VMware Workstation is a virtualization software program that enables you to run multiple operating systems on one computer at the same time. This powerful virtualization tool makes testing new hardware and software much simpler while providing students with their own learning space.
To share a VM from your VM library, right-click it and choose Share from its context menu. Additionally, you can set the power action of shared VMs.
It allows you to run different operating systems
VMware Workstation is virtualization software designed to run multiple operating systems simultaneously on your PC. It’s widely used by IT professionals, software developers, and tech enthusiasts – and is also an invaluable way of testing new computer hardware or software.
VMware Workstation prompts you when installing a virtual machine to assign it memory, disk space and ports. It also lets you select its virtual network type – bridged allows VMs to share a physical network adapter; or Network Address Translation (NAT) separates each VM into its own private network.
As well as configuring VM roles and permissions in this way, you can also change their start action with VMware Workstation when clicking any shared VM folder in the library and choosing Roles from its context menu. This opens a window featuring six pre-configured roles – Administrator, No Access Cryptography Administrator (NACA), Read Only Authorisers (RA), Creator (VM Creator), Read Only User and VM User – in addition to creating your own roles from scratch and setting your start action which occurs whenever someone clicks a shared VM from VMware Workstation interface. You can set start action (default power action when clicking one shared VM from VMware Workstation interface) from there too if desired!
It allows you to test new software
VMware Workstation allows you to test software without installing it directly onto a physical machine, as well as for security and compatibility testing purposes. For instance, if a legacy application requires Windows XP but your organization is upgrading to Windows 8, using a virtual machine (VM) allows you to test its operation before rolling out to all network members.
This software creates a virtual machine on your PC that operates independently from other hardware on it, using a hypervisor to isolate system resources for each VM from those of its host OS. It supports multiple operating systems and facilitates file transfers between them with drag-and-drop.
VMware Workstation also enables you to create a virtual networking switch to link the network adapters of the virtual machine to those of your current network adapters, useful for digital forensics, penetration testing and other advanced uses.
It allows you to test new hardware
VMware Workstation allows you to test new hardware, software and networking configurations in a virtual environment. This feature is essential for software developers who must run and test their apps across different operating systems; thus avoiding releases that may malfunction on production hardware and also helping demonstrate them to management, so they can demonstrate its operation and ensure it meets organizational standards.
VMware Workstation allows you to save the state of a VM at any time, making it possible to restore any damaged machines back to their previous state if something goes wrong. Compatible with Windows, Linux and OS X as host operating systems; additionally it can run as a server mode allowing less powerful computers access shared VMs.
VMware Workstation is a type 2 hypervisor, meaning that it runs atop an existing operating system. As such, it will pull resources away from this host operating system which may decrease performance.
It allows you to test new network configurations
VMware Workstation utilizes components in next-generation 64-bit x86 CPUs to seamlessly link physical hardware devices with virtual machines, making configuration of various operating systems and applications straightforward. Furthermore, this software supports various network configurations – even bridging existing host network adapters! Plus it enables snapshotting to save state changes at any given moment then restore them later if desired.
VMware Workstation can also help IT administrators test new hardware and network configurations before rolling them out for production use. IT administrators are frequently required to roll out complex new applications or mass configuration changes within an organization, which may lead to unexpected conflicts on legacy systems or with certain apps if left untested prior to deployment into production. It is therefore imperative that any new configurations undergo extensive testing prior to being deployed into production environments.
VMware Workstation also makes life easy when Systems Engineers need to travel with their laptop and demonstrate an application at client sites. By creating virtual machines before leaving home, and connecting them all at the time of demonstration, VMware Workstation allows Systems Engineers to quickly set up the demo environment with relative ease.