VMware Workstation 4.5 is a two-time winner this year in the Development Tools category. Besides winning the Best Testing and Debugging Software award, the product also won the Best Windows Development Tool award, with 44 percent of readers' votes.
With VMware Workstation, developers and administrators can develop Windows applications as well as test and debug Windows applications, Windows application updates, OS patches, and service packs--all on a single computer. Developers and administrators can even test new OSs prior to deployments or migrations. "VMware Workstation has been great for several groups within our company," Tom Hurst, a VMware Workstation user, said. "For example, in my group, it saves a lot of time and effort when we test service packs. We can apply all the patches and not have to commit changes until we're sure everything works." As a result, VMware Workstation has greatly improved their productivity, according to Tom.