VMware Workstation 14.1.1 Player | 9 Jan 2018 | Build 7528167 Check for additions and updates to these release notes.

What's in the Release Notes

The release notes cover the following topics:

• About VMware Workstation Player
• Prior Releases
• Security

About VMware Workstation Player

VMware Workstation Player is a streamlined desktop virtualization application that runs another operating system on the same computer without rebooting. VMware Workstation Player provides a simple user interface, unmatched operating system support, and portability across the VMware ecosystem.

For more information, see the broader VMware Workstation Player documentation .

Prior Releases

Features and Known Issues from prior releases of VMware Workstation Player are described in the release notes for each release. To view release notes for prior releases of VMware Workstation 14 Player, click the following links:

• VMware Workstation 14 Player Version 14.1
• VMware Workstation 14 Player

Security

This update of VMware Workstation Player exposes hardware support for branch target injection mitigation to VMware guests.   This hardware is used by some guest operating systems to mitigate CVE-2018-5715 (also called by the name "Spectre").

For a guest operating system to use hardware support for branch target injection mitigation, the following steps must be taken:

1. Install this update of VMware Workstation Player
2. Ensure that your VM is using Hardware Version 9 or higher.  For best performance, Hardware Version 11 or higher is recommended.
3. Update your guest operating system with fixes for CVE-2018-5715 (consult the operating system vendor for these updates).
4. Update the host firmware (or CPU microcode, if host firmware cannot be updated).

Please see VMware knowledge base article 52085 for more details.