VMware Player is the free virtualization engine VMware launched since October 2005.
It’s based on the same engine of VMware Workstation and has a lot of features. To see a summary of them check my dedicated post.
Being a scaled down version of VMware Workstation, VMware Player misses some critical features, like creating new virtual machines.
But the VMware EULA doesn’t prevent users from creating new virtual machines in other ways and use them with VMware Player.
So, for example, you could legitimately install VMware Workstation trial, create a new virtual machine, uninstall it and use the new virtual machine inside the VMware Player.
Now, since this an uncomfortable way to go, various VMware enthusiasts created workarounds and tools to produce new virtual machines good for VMware Player.
There is a lot of confusion about these workarounds and tools, also because many of them have the same name.
To create the new virtual machine you just need two files: a virtual machine configuration file (.vmx) and a virtual machine hard disk (.vmdk).
Technics and tools spreading on the web should produce both files to have a working virtual machine.
I will summary in this post various methods and will update the post when a new method or tool come up. So be sure to check it often.
- Manual method
Released by me, Alessandro Perilli. It provides a .vmx and a .vmdk. - EasyVMX!
Released by Havard Skrodahl. It’s absolutely the best online virtual machine builder at today. - VMX Builder
Released by Robert Petruska and Ulli Hankeln. It’s absolutely the best offline virtual machine builder at today. - qemu-image
Released by Qemu creator, Fabrice Bellard. It provides only a .vmdk - VM Builder
Released by an anonymous. It provides only a .vmx - vmx-builder.cmd
Released by Ulli Hankeln. It provides only a .vmx