System requirements for VMware Player
The physical machine on which VMware Player is installed is called the host system and its operating system is called the host operating system. In order to install and run VMware Player, the host system and the host operating system must meet the following requirements:
CPU
- a 64-bit x86 CPU
- 1.3GHz or faster core speed
- LAHF/SAHF support in long mode
For 64-bit guest operating systems, the host system must have one of the following processors:
- an AMD CPU that has segment-limit support in long mode
- an Intel CPU that has VT-x support
Memory
- 1GB minimum, 2GB and above is recommended
- in order to use Windows 7 Aero graphics in a virtual machine, 3GB of host system memory is required.
Hard disk
- IDE, SATA, and SCSI hard drives are supported
- a minimum of 1GB free disk space is required for guest operating systems
Optical CD-ROM and DVD
- IDE, SCSI, and SATA optical drives are supported
- CD-ROM and DVD drives are supported
- ISO disk image files are supported
Network
- any Ethernet controller that the host operating system supports.
Supported guest operating systems
A guest operating system is an operating system that you will install inside a virtual machine. Many operating systems are supported for use in a virtual machine in VMware Player, such as Windows XP, Windows 7, Windows 8, Windows Server 2008, Windows Server 2012, CentOS, SUSE, FreeBSD, Debian, etc. For the full list, go to this link. VMware Player is not listed under the Product Name menu, but the information for Workstation is applicable to Player.
