win10 2004 update wants to uninstall my player

[rocket888]

I'm one of those if it ain't broke don't update it...

I've been running a free vm player 7.1.1 for so long now I don't know what the status of vmware is these days.

Last year, after a win10 update, I had to follow some instructions to remove vmware from some compatibility checker. That took a week to finally figure out how to get the old player working again.  But that at least didn't force me to uninstall vmware player to get the update.

Now, before the update to 2004 even started, windows asks me to uninstall player. I see no way to proceed. My guess it if I uninstalled it, windows would refuse to let me re-install it, if I can even find the installer file after so long. I've made a few image backups, so if something goes really wrong I can get back fairly easily.

Is there even a free version available these days? If so, where can I get them. Will my older vm systems still run?

If my only hope is to buy a version, is there a reasonably low cost  version I could get instead. Will it run my old vm machines? By low cost, I'm thinking on the order of $50 or less.

thanks

[scott28tt]

Current version: Download VMware Workstation Player | VMware

The old and new versions support different VM virtual hardware versions: VMware Knowledge Base

Your old VMs should still work on the new version.

However, Windows 10 1903 is the most recent supported as a host OS: VMware Knowledge Base

[rocket888]

Well, thanks for the reply. If I understand you, I won't be able to update to the latest windows system.

Interesting though, I'm running 1909 and that does work. Maybe it's because I had earlier fixed that compatibility issue.

FYI it was quite a struggle to install. I have a softperfect ramdisk and normally point tmp and temp to it. The installer for vmware failed. I took a guess and restored back to tmp and temp in their usual places and then the install worked.

On the good side, I think I finally have the vmware tools working, as it never had been able to download and install them before.

[owmaka]

scott28tt

Windows 10 1903 is the most recent supported as a host OS?

Wow, didn't know this. This fact should effect thousands of users wanting to host a VM.

[scott28tt]

That KB article does not yet reflect the new 15.5.5 release.

VMware Workstation 15.5.5 Pro Release Notes

[rocket888]

Is the free player I downloaded just recently (which is possibly old already, that earlier link was for 15.5.2) the same with respect to release notes as the version listed as the pro version?

Is the free player also called workstation pro? I'm confused about player vs. workstation.

After having installed the player 15.5.2 on 1909, the windows update no longer offers to let me go to the 2004 version. It says my system is not yet ready. I'm guessing that has something to do with my update to 15.5.2. But I didn't see windows update doing any sort of checking, so I'm just even more confused.

[scott28tt]

The free for personal use product is Workstation Player, although it must be licensed (paid for) if used commercially.

It’s “big brother” is Workstation Pro, which is always licensed (paid for).

Many of the base/core requirements are the same for Player and for Pro - such as the hardware, supported host OS, supported guest OS...

[scott28tt]

Oh, and I just bought a brand new Win10 laptop, and it doesn’t want to install the 2004 version yet - and it doesn’t have any version of Workstation installed.