topic Re: Workstation 17.5 Virtual Printer in VMware Workstation Pro Discussions

Workstation 17.5 Virtual Printer

RJ59 — Sun, 22 Oct 2023 19:21:13 GMT

After upgrading to Workstation 17.5 all my virtual printers are gone - I cannot print anything anymore!

I have multiple different VM Workstations, but all of them have the same problem.....

Any help?

Re: Workstation 17.5 Virtual Printer

jkeener — Sun, 22 Oct 2023 23:46:01 GMT

From the release notes:

The virtual printer feature has reached its end of life and has been removed from VMware Workstation Pro.

I also depended on the virtual printer since the driver's weren't properly working within the VM. Does anyone have an alternative print solution?

Re: Workstation 17.5 Virtual Printer

Technogeezer — Mon, 23 Oct 2023 00:46:51 GMT

If you're using bridged networking and have reasonably modern printers, you should be able to configure any networked printers as if you were running a physical system.

If you're using a NAT network and know the IP address of the printer, you may also be able to configure the printer using tools from within the VM. It'll take a bit more work, however.

Re: Workstation 17.5 Virtual Printer

Arno_00 — Mon, 23 Oct 2023 04:06:34 GMT

Well I don't think they should be able to remove features like that in a dot release .

I bought workstation pro with the virtual printer feature listed and I was using it, and now they push 17.5 which has security fixes and a fix for the bridge networking among other things and they remove a feature they sold me as part of Workstation pro 17... That is not right, they can remove it in VMWare 18 which would be a different product, sold with a different feature set, but not in a dot release.

Basically the choice is, live with the security holes in your system or loose a feature... they are asking for lawsuits!

VMWare is really going down the drain, they have absolutely zero ethics...

Re: Workstation 17.5 Virtual Printer

RJ59 — Mon, 23 Oct 2023 12:48:40 GMT

The big problem as I see it is that you have to install a printer in every single VM Workstation application - which in my case I have over 30 different applications!

Also there is another issue coming up - in older VMWare applications with an old operating system - like Win 3.1 or XP, I still was able to use the printer that was installed under the main system with 64bit drivers. That ship is now sailed, and those older system - which I still have to use for some applications - have no printer capability anymore

But the thing that really gets me is the fact that the system updated to 17.5 when I rebooted my machine & started VMWare, without any big warnings that you will loose a major feature. It took me hours to figure out whats happening and finally had to uninstalled VMWare all together and reinstalled Version 17.

I mean - I am a customer since more than 10 years and use VMWare for a long time plus upgraded & paid regularly when a new version came out, but this was a turning point!

And this happened while I was on a customers production site - Thanks VMWare!

Re: Workstation 17.5 Virtual Printer

Lamaay — Mon, 23 Oct 2023 19:02:09 GMT

Dear Vmware, please bring Virtual Printer back!

Re: Workstation 17.5 Virtual Printer

Lthomas844 — Tue, 31 Oct 2023 14:37:08 GMT

I agree, please bring back the virtual printer driver

Re: Workstation 17.5 Virtual Printer

Catk2 — Tue, 07 Nov 2023 13:41:34 GMT

Please reintroduce Virtual Printer in Vmware.
I am skeptical that VMware's management and technical team for Windows/Linux will take into account our wishes, the users.

When the technical team has obsessive ideas to remove a function from Vmware, they take it out and you hardly convince them to go back to the original solution.