[German]Brief addendum – VMware released both the new version VMware Workstation Pro 25H for Windows and VMware Fusion Pro 25H2 for macOS on October 14, 2025.
The announcement can be found in the VMware blog post VMware Workstation & Fusion 25H2: Embracing Calendar Versioning and New Features. These releases introduce a new versioning model. With the 25H2 suffix, the versioning scheme for the products also changes to the year and half-year in which an update was released.
New features of the desktop hypervisors
According to VMware, the desktop hypervisors offer new features and extend support for the latest operating systems and hardware.
Key new features
According to VMware, version 25H2 offers new tools and features that simplify automation, improve compatibility, and make everyday tasks faster and more reliable.
- dictTool (Workstation & Fusion): A new command-line tool that allows customers to inspect and edit VMware configuration files (.vmx, settings). This provides advanced users with greater flexibility and automation—a feature that was highly requested by our community.
- USB 3.2 support (Workstation & Fusion): Faster data transfers and improved compatibility with modern USB devices.
- Hardware version 22 (Workstation & Fusion): Ensures virtual machines (VMs) can take advantage of the latest hardware features for improved performance and compatibility.
- Hyper-V/WHP detection (Workstation only): Helps identify the VM's execution mode in Workstation by clearly displaying the Hyper-V/WHP status.
Expanded CPU and operating system support
According to VMware, the new 25H2 versions are designed to extend CPU, host, and guest operating system compatibility, enabling users to virtualize securely on the latest technologies.
- Neuer CPU Support (Workstation): Intel Lunar Lake, Arrow Lake, and Meteor Lake.
- Neue Gast-Betriebssysteme
- Red Hat Enterprise Linux 10
- Fedora Linux 42
- openSUSE Leap 16.0 (RC)
- SUSE Linux 16 (Beta)
- Debian 13
- Oracle Linux 10
- VMware ESX 9.0 (Workstation: general, Fusion: Intel systems only)
- macOS Tahoe (Fusion: Intel systems only)
- New Host Operating Systems:
- Workstation: RHEL 10, Fedora Linux 42, openSUSE Leap 16.0 (RC), SUSE Linux 16 (Beta), Debian 13
- Fusion: macOS Tahoe (Intel and Apple Silicon)
According to the manufacturer, version 25H2 also offers improvements that are designed to make the platforms more stable, secure, and user-friendly. These fixes address common issues that users encounter with both Workstation and Fusion. The list of fixes can be found in the VMware blog post VMware Workstation & Fusion 25H2: Embracing Calendar Versioning and New Features. The product is only available in English for German-speaking users. In addition to referencing the above VMware blog post, our colleagues at deskmodder.de have also linked to the VMware Workstation Pro 25H2 tech doc page in this post. Download links for the installers can also be found there (though not from the official VMware site). The official download can be found on the VMware site, but requires registration.
VMware Workstation Pro 25H2 and VMware Fusion 25H2 should be free to use, as the products were released for private and business use some time ago (see VMware Fusion and Workstation now free for all).
Reports about buggy release
Within my German blog post, a German blog reader has installed this new release and wrote:
Well, this version is pretty buggy. On my external monitor, there is a frame of (let's say) 1-2 pixels around the VM, so that the background of the host monitor is visible all around – everything works fine on the second monitor (internal notebook). The 3D driver is no longer working properly – when performing window actions (open/close/move) or fast image changes, "blocks" (as seen in graphics programs when there is a transparent background) are often displayed.
Judging by the fan noise, the host is also busier than with the old version, without the VM appearing or being any faster; judging by my compiler times, it is even slightly slower. The shared drive has also become slower (by around 40% in my case).
