISO images included now are simply the VMTools (similar to "guest additions" in the terminology of competing products) for all supported operating systems. It's really about time VMware started providing these for Player; they were already freely available in the Server product. Their absence from Player was meant to reflect the fact that Player is not intended for creating VMs, just running them. Of course, everyone has figured out how to create them without buying Workstation or installing Server, and their slow VMs without VMTools were making Player look bad.

  3. 4 out of 5 stars
    rseiler

    Reviewing 2.0.0.45731 (May 9, 2007)

    In case anyone's wondering why this is so incredibly large compared to prior versions, it's because they include a couple .ISO images with it.

  4. 4 out of 5 stars
    mindarch

    Reviewing 1.0.2 Build 29634 (Sep 1, 2006)

    I've only used it a little, but like the idea. As a web application developer, this makes a lot of sense. I can have several different OS's installed on my machine and as I develop a site or some code for an online app, I can check it out with different versions of the same browser and also different browsers for different systems. I've started using this for just this reason. If you develop, this is a great reason to use this.

    The biggest problem I had was some of the pre-made packs had wrong user/pass or ran poorly etc. If you have the full VMWare, you can create your own OS for the player for your company.

    I have a small review (http://www.mindarch.com/b2/?p=3) if anyone is interested.

  5. 4 out of 5 stars
    roj

    Reviewing 1.0.2 Build 29634 (Aug 11, 2006)

    I hope they've fixed that damnable inexcusable buffer bug that plagues copy and paste operation both indside a VM and on the host that Player is installed on. It's annoying as hell.

    FOUR stars.

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