VMware Fusion for Mac Release Notes
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Notes on VMware Fusion Version 1.0rc1, Build 50460
Build 50460 is a release candidate build of VMware Fusion.
The release notes contain the following:
Key Features of VMware Fusion
VMware Fusion for Mac is a desktop application that lets you create and run virtual machines on your Intel-based Mac. VMware's first product for the new Intel Macs makes it easier than ever to take advantage of the security, flexibility, and portability of virtual machines.
VMware Fusion provides an intuitive user interface for creating virtual machines, and for running preconfigured virtual machines created with VMware Workstation, VMware Server, and ESX Server. With VMware Fusion, you can run your favorite Windows applications on your Mac. You can also download virtual machines from the VMware Technology Network (VMTN) Website, which has a growing library of virtual appliances with a wide range of pre-installed and preconfigured applications and operating systems.
Features of VMware Fusion:
- You can use 32-bit and 64-bit guest operating systems in VMware Fusion virtual machines. VMware Fusion supports Windows, Linux, and Solaris operating systems in virtual machines.
- Your virtual machines can have multiple virtual processors, taking advantage of the Intel Core Duo chips in today's newest Intel Macs.
- VMware Fusion supports high-speed USB 2.0 for a huge range of devices. Even devices that do not have drivers for Mac OS X will work in a virtual machine.
- Virtual machines seamlessly integrate with your Mac: you can cut and paste text between your Mac and your virtual machines, drag and drop files, and create shared folders on your computer so you can easily share files and folders.
- Unity view displays your Windows virtual machine applications directly on your Mac desktop. The virtual machine window is hidden, and your virtual machine applications are displayed in the Mac dock, so you can use them just as you use your native Mac applications. See Using Unity View.
- You can burn CDs or DVDs to your Mac's rewritable optical drive from within your virtual machine.
What's New in Release Candidate 1
VMware Fusion is now feature complete and driving for general availability prior to the end of August. This release of VMware Fusion for Mac includes the following new features and feature improvements:
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Unity Improvements: the seamless way to run Windows applications on your Mac:
- Drag and Drop: Drag and drop files from Finder windows onto Windows applications or Windows Explorer windows.
- Launch Windows applications from the VMware Fusion dock icon: Control-click or right-click the VMware Fusion dock icon, select your virtual machine and get access to the Launch Application window and the complete Programs menu for that virtual machine.
- Unity support extended to more versions of Windows: This release provides experimental support for Unity on Windows 2000, Windows XP 64-bit, Windows Server 2003 (32-bit and 64-bit), and Windows Vista (32-bit and 64-bit).
- Improvements to Launch Applications window and Application menu: Windows program icons now appear in the Launch Applications window and the Applications menu. Note: Beta 4 and Beta 4.1 users need to manually delete the hidden Unity Windows Applications folder for each Unity Virtual Machine. See Using Unity View.
- Numerous bugs involving keyboard issues, display redrawing, minimizing to the dock, and window ordering have also been fixed in this release.
- New hidden option to always show the Windows task bar in Unity. To enable this option, see Using Unity View.
- Better Mac Integration
- VMware Fusion is now compatible with system-wide keyboard shortcuts: You can now use Command Tab, Exposé, and your favorite keyboard shortcuts like Control-Space for Quicksilver and LaunchBar when a virtual machine is grabbed or in full screen view. You can also hide VMware Fusion when grabbed or in Full Screen or Unity view.
- You can disable OS keyboard and mouse shortcuts separately in VMware Fusion > Preferences so all keyboard and mouse input goes directly to the virtual machine.
- Use Control and Command-Click to support multi-button mouse: VMware Fusion now supports Control-Click to send a right mouse click and Command-Click to send a middle mouse click to your virtual machines.
- Alt-Gr now supported on European keyboards. The right Enter key is remapped to Alt-Gr on Mac laptops. This is overridden when Num Lock is used to enable for numeric keypad support. To disable this feature, see Tips on using the Mac Keyboards.
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Improved Boot Camp performance — This release improves disk performance in Boot Camp virtual machines, which shortens boot time and makes applications launch more quickly. Note: VMware recommends that you let VMware Fusion create a new Boot Camp virtual machine for your existing partition to obtain the best settings and performance.
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Experimental 3D support restored for Intel GMA 950 graphics cards — Back by popular demand: users with Intel GMA 950 graphics can re-enable experimental 3D support. However, you are now warned that Intel GMA 950 does not fully support OpenGL 1.4 and that you may encounter issues
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Improved experimental support for running on Mac OS X Leopard — Addressed in Beta 4.1, but VMware Fusion now installs and runs on the WWDC Mac OS X Leopard release.
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Fixed USB problems when running on Mac OS X 10.4.10 and later — Addressed in Beta 4.1, VMware Fusion has been updated to support the latest USB stack introduced with the Santa Rosa MacBook Pros and with Mac OS X 10.4.10.
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Improved resume from suspended state — Virtual machines now resume completely in the foreground to get you up and running as quickly as possible with complete speed in your virtual machines.
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Optimize memory use for your needs — You can now choose to optimize memory usage for either virtual disk performance or for Mac OS X application use. In most cases for regular use and disk-intensive applications, the default to optimize for virtual disk use is ideal and improves performance. If you are low on memory or have memory-intensive Mac applications, choose to optimize memory for Mac OS X applications.
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Other improvements
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Option to force grab the guest — Use Command-G or Virtual Machine > Grab Input to move your mouse and keyboard focus to the virtual machine.
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Option to reset all warnings and hidden messages
Note: After upgrading to the VMware Fusion RC1 release, make sure to upgrade VMware Tools in all your virtual machines. The enhancements in VMware Fusion RC1 require the latest version of VMware Tools. You must restart VMware Fusion after upgrading VMware Tools, to ensure that the Applications menu is correctly populated.
What's New in Beta 4.1
This beta 4.1 refresh release of VMware Fusion for Mac includes the following new features and feature improvements:
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Support for USB on Santa Rosa-based MacBook Pros and all Intel Macs with 10.4.10 and later — Changes in OS X 10.4.10 and Santa Rosa-based MacBook Pros require the changes in this VMware Fusion Beta 4.1 release to maintain USB support.
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Improved experimental support for running VMware Fusion on Mac OS X Leopard hosts — Various issues with installation, launch, and networking have been resolved.
What's New in Beta 4
New and Improved Features in Beta 4
This Beta 4 release of VMware Fusion for Mac includes the following new features and feature improvements:
- Unity — The seamless way to run Windows applications: Run Windows XP applications alongside your favorite Mac applications and switch between any open application with command-tab or Exposé. Leave the Windows desktop and Start menu behind and use the VMware Fusion Launch palette to quickly find and launch your Windows applications. Save your favorite Windows applications to the Mac OS X Dock. Even use familiar Mac keyboard shortcuts to seamlessly copy and paste between Windows and Mac applications. See Using Unity View.
- Boot Camp improvements — You no longer have to choose between Windows or Mac-run Windows XP with Mac OSX off your existing Boot Camp partition. Beta 4 adds experimental support for Microsoft Vista, greatly improves Boot Camp partition detection, and when you are running the Boot Camp partition in a virtual machine, VMware Fusion automatically updates the Boot Camp partition to use drivers that are optimized for your virtual machine.
- Improved performance — Virtual machines boot faster and applications launch faster from virtual hard disks. Interactive performance is improved over previous betas and VMware Fusion now uses Apple's multithreaded OpenGL engine for improved performance.
- Improved user experience — The toolbar is greatly enhanced and is now completely customizable. To make the display less cluttered and easier to use, the virtual hardware buttons have been moved from the toolbar to the status bar. The virtual machine hardware editor is a now sheet attached to the virtual machine you are editing.
What's New in Beta 3
New and Improved Features in Beta 3
This Beta 3 release of VMware Fusion for Mac includes the following new features and feature improvements:
- Greatly improved performance — By popular demand, you can now disable debugging code to experience the full power and performance that VMware Fusion offers for running your favorite PC applications.
- Support for Boot Camp — VMware Fusion automatically detects your Boot Camp partition, so you can now run a Windows XP virtual machine from your existing Boot Camp partition. You no longer have to choose Windows or Mac: you can now run Windows side-by-side with your favorite Mac applications. Note: For this Beta 3 release, Windows Vista is not supported; only Windows XP is supported.
- Windows Easy Install — You want to run Windows applications, but you don't want to become a guru just to install Windows. VMware Fusion has you covered; just answer a few simple questions, insert your Windows CD and let VMware Fusion take care of the rest and automatically create the optimal Windows virtual machine for your Mac, including the installation of VMware Tools.
- Virtual machine packages — Virtual machines are now encapsulated in a single, easy-to-manage package. Move your virtual machines to another hard drive or Mac simply by copying a file.
- Enhanced virtual machine creation — The entire virtual machine creation process has been streamlined, and the new Windows Easy Install feature makes creating a virtual machine even easier than before. The New Virtual Machine Assistant remembers the location you choose for future virtual machine creation.
- Enhanced virtual machine library — Managing multiple virtual machines is even easier with the Virtual Machine Library. Add new virtual machines by just dragging them into the Library, reorder virtual machines with drag and drop, and use the delete key on the Keyboard to remove virtual machines from the library. Open a Virtual Machine without powering it on, using the new Settings button, which opens a virtual machine directly to the Hardware Editor.
- Host-Only Networking — Host-Only networking creates a network that is completely contained within your Mac, with a network connection between the virtual machine and your Mac. Use host-only networking to set up an isolated virtual network.
- Improved suspend/shutdown state — When a virtual machine is suspended, VMware Fusion shows a screenshot of the last known state of the virtual machine and a friendly play button so you can get up and running again quickly.
- Improved hardware editor — Settings for virtual hardware are now complete: you can remove virtual hardware from the hardware editor when virtual machines are powered off.
- Improved international support — European and Japanese Apple keyboards now work properly in virtual machines.
Bugs Fixed in Beta 3
This Beta 3 release of VMware Fusion for Mac includes the following improvements and bug fixes:
- Improved networking performance — In some cases, networking in earlier beta versions was slow with single-processor virtual machines. VMware Fusion Beta 3 solves this problem and greatly improves performance in this case.
- Virtual networking no longer fills system logs — VMware Fusion Beta 2 wireless networking added many entries to the system log. This Beta 3 release resolves this issue.
In addition to the improvements listed above, this Beta 3 release fixes numerous bugs to greatly improve the stability and performance of VMware Fusion.
What's New in Beta 2
New and Improved Features in Beta 2
This Beta 2 release of VMware Fusion for Mac includes the following new features and feature improvements:
- Experimental 3-D graphics support — Play a selection of DirectX 8.1 games in Windows XP Service Pack 2 virtual machines.
- Snapshot feature — Roll back your virtual machine to a known good state when something goes wrong in your virtual machine—for example, when your virtual machine picks up a virus, or when a software upgrade causes problems.
- Improved networking — Automatically bridge to the computer’s primary network interface.
Full support for Airport wireless networking, including virtual machines behind a NAT firewall and bridged to the local Airport network.
Support for up to ten virtual network interfaces
- Improved Microsoft Vista support — Support for Microsoft Vista Business, Enterprise, and Ultimate editions.
Complete VMware Tools support for Microsoft Vista including copy/paste, dragging and dropping files, shared folders, and screen resizing.
- Improved hardware editor — Add additional virtual hard drives to a virtual machine for needed capacity.
View the physical computer's battery status in the virtual machine.
- Improved full screen mode — Support for plugging and unplugging displays while virtual machines are in full screen mode.
Improved usability: an on-screen tip shows how to enter and exit full screen mode easily.
- Experimental support for Mac OS X Leopard — You can now install and run VMware Fusion on Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard). Support is experimental because Mac OS X 10.5 is not yet released. VMware Fusion will support the release version of OS X 10.5 in the final VMware Fusion release.
Bugs Fixed in Beta 2
This Beta 2 release of VMware Fusion for Mac includes the following improvements and bug fixes:
- Improved keyboard and mouse support — Third-party graphics tablets, keyboards, and mice no longer interfere with keyboard and mouse input.
Support for plugging and unplugging input devices while virtual machines are running.
Support for using VMware Fusion with remote access applications such as VNC, Synergy, and Remote Desktop.
- Improved CD/DVD support
- Better support for mounting and unmounting discs in virtual machines
- Quicken Scheduler corrupts keyboard and mouse input in virtual machines — Offer workaround to disable Quicken Scheduler when it is detected.
In addition to the improvements listed above, this Beta 2 release fixes numerous bugs to greatly improve the stability of VMware Fusion.
Games Compatible with VMware Fusion Experimental 3-D Acceleration
VMware testing has determined that the following games, running in Windows XP Service Pack 2 virtual machines, are playable with VMware Fusion experimental 3-D acceleration:
- Aliens vs. Predator Demo
- Breath of Fire IV
- Grand Theft Auto III
(Tip: Set the Display Setup option Trails to OFF.)
- Hitman 2
- Lord of the Realms III
- Max Payne 1
- Max Payne 2
- Need for Speed Porsche Demo
- RalliSport Challenge
- Tony Hawk 3
- X-2 Rolling Demo
The fixed-function tests in 3dMark2001 operate successfully in Windows XP Service Pack 2 virtual machines with VMware Fusion experimental 3-D acceleration.
VMware Fusion does not support 3-D acceleration in Unity view. For 3-D applications, use Single Window or Full Screen view.
Customizing the virtual machine's mouse settings for playing games
Most games require some custom mouse settings to work correctly. These settings lock the mouse to the virtual machine when you are running a game. Note: these settings will affect the performance of the mouse and disable the ability to move the mouse between the virtual machine and your Mac. The setting in the user's preference file will also prevent the use of the drag-and-drop feature from all virtual machines to the host machine. Remove the settings to revert back to default behavior.
To customize the virtual machine's mouse settings for playing games, use TextEdit to make the following changes while the virtual machine is powered off:
- In the virtual machine directory, add the following line to the end of the virtual machine's configuration (.vmx) file:
vmmouse.present = "FALSE"
- In your home directory, add the following line to the end of the file
~/Library/Preferences/VMware Fusion/preferences:
pref.motionUngrab = "FALSE"
These configuration settings do not take effect until you shut down the virtual machine, quit VMware Fusion, and then restart VMware Fusion and the virtual machine.
Note: The configuration file setting vmmouse.present = "FALSE" and the preference file setting pref.motionUngrab = "FALSE" are incompatible with Unity view.
To use Unity view, change the configuration file settings for vmmouse.present and pref.motionUngrab to "TRUE" or delete the lines from the configuration file.
Also Note: When you edit a virtual machine's configuration (.vmx) file, if you copy and paste text from a browser into the file using TextEdit, VMware Fusion might be unable to open the resulting .vmx file, because some applications (like Firefox) add legacy Mac characters (carriage returns) at the end of each line. This release of VMware Fusion requires Mac OS X characters (line feeds) at the end of each line, and cannot understand legacy Mac characters. To work around this problem, convert the legacy end-of-line characters in the .vmx file to Mac OS X end-of-line characters:
- Open Terminal from /Applications/Utilities.
- Type
nano "~/Virtual Machines/vm-dir/vm-name.vmx"
where vm-dir and vm-name are the path and name of your .vmx file, and press Enter.
- When nano loads, type Control-O, and press Enter. This converts the legacy end-of-line characters to Mac OS X end-of-line characters.
- Type Control-X to exit.
Download VMware Fusion and Virtual Machines
You can download VMware Fusion for Mac, and obtain a beta-use serial number, at
www.vmware.com/mac.
You can download a Getting Started Guide for VMware Fusion for Mac at
http://www.vmware.com/products/beta/fusion/fusion_getting_started_100.pdf..
You can download virtual machines to use with VMware Fusion for Mac at
www.vmware.com/vmtn/appliances/.
Before You Begin
Install antivirus software in Windows virtual machines before you connect networking.
Connecting a Windows virtual machine to a network exposes the virtual machine to any active viruses present in the network. VMware recommends that you install antivirus software in any Windows virtual machine before you connect networking. Note that VMware Fusion's default network connection type for new virtual machines is NAT, which will prevent the spread of viruses over the network into the virtual machine, and will only expose the virtual machine to external viruses through browser security flaws when you browse the Internet.
Tips and Tricks
Tips on using the Mac keyboard
If you are unfamiliar with Mac keyboards, the following tips will help you send keystrokes that you know from PC keyboards to virtual machines:
- To send the Ctrl-Alt-Delete keystroke combination to a virtual machine, do one of the following:
- From the Virtual Machine menu, select Send Ctrl-Alt-Delete.
- If you are using an external PC keyboard, press Ctrl-Alt-Delete.
- On a full-sized Mac keyboard, press Control-Option-
. The (Forward Delete) key is below the Help key.
- On a Mac laptop keyboard, press Fn-Ctrl-Option-Delete.
- The delete key on Apple keyboards is actually the backspace key to all other operating systems. To send the Del key to a virtual machine:
- On a MacBook or MacBook Pro keyboard, press Fn-Delete.
- On a full-sized Mac keyboard, press
. The (Forward Delete) key is below the Help key.
- Mac keyboards do not have an obvious Insert key. To send the Insert key to a virtual machine:
- On a MacBook or MacBook Pro keyboard, press Fn-M.
- On a full-sized Mac keyboard, press the Help key.
- Mac keyboards do not have a PRINT SCREEN key. To send the PRINT SCREEN key to a virtual machine, on a full-sized Mac keyboard, press F13.
- U.S. Mac keyboards do not have an AltGr key. To send the AltGr key to a virtual machine, on a full-sized Mac keyboard, press the right Option key.
Alt-Gr is supported on European MacBook and MacBook Pro keyboards. The Enter key next to the right Command key (otherwise known as the numeric pad Enter key) is remapped to Alt-Gr on Mac laptops. This is overridden when Num Lock is used to enable for numeric keypad support. Note: To disable this feature, open the file ~/Library/Preferences/VMware Fusion/preferences in a text editor and add the following line:
pref.mapISONumpadEnterToAltGrEnabled = "FALSE"
Using Unity view
Unity view works only after you install the latest version of VMware Tools in the virtual machine and reboot. For this version of VMware Fusion, if you do not reboot the virtual machine after installing VMware Tools, the Applications menu might not be populated.
If you experience display problems in Unity view, try the following:
- Press Option-Tab (Alt-Tab) to switch windows.
- If the problem persists, switch to Single Window view and then switch back to Unity view.
- If the problem persists, suspend and resume the virtual machine.
- If the problem persists, reboot the virtual machine.
Note the following known issues with VMware Fusion support of Unity view in Microsoft Windows Vista virtual machines:
- The Start button always appears in the bottom left corners of the main monitor.
- The Windows Sidebar shows through the Windows background. For the best experience, VMware recommends that you disable the Windows Sidebar when you use Unity view.
If you are upgrading to this release from the Beta 4 or Beta 4.1 release, manually delete the hidden Unity Windows Applications folder for each Unity Virtual Machine.
To delete the Unity Applications folder:
- Power off the virtual machine.
- Control-click or right-click the virtual machine in the Finder and select Show Package Contents.
- Locate the Applications folder, move this folder to the Trash, and empty the Trash.
- Power on the virtual machine
VMware Fusion provides a hidden option that displays the Windows task bar in Unity view.
To enable this option:
- Make sure that Windows Explorer is set to display hidden files and folders.
- In the Windows guest, go to: C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\VMware\VMware Tools.
- Open the file tools.conf in a text editor such as Notepad.
- Add the following line to tools.conf:
unity.showTaskbar = "true"
- Save and close tools.conf.
- Restart your Windows guest.
The next time you enter Unity mode, VMware Fusion will show the Windows task bar.
Known issues with VMware Fusion for Mac
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