[German]There are reports that VMware by Broadcom has broken the ability to automatically download updates for VMware Workstation. The cause seems to be a URL change to the update servers (something was changed on March 23/24, 2025), so that users receive a certificate warning.
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Users were able in the past, to retrieve automatic updates in VMware Workstation to update the product. In the past, this worked more badly than well – last time I had to download and install the relevant update package directly from the VMware pages because the auto-installation failed. But this has now been completely prevented.
Report in the Broadcom forum: Auto-update broken
Since March 25, 2025, there has been an entry in the Broadcom user forum titled VMware Workstation: Certificate error is occured during connecting update server. There, a user complains that his VMWare Workstation Pro and VMWare Fusion Pro "suddenly can no longer connect to the update server" since March 24, 2025.
When he triggers the command to check for VMWare Workstation Pro and VMWare Fusion Pro updates in the software, he receives a certificate error message. He is using VMware Workstation Pro: 17.6.3 (the latest version) or Fusion Pro: 13.6.3 (the latest version).
The VMWare product itself works perfectly. There is a problem that the update cannot be verified. This error is confirmed by other users in the thread.
VMware has changed something
In the forum thread, another user informs us that a post by a Broadcom employee in the Fusion community indicates that the company has changed the software update infrastructure for its products.
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Along with this change, Broadcom would have discontinued the ability to use the in-product updaters for Fusion and Workstation. According to this user, users will now need to download product installers from the Broadcom support portal to update their Workstation installation.
This latest move by VMware by Broadcom restricts users to Workstation 17.5.2 or later in the auto-update process. However, to download the updates, you must log in to the Broadcom portal and then download the full package with the installer to install it as an "update".
The "hacks" that made it possible to access older versions of Workstation via direct URLs to the software update infrastructure should no longer work. The forum participant writes that Broadcom has not yet decided if, when or how they will reintroduce the in-product updates for Workstation.
Whether the issue happened in the context of the article VMware vCenter: Update tokens required as of April 23, 2025 happened, I don't. However, I have noticed that the direct VMware download links posted by users in comments here on the blog no longer work. There is a redirect to the Broadcom portal, where a login is then required. The colleagues at Bleeping Computer had noticed this problem.
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