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Hot Shot
Hot Shot

VMware Player 7 vs VMware Workstation 12 Player

What is the difference between VMware Player 7, which I've been using for close to a year (and earlier versions before that), and VMware Workstation 12 Player which has just been released, both of which are available on the same download page. Is it simply a name change for the latest version? And if so, why isn't it offered as an update from within VMware Player 7?

I tried installing v12 over v7 in a VMware Fusion 8 Pro Win 7 Pro VM and the installation simply wouldn't work, essentially grinding to a halt when the v12 Tools were being installed. I eventually tried uninstalling Tools from the v7 guest, then uninstalling v7, and then installing v12. While that worked, the v12 Tools still failed with an ongoing problem with video support and guest screen resolution.

Up until now, progression from one version of Player to another has been problem-free. Is the issue with VMware Workstation 12 Player, or is it, perhaps, with Fusion 8 Pro, which seems to have its own Tools installation problems?

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alert101
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

Old question but I stumbled upon this when trying to figure out the same thing just now. A minute later Wikipedia came to the rescue:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VMware_Workstation_Player

12: VMware Player proper discontinued after v7; VMware Workstation Player 12 released

In addition only Workstation Player (12+) has support for Windows 10 RTM and newer.

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