As software products mature, new releases tend to be centred around things like usability and performance enhancements, bug fixes and keeping up with industry trends. That's very much the case with VMware Workstation 6.5, although it also includes a number of extra features likely to appeal to new and existing users alike.

Let's get the more mundane stuff out of the way first. VMware Workstation is a no-nonsense virtualisation tool with additional network emulation, VM recording and debugging tools, aimed at software developers, system testers and professional support staff. It's available for both Windows and Linux and can be used to host a variety of guest operating systems, again both Windows and Linux, plus Solaris and a variety of others.

Support for a raft of new guests is added in the 6.5 release, most notably both 64-bit and 32-bit versions of Windows Server 2008. To this can be added the ability to host a number of newish Linux distros, plus the Windows pre-installation and recovery environments with new tools also included to make life simpler when it comes to installing and editing guest Virtual Machines. Installation and management of the Workstation product on Linux hosts has also been simplified in this release.

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On the performance front a lot of work has gone into the virtual networking facilities with an 'up to ten times' improvement in some cases. Dragging and dropping files between virtual machines has, similarly, been speeded up and USB device support further improved. There's experimental support, too, for smart cards in virtual machines and overall the product has a much tighter, more responsive feel.

Then there are the new features, with so-called Unity mode one of the most interesting. Turn this on and applications in a guest VM can be started and run from the host desktop. Using this, for example, we were able to run an older XP accounting program from Vista without having to upgrade to a later version. Applications look and feel like they're being run directly, the only indicator being colour-coded window borders so you know what's going on.

Unity mode can be used with both Windows and Linux guests, although the Linux support is experimental and only available with a limited number of distros at present.

Another important new feature is a fully integrated set of VMware ACE (Assured Computing Environment) authoring tools, with which you can turn virtual machines into self-contained packages. ACE packages can be encrypted and run on other PCs with tools included in Workstation 6.5 to both specify who can run them and set expiry dates. However, it's only the authoring tools you get, with additional licensing required to run the packages and to configure an ACE server to manage package deployment and updates.

Other features of note in Workstation 6.5 include support for DirectX 9 accelerated graphics in Windows XP guests. Plus virtual machine streaming, enabling VMs to start running as soon as enough code to do so has been loaded. Something notebook users will like is a new link state propagation feature to enable VMs to refresh their addresses when the host is moved to a new network. Developers will welcome improvements to the ability to record and replay VM activity, with experimental support for replay debugging also incorporated into this release.

Admittedly you can get basic virtualisation for free these days, via products like VMware Player, Microsoft Virtual PC and so on. However, these are limited in what they can do and the extra features in VMware Workstation, especially this new release, are of real value to those who need them.

A significant update to VMware Workstation which, as well as extending guest support and improving performance, adds some important extra features, including integrated ACE authoring tools and the ability to run guest applications on the host desktop. It's overkill if you just want to run the odd virtual machine or two, but a must-have for professional developers and support staff.