Can VMware PLayer Workstation (free) run multiple VMs at at time?

Question

That may be a simple one, but I have several VMs created under VMware. I have a couple of versions of Windows as well as some installs ofdistros of Linux. My VMware player runs under Ubuntu Linux 16.04. The problem is that when I start the VMware player, it offers the installed VMs, but this disappears when I start the first one, and I cannot seem to get it back so I can start another VM for, say, Linux. How can I solve this issue ? I have the latest version of VMware Player available for personal (free) use.

Thanks :-)

Solution 1

You can simply open one more VMPlayer in launcher and thus can use multiple VM machines simultaneously. I am using two VMWare Workstation 14 Player in ubuntu.

Solution 2

No. I manage the business for this product, and it does not allow you to run more than 1 VM at a time by design. What you want is VMware Workstation Pro.

From the VMWare Player Manual

Note: VMware Player can run only one virtual machine at a time. You must close the virtual machine currently running in VMware Player before you can open another virtual machine.

Comments

[David Cullen]

Can you add a link to the documentation stating the limitation of VMWare Player and add a quote of some of the verbiage to your answer?

[Admin]

vmware.com/pdf/VMwarePlayerManual10.pdf "Note: VMware Player can run only one virtual machine at a time. You must close the virtual machine currently running in VMware Player before you can open another virtual machine."

[Jürgen A. Erhard]

Where's the equivalent line for 14? I can find a User's Guide, which looks to be the equivalent document, but not such phrase in there.

[Pablo]

What a shame. Perhaps VBox is a better option if you're not big company and only want to run pen tests on 5 or 6 VMs