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I'd be happy to chime in on that question:  -->>  MODERN GPU HARDWARE SUPPORT <<-- I'm an ex-happy Workstation user who stopped upgrading a few versions ago due to lack of improvements that targeted the features I needed.  I recently left Vmware all together for a KVM environment, but it has it's own problems.  I'd like to come back to Vmware but until Workstation gets the features I need it's just not worth it. Who am I?  I'm an independent software developer who was really happy with Workstation a few years ago because it allowed me to build, test & deploy apps into isolated test environments with minimal hardware requirements.  I was a pretty good salesman for Workstation, pitching it to all my friends & colleagues. Why am I no longer happy with Workstation?  Lack of modern GPU support.  Due to this lack of reasonable, basic hardware support by today's standards, I was stuck in a multi-boot world due to the projects I'm working on that require more than basic 'DX8' GPU support.  It made booting back into the Workstation environment pretty pointless.  So I dumped it and moved on to a KVM host / windows GPU pass-through guest world. I keep checking to see if Vmware is ever going to update Workstation and add this feature I need.  When IOMMU virtualization was added I got excited and downloaded an evaluation copy but was pretty disappointed when I realized it did basically nothing, at least for my needs.  Yes an important building-block to GPU virtualization, but just not there yet.  Disappointed, I restored from backup and started looking for other solutions.  Which took me to KVM. Now, as a Windows user living in a linux KVM world, it has it own problems.  I'm not exactly happy with it.  I'd jump back to Workstation in a second if it were to add decent modern GPU support into the product.  Yes, it's a hard feature, rife with hardware, software & legal (cough GRiD cough) loopholes.  But until Workstation gets this feature to be honest it doesn't really deserve to be called 'Workstation' any more.  Sorry if that's a little harsh, but there it is.

Hi, This issue couldn't be reproduced in our environment. we copied a win2012R2 VM  directly from ESXi 6.7u3 server(15160138) and the VM can boot as normally. BTW, copy the virtual machines files from esxi server directly  is not  recommended by VMware official. there may be some configurations will most likely lead to a compatibility problem. Thanks.

Thank you. I was not hoping that would be the answer. Guess I have to boot my machine into Windows then. Bummer. I downloaded the video in the virtual Windows already and was hoping it wouldn't be necessary.

Hello, I have a strange issue i was using Ubuntu 19.04 and after upgrade to 19.10 VmWare Work station failed to start. It was vision 15.1.0 So i uninstall it and downloaded the new release 15.5.1 but it refused to install. So any ideas?

Hi, What about multiple machines running in Player....this is not possible even with licensed Player, right? You can start multiple instances of Player and run multiple VMs at the same time that way. -- Wil

I was given a hint to workaround the connection problem from VMWare support consisting of a specific line in VMX file. Now the drive shows up in the VM but the performance is barely usable (100 times slower than direct connection to the host). I was told to wait for the next major release, several months ahead I just purchased the SSD hardisk and the VM license... I felt so disapointed that I checked out other choices, but I've read that the same is happening to other products like Parallel Desktops.

If I will have a restricted machine created in Workstation Pro, I will then be able to run it in licensed Workstation Player? You posted that screenshot yourself, so yes. What about multiple machines running in Player....this is not possible even with licensed Player, right? Correct, that requires Workstation Pro. Everything you needed was here: VMware Workstation Player | VMware | UK

OK, so to wrap this up. If I will have a restricted machine created in Workstation Pro, I will then be able to run it in licensed Workstation Player? Because this should be suitable solution together with a some internal rules and GPO policies in place (not perfect, but since Horizon Flex not a case anymore, at least something) What about multiple machines running in Player....this is not possible even with licensed Player, right? Thanks a lot

If you want users to run restricted VMs, you'll need licenses for Workstation Player. Encryption and restriction go hand-in-hand: VMware Knowledge Base ​OR Encrypt and Restrict a Virtual Machine