VMware Workstation 7 review

Server hypervisors may be all the rage, but personal virtualisation tools such as VMware Workstation still have their place. Designed to host virtual machines on a desktop PC, VMware's desktop product is a firm favourite with software developers, support staff and other professional users, with even more of interest in the new version 7 release.

We're a big user of VMware Workstation, mainly to test new software products, so were very interested in what the new release had to offer. As with our existing 6.5 implementation it's available for Windows or Linux and can be used to host virtual machines running both platforms, with support for a long list of 32-bit and 64-bit implementations one of the key attractions.

It was also one of the first virtualisation products to support virtual SMP, and that's now further enhanced to four virtual processors or cores per virtual machine (VM), double the previous limit. Memory support is similarly updated so that you can now configure up to 32GB per virtual machine with no maximum on the host other than what you can physically fit inside.

In common with other virtualisation tools, you need real physical cores, RAM and disk space to support VM resources. Moreover, as with previous releases, we found performance significantly constrained unless we supplied processors and memory in abundance, especially when we wanted to run more than a couple of VMs simultaneously.

Still that's to be expected and easily catered for, by throwing money at the hardware. In addition you can now pause running VMs, to instantly release their resources, something we found incredibly useful when we needed to start a new VM without bringing the host PC and other guests to a near halt.

Official support for Windows 7 is another welcome addition, both as a host and guest OS. At first this seemed a little superfluous as we've been running Workstation 6.5 on Windows 7 for some time, and hosting Windows 7 guests. However, the new version is much better integrated, with, for example, full support for Aero Peek on the host PC so that when hovering over the VMware icon on the taskbar we could see live miniature displays from each of our VMs.

There's better support too for Windows 7 as a guest OS, thanks to a new Windows Display Driver Model designed to handle the Aero interface on both Windows 7 and Vista virtual machines. 3D support is enhanced too, again for Windows 7 and Vista, but also for older XP VMs.

And while on the subject of XP, there's support for the XP Mode virtual machine, developed to enable users of Windows 7 to carry on running otherwise incompatible software when migrating to the new OS. Workstation 7 takes this one step further with the ability to import the XP Mode VM and run it like any other guest, complete with virtual SMP and high-end graphics support, plus Unity mode where guest applications appear to run on the host desktop.

Another thing we liked was that, unlike previous updates to VMware Workstation, there was no need to reformat existing VMs when upgrading. Indeed, following our upgrade, we were able to resume previously suspended virtual machines and carry on working as normal.

We did eventually have to update the VMware Tools in order to take full advantage of some of the new features, such as virtual printing, where guests can use host printer drivers without having to install anything extra inside the VM. However, the update process can now be automated, as can the taking of VM snapshots, which is great if you ever need to undo changes and turn the clock back.

We need to revert to older snapshots on a regular basis and really love this new option, as will software developers, especially those writing Java code, who can now also run and debug Java apps directly from the SpringSource Tools development environment. Added to which, it's possible to install and run VMware's ESX in a VM rather than have to shell out for dedicated hardware to work with the VMware hypervisor.

There's a lot in Workstation 7, but other than the addition of a few extra buttons and menu options, the user interface doesn't change much, which makes upgrading very easy. Indeed, it took us less than 15 minutes to work through the new options and start doing some real work.

We did encounter a couple of glitches along the way, particularly with virtual printing, which is poorly documented and left out altogether when you upgrade VMware Tools rather than load them from scratch

Another consideration is that, unlike Microsoft's rival Virtual PC product, you have to pay for Workstation 7. That said, existing customers can upgrade for just £75.32 + VAT, which we think very good value given all the functionality you're getting.

Already a very good product with a lot more to offer compared to Virtual PC, Workstation 7 is now even better and, if not the only virtualisation kid on the block, the one the other kids will all want to hang out with.

Host PC requires a 32/64bit x86 processor (Intel or AMD), hardware virtualisation is optional although 64-bit guest VMs require Intel VT or AMD‐V support. Minimum of 1GB or RAM required although 2GB or more recommended. IDE and SCSI hard disk both supported, minimum of 1GB required per VM. Support for an extensive list of Windows, Linux and other guest operating systems, 32-bit and 64-bit.