Run 32- and 64-bit virtual machines
Run a wide variety of 32- and 64-bit operating systems such as Microsoft Windows, Red Hat, SUSE, Ubuntu and FreeBSD.

Leverage 2-way Virtual SMP
Users can run virtual machines with multiple CPUs to experience improved performance when working with multi-threaded, resource-intensive software.

Use 3rd-party virtual machines and images
Open Microsoft virtual machines and Symantec Backup Exec (formerly called Live State Recovery) images. In this process, the initial virtual machine or image is left untouched in its native format and any modifications are saved in a much smaller VMware-formatted file that is linked to the initial image.

Share data between host computer and virtual machine
Copy text and files between the virtual machine and the host PC. Drag and drop files between a Windows host PC and a Windows virtual machine. Or, enable Shared Folders to seamlessly access data on your host computer.

Broad host and guest operating system support
Run any of the over 60 supported 32- and 64-bit guest operating systems including Vista, Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5, SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 10, SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 10, Ubuntu 6.10 and many more.

Support for USB 2.0 devices
Use peripherals that require high-speed performance in your VMs, such as MP3 Players and fast storage devices.

Get appliance info at start-up
Start a virtual appliance in the appliance view to review brief description and other relevant information provided by the appliance author.

Gain easy access to virtual machines via intuitive home page interface
Leverage an intuitive home page interface that lets you open existing virtual machines or browse the VMware Virtual Appliance Marketplace to download any of the 425+ virtual appliances. Virtual appliances are pre-built, pre-configured and ready-to-run enterprise software applications packaged along with an operating system within virtual machines.