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I'm using VMWare Player to run some virtual machines. Recently I needed to use the VMWare Virtual Disk Manager utility (to convert some dynamic disks to fixed), and since it doesn't come with Player, I installed the evaluation version of VMWare Workstation. After I was done, I uninstalled Workstation and reinstalled Player, but apparently Player thinks I'm still using an evaluation licence because it shows "Expired license" in the title bar and the following message in the main window:

Your evaluation license has expired. To continue commercial use of this product, purchase a license.

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How can I revert back to the free-for-personal-use version of VMWare Player? I've already tried completely uninstalling all VMWare products and reinstalling Player, but that doesn't work, the "Expired license" message persists.

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  • Did you buy it??
    – Poomrokc The 3years
    Commented Apr 14, 2014 at 10:42
  • Buy what, VMWare Player? No.
    – Indrek
    Commented Apr 14, 2014 at 11:04
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    I couldn't reproduce the issue myself, but check VMware Player Expired License and VMware Player 5: license expired... for possible solutions. Basically you should delete the license registry key which was left behind. The actual key name might be slightly different depending on the VMware version.
    – and31415
    Commented Apr 14, 2014 at 15:13
  • @and31415 That worked, thanks! Please post it as an answer and I'll be happy to accept it.
    – Indrek
    Commented Apr 15, 2014 at 7:17
  • @Indrek Could you specify which version of VMware Player and VMWare Workstation were you using? Also, what was the name of the registry key you had to delete and where was it located, exactly? I'd like to include that information, too.
    – and31415
    Commented Apr 15, 2014 at 9:28

2 Answers 2

Reset to default
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Solution

After uninstalling the VMware Workstation trial, the old license key might be left behind. Deleting the related registry key will revert VMware Player back to the original, free-for-personal-use state.

The actual registry key name depends on the product name and version. For example, VMware Workstation version 10.0.1 uses a key called License.ws.10.0.e1.201303. The format appears to be the following:

License.<product>.<major>.<minor>.<revision>.<date>

The registry location will be different depending on whether Windows is 32-bit or 64-bit. Respectively:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\VMware, Inc.\VMware Workstation
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\VMware, Inc.\VMware Workstation
  1. Close VMware Player.
  2. Press Win+R, type regedit.exe in the text box, and press Enter.
  3. Navigate to the correct path described above.
  4. Locate the license registry key, right-click it and choose Delete from the context menu.

References

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    Didn't work.. :(
    – Pritam
    Commented Jul 12, 2018 at 12:25
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This is a bit late to the party (and I don't have enough reputation to simply comment), but the accepted answer led to a similar solution for me under Ubuntu. The license file there is stored under /etc/vmware, with a filename in a similar format as the registry key shown in the accepted answer (in my case, license-ws-170-e3-202208). Removing/renaming that file caused VMware to prompt for a license key when I next started it, and I was able to select the "personal license" option there.

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