download older versions of vmware player Is There A Free VMware Player for Mac System? VMware Workstation Player, also known as VMware Player is a free desktop software package used for simultaneously running several operating systems for 64-bit computers having or . VMware Inc. offers it free of cost. You can enjoy the benefits of preconfigured products without much hassle. VMware player is available for free for personal non-commercial use for Windows but whether such a VMware Player for Mac is available for free download, that is the question. Part 1: Is There A VMware Workstation Player for Mac OS X? There is no free version of VMware Workstation Player for Mac OS X. Neither the GNU/Linux version nor the version from BSD Ports will work. Mac is not a cost-effective platform for running VMware player, thus its free trial is not provided. VMware sells a Mac version of their product called VMware Fusion. You may use that for a trial period of 30 days. After that, if you do not want to purchase VMware Fusion, there are other alternatives too available in the market. Either you can use to some other OS or use it to run VMware player on a different OS. Even if you do not get VMware for Mac free, do not worry, we will help you to choose among the various alternatives which will just serve the purpose right. Given below is a detailed note about the alternatives. Read on to find out: Part 2: Top 5 Alternatives to VMware Workstation Player for Mac. Given below are 5 popular alternatives to VMware Workstation Player. You do not need to download VMware for Mac, instead, check the below options: 1. VirtualBox. Oracle VM VirtualBox is a free and open source software published by Oracle-it is a Intel64 virtualization product for enterprise as well as home use. It is a "virtualization software" which means you can run multiple virtual machines, with different operating systems on the same computer. VirtualBox may be installed on a number of host operating systems like Windows, Linux, Solaris and even Mac OS. VirtualBox has an ever increasing list of features with each new release and supports multiple guest operating systems and platforms it runs on. On May 2018, the latest version of VirtualBox 5.2.12 has been made available for download. It comes with improved stability features and fixes regression. Download link: https://www.virtualbox.org. 2. VMware Fusion. VMware Fusion is a monitor developed by VMware for Macintosh computers. VMware Fusion helps to turn your Mac computers compatible to run any Windows like applications like Internet Explorer or Microsoft Office. It is one of the best commercial virtualization app. Running Windows on Mac is only the beginning. Fusion makes it very easy to test nearly any OS and app on a Mac. VMware workstation for Mac is not present but this product is just what you will need. It has features in between that of VirtualBox and , though early setup can be a long process. Download link: https://www.vmware.com/products/fusion/fusion-evaluation.html. 3. Parallels Desktop. Parallels Desktop for Mac, by Parallels, is software providing virtual versions for Macintosh computers and operating systems specially designed for home users who want to use Windows on their Mac without getting another computer. Parallels Desktop gives Mac users the ability to run Windows at the same time as Mac OS X. Whether it is teams, professionals or IT managers, Parallels Desktop is an easy tool for all. There is a specialized Parallels toolbox with over 30 one touch services like clean your drive, secure private files etc. Download link: https://www.parallels.com/products/desktop/ 4. QEMU (Quick Emulator) QEMU is a generic and open source full system emulator. As a machine emulator, QEMU can help run programs for one machine on a different machine. Though QEMU's main host platform is Linux, it also supports operating systems for Apple's Mac computers. Using QEMU you can run operating systems for any machine with any supported architecture. As QEMU is an open source program, the coding is constantly updated and improved as technical needs evolve. The latest QEMU version available in the market is 2.12.0 updated last in April, 2018. Download link: https://www.qemu.org/download/ 5. JPC(Emulator) JPC is an PC emulator written in pure Java that is why it seamlessly works on all major computing platforms, including Windows, Linux and Mac OS. It runs as an applet with an integrated debugger. JPC creates a virtual computer using which you can install your favorite in a safe and flexible way. It provides basic IDE and VGA emulation. Also JPC has multilayered security which ensures it is the safest solution you would like to choose. Download link: http://jpc.sourceforge.net/home_home.html. Bottom Line. So the bottom line stands, that even though VMware workstation Mac OS does not exist for free, you have several other virtual software packages in the market which will help you achieve the same kind of goal. Choose from above what suits you best. Last but not least, if you install Windows system on Mac computer, create a login password for Windows but can't remember it, you can use PassFab 4WinKey as it is an easy and comprehensive solution to recover lost or forgotten passwords for any Windows login account. Download VMware Workstation Player. VMware Workstation 16 Player is a platform for running a single virtual machine on a Windows or Linux PC to deliver managed corporate desktops. Try it now for free. VMware Workstation 16 Player. VMware Workstation Player. VMware Workstation Player is an ideal utility for running a single virtual machine on a Windows or Linux PC. Organizations use Workstation Player to deliver managed corporate desktops, while students and educators use it for learning and training. The free version is available for non-commercial, personal and home use. We also encourage students and non-profit organizations to benefit from this offering. Commercial organizations require commercial licenses to use Workstation Player. Need a more advanced virtualization solution? Check out Workstation Pro. VMware Player. VMware Workstation is one of the most aclaimed applications for running and controlling virtual operating systems remotely. Now, the developers of it have decided to offer VMware Player, an easier-to-use application totally free. Thanks to this full-featured program you'll be able to access virtual machines of Workstation, GSX, ESX Server, Microsoft or Symantec LiveState Recovery. Among the most relevant features we can stand out the possibility to use massive storage systems like pendrives or USB drives from the virtual machine, interchange information between the two systems, access local network or Internet from the virtual machine or emulate 32-bit systems. You can also configure the maximum percentage of RAM that you want the program to use. VMware Player is the best option for users who want to get rid of Windows operating system, but who would like to try another one like Linux. VMware Workstation 8.0. Running the application you need on your computer isn't always as easy as you might think. Yes, a native app may exist for your OS of choice, but if it doesn't or if you need to keep your OS free of clutter, things get complicated. Getting access to the cloud can also be challenging. This is one reason why I like VMWare Workstation. It’s a virtual workstation manager for Windows. VMware Workstation is cloud capable and cloud aware. VMware Workstation's operating system support, user experience, feature set and performance will dramatically change the way you work with virtual machines. It's one of the best companion apps for any technical professional as they move to the cloud. One of the most popular reasons why corporate customers use a virtual machine is to evaluate the next generation operating system. With VMware, you can install, say, Windows 8 and give users access to it, without actually upgrading a specific machine or risking introducing an undesirable user experience into the enterprise. The latest version of VMware Workstation is optimized for running Windows 8 on Windows PCs. Its Easy Install feature simplifies the task of creating Windows 8 virtual machines. Its Unity mode will intelligently scale windows with Metro applications and multi-touch support will ensure you get the true Windows 8 experience in a virtual machine. One of the BEST reasons why you'd use VMware Workstation is its new web interface. It allows you to access your virtual machines from a tablet, smart phone, PC or any device with a modern browser. No plugins or special add-ins are necessary. Now you can power on, off, or suspend your virtual machines and interact with them from almost anywhere. App Pro’s: Access virtual machines from the web, keep your working PC free of questionable applications. App Con’s: Expensive, complex app isn't easy for the average user. Conclusion: Using a virtual machine on your computer is one of the best ways to use incompatible applications. It also makes it easy to keep your PC free from poorly written apps or apps that don't uninstall cleanly. VMware wrote the book on virtual machines and is one of the BEST ways to accomplish these tasks. The biggest problems with VMware are that its expensive and complicated to setup and use. At $250 for a single workstation license, you need to make sure you take advantage of its 30 day trial before you buy. Its also a very complicated application to setup and configure. Many consumer users will need to either seek assistance from the help file, printed documentation or support forums to insure that they get the best performance out of the app. Please note that I've given this app a low usability rating because of its level of complexity. Pete's Blog. Lost enough time with this already so I'll be short. First of all, yes, sometimes the latest version of the VMWare Tools can fail and you want to downgrade. I'm looking at you VMWare Tools 8.8.0 from VMWare Player 4.0.0 using a Windows 2000 image! And as you may have already found out, when that occurs, the VMWare Software as well as the VMWare community are less than helpful. After they are downloaded by the Player, the VMWare tools are installed, as a windows.iso file, in your VMWare installation directory (typically :\Program Files (x86)\VMWare\VMWare Player\ ). It is that ISO image that is mounted in the virtual machine during installation. You can obtain older versions of the VMWare Tools by navigating the not-intended-for-users VMWare Software Update directory, starting at http://softwareupdate.vmware.com/cds/vmw-desktop/player/. The VMWare Tools download is then found in //windows/packages/ (eg. http://softwareupdate.vmware.com/cds/vmw-desktop/player/3.1.5/491717/windows/packages/ ) Of course the download is not provided as an ISO, because that would be too easy. Instead, it's a tar of an exe that silently extracts and copies (overwrites) a new windows.iso in the VMWare directory. Thus, before you run that exe, you may want to rename your old windows.iso to something else, so that you can both tell whether the downgrade process completed successfully and have the ability to switch back between ISOs if needed. 4 comments: Thanks for a great post Pete! Oh this was a helpful post! . This was my first time using VMPlayer. I installed it a few days ago, and all seemed fine. I don't know if it was a windows update or what, but i notice the machine would "freeze" for a second or 2 every little while. Looking at task manager I could see spikes and the graph would freeze as well. I narrowed the issue down to vmtools. I found some info saying that maybe it was a perf counter problem, but that did not pan out. I followed the above proceedure to install the version of vmtools that came with 3.1.5 of vmplayer, and not I seem to be OK . BTW you need to set the option NOT to upgrade vmtools other wise you will revert back the the latest version. nPn. Thank you! Thank you! I'd been struggling with the bad effects of an upgrade to version 5 of VMware Player and a followup attempt to update the VMware Tools. Days of effort trying to uninstall and reinstall. I was about to delete the Windows 2000 guest OS altogether until I came across your posting. I couldn't find anything helpful or useful on the VMware Community postings. You saved the day! Thanks again. thanks for the info " that silently extracts and copies (overwrites) a new windows.iso in the VMWare directory" This BAT is automatic Extract iso [Bat Directory\VMware-tools-iso\tools-[OS]-[BuildVer].iso] Open Notepad. Paste and Save ExtractTools.bat ::-----ExtractTools.bat----- @echo off for /f "usebackq tokens=1,2,* delims=[" %%O in (`ver`) do set OSVT=%%P set OSV=%OSVT: 8,3% if "%OSV%" LEQ "5.1" goto OSVG for /f "tokens=3 delims=\ " %%i in ('whoami /groups^|find "Mandatory"') do set LEVEL=%%i if "%LEVEL%"=="High" goto OSVG echo This Program Work Administrators Onry. echo Please This File Right Click and [Run as Administrator] echo. echo Press Any Key exit. pause>nul exit :OSVG if "% n1"=="" (echo Drop VMware-Tools [tools-*.tar] to ExtractTools.bat.&&pause&&exit) echo Extracting % n1 set etmp=C:\vmwt_%RANDOM% MD %etmp% 1" -o%etmp% goto main ) if exist "C:\Program Files\WinRAR\RAR.exe" ( "C:\Program Files\WinRAR\WinRAR.exe" x "% 1" %etmp% goto main ) if exist "C:\Program Files(x86)\WinRAR\RAR.exe" ( "C:\Program Files(x86)\WinRAR\WinRAR.exe" x "% 1" %etmp% goto main ) for /f "tokens=1,2,*" %%I in ('reg query HKCU\Software\HoeHoe\Lhaplus /v InstallPath 2^>nul') DO IF "%%I"=="InstallPath" ( "%%K\Lhaplus.exe" "% dp0\VMware-tools-iso" 2>nul "%tools%" /e "%etmp%\ext" for /f "delims=- tokens=1,2,3" %%i in ("%tools%") do set tools=%%j&&set toolver=%%k set toolver=%toolver:.exe=% msiexec.exe /a "%etmp%\ext\tools-%tools%.msi" /qb TARGETDIR="%etmp%" move /y "%etmp%\ProgramFiles\VMware\tools-%tools%\%tools%.iso" "% dp0\VMware-tools-iso\tools-%tools%-%toolver%.iso" rd /s /q "%etmp%" explorer "%