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Accessing VMware licensing

VMware Inc. is a software company that provides virtual desktop software delivery. Their VMware Workstation Pro product can allow virtual installs of Windows, Windows Server, and Linux distributions on a Windows device.

About VMware licensing and BCIT

As of May 2024, the vendor now allows free personal use for VMWare Workstation Pro and VMWare Fusion.

BCIT IT Services previously provided licensing for the academic labs and student use via an Academic Site license.
There is now a new process to get VMWare access for students and faculty.

BCIT no longer have the ability to bulk provision student access at the course level – students will now be responsible for securing their own personal VMWare access.

VMWare Workstation and Fusion are free for personal use from Broadcom.

Due to the complexities of the acquisition of VMWare by Broadcom, the instructions provided currently do not work. This is not a BCIT problem. Rather, the problem is on the Broadcom end around providing access to these free products.

Students will currently struggle to get licenses as described below, and may have problems creating site credentials and/or be unable to download VMWare products. Existing academic programs from VMWare ended on Sept 1 and BCIT is no longerlonger able to assist with student licensing as we have in the past.

For now, BCIT recommends that students make use of another free product on personal devices for their virtualization needs. There is no free option available from BCIT for Fusion or Parallels.

Accessing VMware licensing

In your browser:

Go to the Broadcom registration form.
Create an account.
- For students – Using a personal email address is recommended as no affiliation with BCIT is required.
- For instructors – personal access allows classroom use, so using a BCIT email is recommended as your personal Broadcom account.

More information:

VMWare support: Create or Update your Broadcom Account
Broadcom support: Register for an account on the Broadcom Support Portal and Communities

In your browser:

Go to support.broadcom.com and sign in with your personal Broadcom account.
Select the VMWare Cloud Foundation Download Centre by clicking on +Software > VMWare Cloud Foundation.
Click My Downloads.
Search for the product you are looking for – either ‘Workstation’ or ‘Fusion’.
Click the product name (VMware Workstation Pro) or (VMWare Fusion).
Select the row with the correct (usually the latest) Personal Use edition product.
Agree to the terms and conditions at the top of the product download page.
Click the blue link for the version edition to go to the download page.
- Note: You may need to provide additional account verification details. You will not be able to download the installer until the account is verified – this can take up to 48 hours.
Download the installer.

Key checkpoints

Ensure that you select the correct products of “Workstation Pro 17 for Personal Use” or “VMWare Fusion Pro for Personal Use”. These are the only free entitlements, so make sure you have selected the correct ones if you are getting a “Not Entitled” message.
At the top of the download page, make sure you check the box to agree to the Terms and Conditions or the download icon will show [Not Entitled] when you try and download.

More information:

Broadcom support: Download Broadcom products and software

More information about software and licensing