VMware Workstation Pro, a popular virtualization service for Windows and Linux, which recently became free for personal use, has just received a new update to version 17.6. The latest release introduces a new command-line tool for interacting with the hypervisor through Command Prompt or Terminal.
There is also official support for more guest and host operating systems and a few changes for other parts of the program, such as legacy VMware Tools images no longer bundled with VMware Workstation Pro and a fix for virtual machines running very slowly on non-admin Windows accounts.
The new command-line tool, vmcli, lets you perform various tasks through Terminal on Linux or Windows:
With vmcli, you can perform a variety of operations such as creating new virtual machines, generating VM templates, powering on VMs, and modifying various VM settings. Additionally, you can also create scripts to run multiple commands sequentially.
Here are the newly supported host and guest operating systems:
| Guest Operating System | Host Operating System |
|---|---|
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Fixed issues in VMware Workstation Pro 17.6 include the following:
VMware KVM crashes while running the "vmware-kvm --preferences" command
VMware KVM crashes when you try to open its Preferences dialog by using the "vmware-kvm --preferences" command.
Virtual machines run unusually slowly on Windows hosts
Running virtual machines on Windows hosts as a non-administrator user might result in high host CPU usage and poor guest performance.
Workstation installation fails on Linux hosts with a compilation error
If you try to install Workstation on Linux hosts with kernel version 6.8, you receive a compilation error.
And here are the other changes in the latest release:
Legacy VMTools ISOs are no longer included by default but are available for download.
Bluetooth hub passthrough support has reached its end of life and has been removed from VMware Workstation.
Physical host parallel ports support has reached its end of life and has been removed from VMware Workstation for Windows.
Unity mode has reached its end of life and has been removed from VMware Workstation.
The Enhanced Keyboard driver has reached its end of life and has been removed from VMware Workstation for Windows.
You can download VMware Workstation Pro for free for personal use from the official website (a free account is required). If you already have the app installed, it will prompt you to update upon the next launch. Commercial use, however, still requires purchasing a license.