VMware Workstation 17 Player was released last month. It comes with a lot of new features. If you are using VMware Workstation 16 Player, then it is a must-have upgrade.

The new features of VMware Workstation 17 Player are:

• Windows 11 guest support.
• Fast encryption of VMs (i.e. Windows 11) that uses vTPM.
• Autostart support for VMs.
• OpenGL 4.3 graphics support for VMs.
• Support for new guest OSes. i.e. Windows 11, Windows Server 2022, Ubuntu 22.04 LTS, Debian 11, RHEL 9, SUSE/OpenSUSE 15.

In this article, I am going to show you how to install VMware Workstation 17 Player on Linux Mint 21.

Table of Contents:

1. Downloading VMware Workstation 17 Player
2. Preparing the System for Installation
3. Installing VMware Workstation 17 Player
4. Opening VMware Workstation 17 Player for the First Time
5. Activating VMware Workstation 17 Player
6. Conclusion

Downloading VMware Workstation 17 Player

To download VMware Workstation 17 Player installer, open a browser of your choice and visit Download VMware Workstation Player | VMware.

Once the page loads, scroll down a little bit and click on DOWNLOAD NOW from the Try Workstation 17 Player for Linux section.

Your browser should start downloading VMware Workstation 17 Player installer. It will take a while to complete.

VMware Workstation 17 Player installer should be downloaded at this point.

Preparing the System for Installation

For the VMware Workstation 17 Player dependencies to be resolved and kernel modules to be compiled, you will need to install the necessary build tools and kernel headers on Linux Mint 21.

First, update the APT package repository cache with the following command:

The APT package repository cache should be updated.

To install the necessary build tools and kernel headers on Linux Mint 21, run the following command:

To confirm the action, press Y and then press <Enter>.

All the required packages are being downloaded. It will take a while to complete.

The downloaded packages are being installed. It will take a while to complete.

At this point, all the required packages should be installed.

Installing VMware Workstation 17 Player

VMware Workstation 17 Player installer should be downloaded in the ~/Downloads directory of your Linux Mint 21 machine.

So, navigate to the ~/Downloads directory as follows:

You should find the VMware Workstation 17 Player installer here.

Add execute permission to the VMware Workstation 17 Player installer file as follows:

Run the VMware Workstation 17 Player installer with root/superuser privileges as follows:

VMware Workstation 17 Player is being installed. It will take a few seconds to complete.

VMware Workstation 17 Player should be installed at this point.

Opening VMware Workstation 17 Player for the First Time

To open VMware Workstation 17 Player, search with the keyword vmware^[1] and click on the VMware Player icon^[2] from the Application Menu of Linux Mint 21.

As you are running VMware Workstation 17 Player for the first time, you will see the following window. From here, you will need to answer some questions.

Select I accept the terms in the license agreement and click on Next to agree to the VMware Player End User License Agreement.

Select I accept the terms in the license agreement and click on Next to agree to the VMware OVF Linux Tool End User License Agreement.

If you want VMware Workstation 17 Player to check for updates when you open VMware Workstation 17 Player, select Yes. Otherwise, select No.

Once you are done, click on Next.

If you want to join VMware Customer Experience Improvement Program (CEIP) which will send usage stats to VMware so that VMware can improve its products, select Yes. Otherwise, select No.

Once you are done, click on Next.

If you want to use VMware Workstation 17 Player for commercial use, you will have to activate it with a license key. You can buy a license key for VMware Workstation 17 Player from the official website of VMware.

To activate VMware Workstation 17 Player, select Enter a license key to allow commercial use and type in the license key^[1].

If you want to use VMware Workstation 17 Player for non-commercial use (i.e. personal use), select Use VMware Player 17 for free for non-commercial use^[2].

Once you are done, click on Finish^[3].

Type in your login password and click on Authenticate.

Click on OK.

VMware Workstation 17 Player should be ready to use.

Activating VMware Workstation 17 Player

If you want to activate VMware Workstation 17 Player for using it commercially later, open VMware Workstation 17 Player and click on Help > Enter License Key.

Type in a License Key and click on OK. VMware Workstation 17 Player should be activated and ready to be used for commercial purposes.

Conclusion

In this article, I have shown you how to download and install VMware Workstation 17 Player on Linux Mint 21.