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epichero22Flag for United States of America

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Hyper v or VMWare Player?

I'm using my home PC as a lab for virtual machines, and I do some media sharing from one of my VMs that I previously created in Workstation that I keep encrypted.  I don't need the VMs to be on 24/7; rather, just when I want to do more lab work or do media sharing to my TV.

Which environment do you recommend I go with?  It's been tricky getting both platforms working at the same time.  And is there a way to encrypt the contents of HyperV?
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Avatar of Andrew Hancock (VMware vExpert PRO / EE Fellow/British Beekeeper)
Andrew Hancock (VMware vExpert PRO / EE Fellow/British Beekeeper)
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Isn't the encryption offered by Workstation better than BitLocker?  I mean, it would seem better that you can't even launch the VM rather than encrypting individual files and running the chance of missing something.
it would seem better that you can't even launch the VM rather than encrypting individual files   <-- Yes, I agree with that.
VMware Encrypted virtual disks are very fragile, if they get corrupted, the vmdk is lost.

Also ensure you have regular backups, and make sure the VMX file, is not lost, otherwise the VMDK is useless.

As for a previous statement of VMware Workstation more ROBUST than VMware Player - uses the same development CODE, so it's the same Hypervisor Code and Application!

VMware Workstation just has more features, but there is no evidence to suggest it's a poorer product.

VMware Player is like VMware Workstation LITE Edition

As for which Encryption is BEST.....depends on your requirement.....

We have overall encryption at the OS level, we use PGP Disk encryption, which encrypts the entire disk, and everything on it.....

If someone steals your laptop or computer they will have access to everything, including the ability to start your VMs, so VMware encryption is not going to stop that!

NTFS and User logins, is not going to stop anyone accessing your disk or VMs.

We also have USB 2 factor authentication without these you cannot access your laptop.
I ended up uninstalling Hyper V and now VMPlayer works fine.  I think I'll stick with that.  But I wanted to ask Andrew Hancock a question:

If someone steals your laptop or computer they will have access to everything, including the ability to start your VMs, so VMware encryption is not going to stop that!

How is that possible?  I tried attaching an encrypted VMDK to a different VM and it wouldn't open.  Is there a program I can use to test the encryption?
Quite simply, connecting their disk to their computer, will have access to all your files!

including the VMX file which contains the key to open the VMDK!

How is that possible?  I tried attaching an encrypted VMDK to a different VM and it wouldn't open.  Is there a program I can use to test the encryption?

As you have found that does not work, because the key for the VMDK is stored in the VMX file, but if they have your laptop, and can read all your disk, that have access to all your files including the VMX file! and will be able to start your VM, or attach it!
I looked through the VMX file and while it does have entries for encryption data, I wasn't able to see my specific password stored there.  So I still don't understand how the contents of the file would allow them to break my encryption.  

If I may ask again, is there software that will let test it?
Thank you.  I ended up purchasing Workstation Pro.
Thanks for the update and I was happy to help.