Upgrade Workstation Pro on a Windows Host

You can upgrade to the current version of Workstation Pro on a Windows host system by running the Workstation Pro setup program and installation wizard for Windows.

Remote connections and virtual machine sharing are enabled by default when you upgrade Workstation Pro. With remote connections, you can connect to remote hosts and run remote virtual machines. With virtual machine sharing, you can create virtual machines that other instances of Workstation Pro can access remotely.

Prerequisites

• Verify that the host system meets the host system requirements. See Host System Requirements for Workstation Pro.
• Verify that you have a license key.
• Verify that you have administrative privileges on the host system.
• Prepare for the upgrade. See Prepare for an Upgrade.

Procedure

1. Log in to the Windows host system as the Administrator user or as a user who is a member of the local Administrators group.
   If you log in to a domain, the domain account must also be a local administrator.
2. Double-click the VMware-workstation-xxxx-xxxxxxx.exe file, where xxxx-xxxxxxx is the version and build numbers.
3. Click Uninstall to uninstall the previous version of Workstation Pro.
4. After the host system restarts, log in as the Administrator user or as a user who is a member of the local Administrators group.
   If you log in to a domain, the domain account must also be a local administrator.
5. Follow the prompts to finish the upgrade.
   Depending on your configuration, you might need to restart the host system to finish the installation.

Results

After Workstation Pro is upgraded and you restart the host system, the VMware Workstation Server service starts. The VMware Workstation Server service starts whenever you restart the host system.

What to do next

To use the latest features, upgrade existing virtual machines to the new version of Workstation Pro. See Change the Hardware Compatibility of a Virtual Machine.

If you used bridged settings to map virtual networks to specific physical or virtual adapters in the previous version of Workstation Pro, recreate the mappings. If you created teams in the previous version of Workstation, convert the teams to use them in the new version of Workstation Pro.