VMware Workstation Beta

VMware truly values the participation of our user community in the product development process. VMware Workstation wouldn't be the "Gold Standard of Virtualization" without your enthusiasm and support. We hope that you enjoy using this VMware Workstation 7.1 Release Candidate and we look forward to your feedback in the forums.

Please also give VMware Player and VMware ACE a try!

If you are using the current expiring beta serial number, you will need to enter the following License Key into the Workstation Help -> Enter Serial Number dialog:

License Key: M148Z-H010J-H8T8C-0JAUK-ADM4C

• Faster Graphics: Improved performance and better compatibility for both DirectX 9 and OpenGL 3D apps
• OVF Tool 2.0: A brand new version of the OVF Tool is included to import and export OVF packaged virtual machines and upload virtual machines to vSphere
• Memory Management: New UI to handle increased virtual memory capacity
• New Guests: Support for Ubuntu 10.04 and RHEL 5.5 added
• Reported Issues: This release candidate addresses many of the issues reported via the beta forums

• OpenGL 2.1 support for Windows 7 and Vista guests: The addition of hardware accelerated OpenGL 2.1 support to the WDDM driver enables many more graphics applications to run inside of your virtual machines.
• Improved graphics performance: Significant enhancements have been made to the VMware WDDM driver that have produced benchmark results that are up to 80% faster. The updated driver also produces smoother video playback and addresses many reported rendering issues. Of course games run better as well!
• 8-way SMP support plus virtual disks up to 2TB in size: The virtual hardware continues to become more powerful to meet the needs of Workstation customers who are running server class applications.
• OVF 1.0 support: Including a new version of the OVF Tool with this release enables users to easily import or export virtual machines and vApps and move them to vSphere or up into the cloud.
• Direct Launch: Blur the distinction between running native and virtual applications by launching an application installed in a virtual machine directly from the start menu or taskbar of the host system.
• Automatic software updates: These VMware applications can now detect when a new version is released and are able to update at the click of a button.
• Fedora virtual machines: We are excited about finally offering support for running one of the most popular Linux distributions on the planet!