VMware ESXi 7 registration fails on Chrome

The “free-esxi#” pages are the only place where you can register for and view your ESXi licenses, as they are not part of my.vmware.com/group/vmware/my-licenses (that would make it easy, but that’s not how VMware is a corporate).

It really is the only place, and the documentation is buried deep in the KB pages: [Archive.is] Downloading and licensing vSphere Hypervisor (ESXi 6.x & 7.x) (2107518).

If you get “content not avaiable” while registering for ESXi 7 [Wayback] maintenance.vmware.com/info4.html?source=dwnp&p=free-esxi7 by clicking on the “Register” button on [Wayback] my.vmware.com/en/web/vmware/evalcenter?p=free-esxi7 …

The dreaded register button.

 

Content Not Available

Dear user, the web content you have requested is not available.

… then remember that VMware has been as corporate as banks for years, which means that their web-sites only work properly in a limited set of browsers. Chrome is not one of them any more, but Firefox seems to for for me.

I am not alone bumping into this, many have and the site has been working/failing for years, for instance back in 2019: [Wayback] Is there still a free version of ESXI that is not … – VMware Technology Network VMTN

–jeroen