What is VMware Player?

Run Virtual Machines on your PC for Free!

In a nutshell (and in very non-technical terms), VMware Player lets you run a second (virtual) operating system in a separate window and take it for a test drive. You don't have to log out, don't have to reboot, don't have to do anything except open VMware Player and select which pre-built operating system you want to run. You can also browse the internet securely with the browser appliance. There are a huge range of softwares you can use and all available in the VMware Virtual Appliance Marketplace. Just download one and open it in VMware Player!

So, for someone who wants to try Linux, BSD, or even a piece of software for a particular system including Windows, this is a safe, free and easy way to do it. Keep in mind that any guest operating system you try out in VMware Player will be slightly slower than how it would normally run, and that sometimes not all of the features of your hardware will be accessible. This will depend entirely on your system configuration though. No matter though, as you still get to test out other softwares and see if you like them.

Follow the links for more: Overview, Features, F.A.Q.'s, Download VMware Player.


Note: For web designers VMware Player is a dream. You can easily test your websites across multiple platforms and browsers without having to have multiple computers. Make your sites accessible to everyone!

Minimum system requirements to install and use VMware Player:

For a typical host system, a 400MHz or faster processor will work (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.