Click the "Select File" button above, and choose your VMSS file.
You’ll see a preview, if available.
Click the "Convert file to..." button to extract text information.
Convert VMSS to another file type
To convert VMSS state files to another format, you need VMware Workstation or other System software.
Convert a file to VMSS
To convert other file formats to the "Virtual Machine State File" file type, you need software like VMware Workstation or a similar tool.
About VMSS files
A .VMSS file is a virtual machine suspended state file utilized primarily by VMware Workstation and VMware ESXi. It functions as a digital snapshot, saving the exact contents of a Virtual Machine's active RAM and CPU state when a user hits pause. This allows the system to resume operations instantly without undergoing a full boot sequence. Despite its utility, the .VMSS format presents significant disadvantages. It is a strictly proprietary format locked to the specific hardware configuration and VMware version that created it. Because it mirrors the allocated RAM, these files often exceed 8GB or 16GB, making them impossible to share or upload easily. If a system crashes or the configuration changes, the file frequently becomes corrupted, locking users out of unsaved sessions. Furthermore, it is unreadable by standard text editors or browsers. Converting a .VMSS file into standard document formats like PDF or JPG is structurally impossible because it consists of raw memory data rather than structured media. In digital forensics, specialists sometimes extract raw memory dumps to BIN or parse them into TXT logs using specialized tools like Volatility. This file format is notoriously difficult to open or convert outside its native ecosystem. Often, only the original VMware software can properly read or resume the data. However, convert.guru can still identify the file format, inspect the file headers, and show internal text content. Drag and drop your file to see what it is and extract any underlying readable strings if supported.
Convert.Guru analyzes your VMSS file, detects the exact format, and lets you read the text inside.
If you want to convert VMSS file to DMP, SYS, DLL, EXE, DRV, VXD, 386, COM, BAT, CMD, SCR or PIF, you can use VMware Workstation or similar software from the "Virtual Machine State Backup" category. In the File menu, look for Save As… or Export….
To convert MSI, EXE, REG, MST, LNK, CAB, CAT, DRV, INF, SYS, MSU or DLL files to VMSS, try VMware Workstation or another comparable tool in the "Virtual Machine State Backup" category.
The VMSS Converter Story
The history of Convert.Guru began over 25 years ago in California with Tom Simondi’s file-format database. A former contributor to Space Shuttle development and a software pioneer of the 1980s, Simondi established a trusted resource for file type analysis that was even referenced by Microsoft Windows XP. Today, we use modern technology to process and convert thousands of file formats while continually improving our VMSS converter.