You must perform certain steps before you upgrade Workstation Pro.

Procedure

  • Verify that all virtual machines are Workstation 7.x, 8, 9, 10 or 11 virtual machines.

    Direct upgrades from Workstation 2 and 3 virtual machines are not supported .

  • Review the system requirements for the new version of Workstation Pro.
  • If a virtual machine was created with a version of Workstation earlier than Workstation 5.5 and it has a snapshot, delete the snapshot.
  • If you are upgrading from Workstation 4, 5.x, 6.x, or 7.x, and the previous version of Workstation used bridged settings to map virtual networks to specific physical or virtual adapters, record those settings.

    You must recreate these mappings after you upgrade Workstation Pro.

  • Power off all running virtual machines in Workstation Pro.
  • If any virtual machines are suspended, resume them and power them off in Workstation Pro.
  • If any virtual machines are running in the background, start them in Workstation Pro and power them off.
  • Back up all virtual machines by making backup copies of the files in the virtual machine directories and storing them in different directories.

    The files that you back up should include .vmdk or .dsk files, .vmx or .cfg files, and .nvram files. Depending on the upgrade path, you might not be able to run virtual machines under both the current version of Workstation Pro and the previous version.

  • If you are upgrading Workstation 6.x on Windows XP to the current version of Workstation Pro on Windows Vista or Windows 7, verify that Service Pack 2 is installed and then upgrade the host operating system to Windows Vista or Windows 7.
  • If you are upgrading Workstation 5.x on Windows Vista to the current version of Workstation Pro on Windows Vista, select Programs > Programs and Features > Uninstall a program in the Windows control panel to manually uninstall Workstation 5.x.
  • If you are upgrading Workstation 5.x on Windows XP to the current version of Workstation Pro on Windows Vista or Windows 7, select Add or Remove Programs in the Windows control panel to manually uninstall Workstation 5.x.

Results

During an upgrade from Windows XP to Windows Vista or Windows 7, the location of virtual machines might change. The Windows Vista and Windows 7 upgrade use the registry to map the virtual machines to a new location. Before the upgrade, the default virtual machine location on Windows XP is C:\Documents and Settings\username\My Documents\My Virtual Machines. After the upgrade, the default virtual machine location on Windows Vista and Windows 7 is C:\Users\username\Documents\Virtual Machines\guestOSname.