They’ve released VMware Workstation 17.6, and it’s kind of a convoluted process to register. If you follow the register link below, they don’t accept sharable email addresses like gmail, yahoo… They want your corporate email address, even for free personal use? So I signed up with my charter email I never use and was able to get setup and download the new software as you can’t just update through the installed 17.5 version in this new Broadcom era. Consequently, I suffered some psychological harm flashing back to my AT&T days as I suffered through a terrible corporate web UI. And I didn’t install the new version yet because some users on Reddit were complaining of screen tearing and reverting to 17.5 to correct it. VMware Workstation 3D graphics acceleration support is very good for older Linux versions, but if they don’t improve the product and experience I’m going to switch to VirtualBox and just live with any shortcomings of the open source alternative, as it appears Broadcom is damaging VMware. Also, their switch to subscriptions is forcing a lot of corporate server clients to switch away, with many going to Microsoft’s Hyper-V and those not needing 24/7/365 support switching to Proxmox. Way to buy and trash a product Broadcom.
How to download Desktop Hypervisor (Workstation and Fusion) products for personal and commercial use (With Entitlement)
Updated On: 07-01-2024
Products
VMware Fusion 13.x ProVMware Workstation 17.x Pro (for Windows)
Issue/Introduction
Learn how to download VMware Desktop Hypervisor products (Workstation and Fusion) for personal use and commercial use
To download VMware Workstation and Fusion for Personal use
You must be a registered user on the Broadcom Support Portal. Please follow: Register for an account on the Broadcom Support Portal and Communities to register.
To download VMware Workstation and Fusion for Commercial use
Please follow support portal registration, profile build process with Site id and download commercial build binaries.
https://knowledge.broadcom.com/external/article?articleId=142814
Resolution
Download for personal use:
1. Go to broadcom.com
2. In the upper right corner, select ‘Support Portal’
3. Either log in by clicking ‘Go To Portal’ or ‘Register’ for a basic Broadcom account Quick link to the registration form
4. Once logged in, go to support.broadcom.com if you’re not redirected there
5. click the dropdown to choose the VMware Cloud Foundation division
6. On the left, click ‘My Downloads’
7. Search for either Fusion or Workstation
8. Click the product name (VMware Fusion Pro for Personal Use or VMware Workstation Pro for Personal Use )
9. Notice the dropdown for the Personal Use edition (it is the exact same binaries as the Commercial one)
10. Select 17.5.2 or 13.5.2
11. Download and install Commercial user download: Please follow support portal registration. profile build process with site id and download
Commercial user download: Please follow support portal registration, profile build process with Site id and download commercial build binaries.
https://knowledge.broadcom.com/external/article?articleId=142814