Introduction

VMware has made Workstation Pro and Fusion Pro completely free for all users personal, commercial, and educational starting November 11, 2024. No license key is required. Just download, install, and start using.

1. What’s Changed?

2. Requirements

To use the free version, you need:

Take a physical Windows disk (from a broken or unbootable system) and convert it into a bootable VMware virtual machine.

Requirements

• Disk2vhd – to create a .vhd file from a physical disk
• StarWind V2V Converter – to convert .vhd to .vmdk
• VMware Workstation – to run the resulting virtual machine
• External SSD / HDD that holds the physical disk

Step 1: Create VHD with Disk2vhd

1. Download Disk2vhd. This is the official tool from Microsoft
2. Run the application on another working Windows machine
3. Select the target physical disk (your broken or backup disk)
4. Be sure to include all critical partitions:
   • EFI System Partition (~100 MB)
   • Primary OS Partition (Windows installation)
   • Recovery Partition (usually ~710 MB)

5. Choose a destination on another drive (external recommended) 6. Click “Create” to generate your .vhd file