topic Re: Feedback: Side Channel Mitigation Option in Workstation 17 is Confusing Compared to Previous Ver in VMware Workstation Pro Discussions

Feedback: Side Channel Mitigation Option in Workstation 17 is Confusing Compared to Previous Version

JeffH322 — Tue, 29 Nov 2022 01:02:04 GMT

The verbiage used to control whether Side Channel Mitigations are enabled/disabled changed in version 17.0.0 from previous versions.

Prior to 17.0.0, the setting was labeled:

Disable side channel mitigations for Hyper-V enabled hosts

In 17.0.0, the option was changed to:

Side channel mitigations is not enable for Hyper-V enabled hosts

Yes - "enable" is missing the "d" at the end.

What does this option actually do?

Does the option enable side-channel mitigations?
Does the option disable side-channel mitigations?

It's more a rhetorical question - I know it's #2, but I'm playing the role of a confused customer.

This would be parity with earlier releases which begs the question - why was the verbiage changed in the first place?

There's additional context listed below that states:

Enabling side channel mitigations may cause performance degradation.

This is helpful context (FYI side channel should be hyphenated - "side-channel"), but does little to explain the checkbox next to the "Side channel mitigations is not enable for Hyper-V enabled hosts" option.

While the wording in versions prior to 17.0.0 isn't grammatically correct, it's still easier to understand than the change in version 17.0.0.

Both "side channel and Hyper-V enabled should be hyphenated - even with Hyper-V already being hyphenated:

Disable side-channel mitigations for Hyper-V-enabled hosts

Screenshots:

Version 17.0.0

Version 16.2.4

Re: Feedback: Side Channel Mitigation Option in Workstation 17 is Confusing Compared to Previous Ver

BillMoller — Mon, 26 Dec 2022 18:00:06 GMT

I also noticed this and it's rather confusing... even the tooltip discusses "enabling" and usually when one checks a check box, the box is considered "enabled" but the actual meaning of the box seems to continue to be disable, a double negative...

So... to "enable" side-channel mitigations I have to "disable" (uncheck) the checkbox?! Got it, clear as mud.

Re: Feedback: Side Channel Mitigation Option in Workstation 17 is Confusing Compared to Previous Ver

BEHTERA — Sun, 10 Sep 2023 23:12:41 GMT

I am running VMWare Workstation Player V17.02. It does not display these settings for editing. VMWare Workstation apparently does but this is not me...

Re: Feedback: Side Channel Mitigation Option in Workstation 17 is Confusing Compared to Previous Ver

AKcoding — Tue, 26 Sep 2023 13:16:45 GMT

Why is this still the way it is? And the KB article still references the old verbiage so it wasn't until I found this thread that I even understood the option as it is written.

This really needs to be updated. I understand how these things happen - English isn't everyone's first language - but if you are going to make a change to an option in English please run it by a native speaker before release.