VMware Workstation Tech Preview 20H1 now available

[Zongmin]

Hi all,

We are proud to announce  VMware Workstation Tech Preview 20H1 is ready for public download and testing!

Download it here

With VMware Workstation Pro Tech Preview 20H1, you are now able to run virtual machines on Windows 10 when Hyper-V or host Virtualization Based Security is enabled on your PC.

Users can now run Device Guard, Credential Guard and WSL services at the same time as VMware Workstation.

We will answer your questions raised in VMware Workstation Tech Preview 20H1 community and looking forward to your feedback!

Thank you!

VMware Workstation Team

[mkubecek]

The link leads directly to some *.exe file, does it mean the Tech Preview is available only for windows hosts?

[Jinw]

Yes, the Tech Preview is available only for windows hosts.

[kirm1955]

Would you be aware if the Tech Preview will work with the latest Insider builds from 19536 up to today's release of 19555. There has been an issue with the last 5 Fast ring builds that will not clean install or upgrade in a Guest virtual machine. Apparently VMware does not recognize the SCSI Hard Drive (default). Doing a clean custom install of windows, no drives are listed on where you want to install for example in a new vm.

As a temporary workaround, changing the default Hard Drive to a SATA drive, the drive will be recognized and you can install, but under Device Manager, there is an error with the SAS controller. This was introduced about 5 weeks ago as we get new builds weekly as part of the MS Insider program in Fast Ring.

Not sure if this is a MS issue or if VMware needs to adapt with these new builds. Clearly, something has changed. Just to mention, other Insiders have reported same issue with VMware, and others mentioned Hyper-V does recognize SCSI drives with these latest builds.

Regards,

Johnny

[hotvooboy]

Hi kirm1955,

Thank you for trying out our TP build and posting your query in  community.

Do you try to install the windows latest Insider build(19555)  in a VM?  If yes, it may be MS  insider build issue.

Anyway, we will monitor this issue and do some investigation.

Thanks

[kirm1955]

Not sure where the issue lies as this started with build 19536 up to including build 19559 released today 02/05. This is using WMware 15.5.1-15018445. This is not really the proper thread for this topic, as not willing to put a test version on my working computer but as long as you are aware of this.

[dougkruger]

I have just installed Workstation 16.1.2 Pro on the latest Windows 10 - 21H1 (OS Build 19043.1081) on a HP Z800 using a dual core Xeon.

Once I installed the WSL2 and enabled it to allow a Ubuntu console, the VMware system no longer could run. After investigation, I understand that this was due to the conflict of hypervisors but VMware was coming up with a solution. I then found the 'Workstation Tech Preview 20H1' which apparently should fix this. I haven't tried it on my system as I didn't want to impact my 16.1.2 installation. 

For the moment, I have used the ability to enable/disable and reboot to either use the Ubuntu or the VMware Workstation using:

Bcdedit /set hypervisorlaunchtype off
Then restart

If I want to use ubuntu and enable the hyper-v, I enter:
Bcdedit /set hypervisorlaunchtype auto

Questions:

1. I can do the above for the near future but wanted to find out when this Tech Preview will become a patch to Workstation V16?

2. What version is the Tech Preview based on since I have updated my VMs to use the Workstation V16.0 configuration?

Thanks

[wila]

Hi,

The Tech Preview was from early 2020, Workstation 16 was released _after_ that and includes every technology that was available as a preview in TP20H1.

Here's the requirements for being able to use Hyper-V enabled hosts:
https://docs.vmware.com/en/VMware-Workstation-Pro/16.0/com.vmware.ws.using.doc/GUID-177F1E77-BFFD-48...

--
Wil