VMware Workstation runs another operating system inside a window on a Windows or Linux computer. The physical computer is the host. Each virtual machine is a guest with its own virtual processor, memory, disks and network adapters. A guest behaves like a separate computer, yet its disks and settings live as files on the host. This arrangement lets someone test an operating system, isolate a development environment or reproduce a machine without repartitioning the physical drive. It does not replace the guest’s installer or license, and it does not make the host’s hardware unlimited.
Build the guest
A new virtual machine starts with a hardware profile and an installation source. VMware Workstation assigns processor cores, memory, storage controllers, a virtual disk and other devices before the guest starts. The user then installs the operating system much as they would on a physical computer. Existing virtual machines can also be opened, copied or cloned.
The resource numbers deserve restraint. Memory assigned to a running guest comes out of the host’s available memory, while active virtual processors compete for host CPU time. Several guests can therefore make an otherwise responsive computer begin paging or stall. A growable virtual disk saves space at first, but it expands as the guest writes data. Its maximum capacity is not the amount currently occupied on the host.
Choose the network
VMware Workstation has three network choices with different consequences. Bridged mode puts the guest on the same local network as the host, where it normally requests its own address. That choice suits a guest that other computers must reach. Managed switches or wireless networks can reject the extra virtual MAC address, so a bridged guest may fail to receive an address even while the host remains online.
NAT mode sends guest traffic through the host’s connection. The guest can reach outside services, but another computer cannot normally start a connection to it without a port-forwarding rule. Host-only mode creates a private network between the host and selected guests. It is useful for an isolated lab, but it does not supply ordinary Internet access by itself. Changing modes can also change the guest’s address and invalidate a saved server URL.
Snapshots need space
A VMware Workstation snapshot records a return point for a virtual machine. Later writes go into snapshot data rather than replacing the base disk immediately. Reverting can undo a failed driver installation or configuration experiment. A snapshot is not an independent backup: the chain still depends on the virtual-machine files, and damage or loss on the host can remove the whole chain.
Snapshot data can grow until it consumes the free space on the host. Capturing a running machine’s memory requires extra storage for that memory state. Deleting a snapshot also starts a consolidation operation that needs working space. Waiting until the disk is nearly full can leave too little room to complete the cleanup.
Connect real devices
USB devices can move between the host and a guest, but one side controls a device at a time. Attaching a storage device to the guest can make it disappear from the host until it is disconnected. Shared folders take a different route: they expose selected host directories inside the guest without a network server. That convenience weakens the boundary between the two systems, so malware or a mistaken command in the guest may reach shared material.
Clones solve another storage problem. A full clone has its own virtual disks and can survive independently. A linked clone saves space by depending on a parent snapshot. Moving, deleting or altering that parent can break the child. VMware Workstation therefore rewards a clear folder layout and a separate backup of every virtual machine that matters.
