Workstation 2023 Tech Preview Discussion topics

Do we still need tech preview?

spartan_n00b — Tue, 07 Nov 2023 17:16:34 GMT

I have the tech preview 2023 (Player Version e.x.p (22068932)). Will I lose any features if I download the new non-tech preview fusion? I want to stay up to date with the latest features but I don't know if I still "need" the tech preview. I'd like full 3d acceleration on my Apple silicon.

Failed install

louyo — Fri, 13 Oct 2023 11:54:44 GMT

King of the slow group here.

I am assuming that it only installs over V17? I tried to install over 16.2.5 and it kept saying invalid SN. I did the full uninstall.

Lou

Is the 2023 Tech Preview Over?

voidp — Wed, 04 Oct 2023 15:09:13 GMT

Error installing on Kali

racdamico — Sun, 24 Sep 2023 11:52:38 GMT

I'm installing a VM Workstation on Kali and I'm gotting error when WMWARE tries ti execute the installation of vmmon and vmnet but it fails. I could not resolve searching on internet. Can you help me please?

Using credential manager locks the VM to a single host

wila — Fri, 15 Sep 2023 00:15:13 GMT

Hi,

So I'm following the default settings.. and setup windows 11.. clickety click..

Leaving "save password to Credential manager" as default and don't write down the password.

Now my hardware dies.. --> the VM dies with it. No matter if you had backups or not as the password is in the credential manager and there is no way to see it. It looks like it is encrypted in there.

Also note that you can't correct this either.

Go to the "Change password" screen... Nope.. it asks for the old password first.

Go to "Remove TPM" and then back to "Change password" screen to remove the encryption.. "still asks for the password"..

That makes no sense.. I dropped the TPM.. there is nothing to protect anymore as the VM is using thin encryption by default. It should now let me remove the "encryption" to make it easy to get your VM back to work without having to drop down to file level.

If using full encryption then I guess you got what you bargained for... hmm.. but even then... it's a bit harsh.
You can use the VM without typing a password.. so IMO you should be able to remove or reset the password too... somehow.

--
Wil

FR: Ability to see hypervisor engine used without having to check the logs

wila — Thu, 14 Sep 2023 09:30:03 GMT

Hi,

This has been asked before...
In order to troubleshoot a myriad of issues it is convenient to be able to see what type of hypervisor is used.
The VMware one or the Hyper-V one.. they both do react differently. Currently the only way to be sure on which hypervisor is used is to check the vmware.log for the string "Monitor Mode" and see if it has ULM (User Level Mode.. aka Hyper-V) or CPL0 (Current Privilege level 0 aka VMware hypervisor).

Can we get an indication - for the user - to see what engine is being used? Like in the about box?

Yes the log file is fine once you really need to go for some low level troubleshooting, but for the user to know what hypervisor engine is being used they shouldn't have to drop down to checking log files and search for some obscure string + explanation on what it means.

thanks!
--
Wil

FR: Disable power throttling on the vmware binaries

wila — Thu, 14 Sep 2023 09:21:02 GMT

Hi,

Sometimes I see people suggest to disable power throttling on the vmware-vmx binaries.
If this actually helps, and I suspect it does, can we then get this setting applied by default in the installer please?

--
Wil

Has any improvement been made to address performance issues on Alder Lake CPUs

Technogeezer — Thu, 07 Sep 2023 20:23:07 GMT

It's been well over a year and closer to 2 that there have been constant posts about poor Workstation performance on 12th Gen Intel Core (Alder Lake) and later CPUs. Has any progress been made to address this?

IMO you can NOT ship the next version of Workstation without fixing this severe issue that's impacting an ever increasing number of users. A paid product should not require workarounds and disabling of Windows security features in order to get it to work.

FR: Add snapshot operations to vmrest

wila — Wed, 06 Sep 2023 10:51:19 GMT

Hi,

Played a bit with vmrest and it seems it does not support any snapshot operations.

Can't list existing snapshots.

Can't create a snapshot

Can't revert a snapshot

Can't delete a snapshot.

Those are all very basic and available in the vmrun interface (albeit not all currently work for encrypted VM's).

Please add this so that the rest interface is more complete.

thanks!

--
Wil

Using vmrun to create a snapshot for an encrypted VM does not work?

wila — Wed, 06 Sep 2023 11:54:05 GMT

Hi,

We can now use vmrun to start encrypted VM's.. that's great!

C:\Program Files (x86)\VMware\VMware Workstation>vmrun start "D:\Virtual Machines\Windows 11 x64\Windows 11 x64.vmx"
Encrypted virtual machine password:
Error: Cannot open VM: D:\Virtual Machines\Windows 11 x64\Windows 11 x64.vmx, Incorrect password

The above is what we used to see

C:\Program Files (x86)\VMware\VMware Workstation>vmrun -vp "vmware1!" start "D:\Virtual Machines\Windows 11 x64\Windows 11 x64.vmx"

Now, no more error and the VM runs in VMware Workstation. That's great!

However..

C:\Program Files (x86)\VMware\VMware Workstation>vmrun -T ws snapshot "D:\Virtual Machines\Windows 11 x64\Windows 11 x64.vmx" mySnapshot
Encrypted virtual machine password:
Error: Cannot open VM: D:\Virtual Machines\Windows 11 x64\Windows 11 x64.vmx, Incorrect password

OK, it wants a password.. no problem

C:\Program Files (x86)\VMware\VMware Workstation>vmrun -T ws -vp "vmware1!" snapshot "D:\Virtual Machines\Windows 11 x64\Windows 11 x64.vmx" mySnapshot
Error: Authentication for encrypted virtual machine failed

Why does that fail?

C:\Program Files (x86)\VMware\VMware Workstation>vmrun -vp "vmware1!" snapshot "D:\Virtual Machines\Windows 11 x64\Windows 11 x64.vmx" mySnapshot
Error: Authentication for encrypted virtual machine failed

Still doesn't work.

This is a problem.

That means that Vimalin still won't be compatible with the next version of VMware Workstation (and probably also Fusion) for encrypted Virtual Machines.

The reason is that it depends on being able to list, create, revert and delete snapshots in the background.

Am I missing something?
Is this perhaps only available in the REST interface?

edit:

Creating a snapshot using the above command works WHEN the encrypted VM is shut down.
It does not work when the VM is running. It really needs to work when the VM is running as well.. that's a very important feature.

thanks!

--
Wil

Installer says it is installing Workstation 17

wila — Tue, 05 Sep 2023 15:33:07 GMT

Hi,

Probably not news, but reporting it anyways.

The installer says in the opening screen that it is going to install Workstation 17.. I would have expected to see that it was either going to install Tech Preview 2023 or Workstation 18.

That's splash screen and opening screen.

Also on opening Workstation on the "Home screen".

The About dialog does list the version correctly.

--
Wil

W10 VM + Chrome + Youtube video playback crashes the SVGA 3D driver

johncenix — Sun, 27 Aug 2023 07:06:49 GMT

Raising this issue again. I tried the 2023 tech preview with its new VMware tools and the virtual hardware version, but the crash hasn't gone away.

https://communities.vmware.com/t5/Workstation-Tech-Preview/W10-VM-Chrome-Youtube-video-playback-crashes-the-SVGA-3D-driver/m-p/2935683

https://communities.vmware.com/t5/VMware-Workstation-Pro/W10-VM-Chrome-Youtube-video-playback-crashes-the-SVGA-3D-driver/m-p/2984059

Could you kindly, please, take a look at this issue. It's been over a year since I first reported it.

Linux Kernel 6.5-rc - vmmon compile fails..

rgadsdon — Sun, 06 Aug 2023 06:49:05 GMT

Tested with VMware 2023 tech preview:
.................................

CC [M] /home/rgadsdon/kernel/vmmon-only/bootstrap/monLoaderVmmon.o
CC [M] /home/rgadsdon/kernel/vmmon-only/bootstrap/vmmblob.o
LD [M] /home/rgadsdon/kernel/vmmon-only/vmmon.o
/home/rgadsdon/kernel/vmmon-only/vmmon.o: warning: objtool: CrossPage_CodePage+0x207: 'naked' return found in RETHUNK build
MODPOST /home/rgadsdon/kernel/vmmon-only/Module.symvers
ERROR: modpost: "__pte_offset_map" [/home/rgadsdon/kernel/vmmon-only/vmmon.ko] undefined!
make[3]: *** [scripts/Makefile.modpost:144: /home/rgadsdon/kernel/vmmon-only/Module.symvers] Error 1
make[2]: *** [/usr/src/kernels/6.5.0-0.rc1.11.fc39.x86_64/Makefile:1990: modpost] Error 2
make[1]: *** [Makefile:246: __sub-make] Error 2
make[1]: Leaving directory '/usr/src/kernels/6.5.0-0.rc1.11.fc39.x86_64'
make: *** [Makefile:117: vmmon.ko] Error 2

Windows iso creator

oaklodge — Sat, 05 Aug 2023 03:30:53 GMT

I recently came across this app for making Windows 11 ISO - I think it's part of the UTM project

It's also available in the mac store.

https://github.com/TuringSoftware/CrystalFetch

support for OpenGl 4.3 for windows 11?

dogking57 — Tue, 01 Aug 2023 06:47:14 GMT

In the newest tech preview, under virtual machine -> settings -> Display, it says that OpenGl 4.3 is supported, but when running the windows 11 vm, that doesn't seem to be the case since the driver model is WDDM 1.2. Is there something I'm doing wrong? Thanks

Encrypted Password

Budoydoy12 — Fri, 28 Jul 2023 00:53:21 GMT

The the IT that I replace here in my job. does not endorsed the password.

what should I do?

Please help me

Remove the ISO tools from the installer

jen2 — Sun, 23 Jul 2023 01:48:51 GMT

The installer is huge, the bug size is due to including the ISO tools for all operating systems. These ISOs will be old after a while, and every one can download them. Please remove them form the installer and download them upon request.

Don't make a copy of the installer in the InstallerCache

jen2 — Sun, 23 Jul 2023 01:46:24 GMT

When installing VMWare it will make a useless copy of the installer in the to the folder C:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files\VMware\InstallerCache

There is no need for this copy as there is already a copy in the C:\Windows\Installer

Updae OpenSSL in VMware tools

jen2 — Sun, 23 Jul 2023 01:38:57 GMT

VMWare tools 12.3 still has an old version of openssl 3.0.8. please update to version 3.0.9

BUG: VMware NAT Service high CPU usage build-22060606

jen2 — Sun, 23 Jul 2023 01:06:50 GMT

After a while, VMware NAT Service (vmnat.exe) will use 100% of a single core. restarting the service will resolve the issue. But then again after while it will start using 100% of a core. The internet will still work even when high CPU usage.