VMware Fusion Blog

Over the past couple of weeks, the VMware Fusion team has hit the road to meet face to face with VMware Fusion users.  It’s always exciting for us to get the chance to meet more of the VMware Fusion community and to hear about all the cool things our users are doing with VMware Fusion 4.

Mac IT 2012

The Mac IT event takes place during Mac World and is centered on all things Apple in the Enterprise. We are all huge Apple enthusiasts, so it is thrilling to speak to companies and education institutions from all over the world that are deploying Macs in their businesses and schools. The message we heard was clear. VMware is synonymous with stability and reliability in these environments, so naturally VMware Fusion 4 is a perfect fit for businesses that are using Macs and need to ensure maximum compatibility. We are excited to be so closely tied to the journey that Apple is taking into the Enterprise and look forward to continuing to help lead the charge of Macs in the Enterprise.

Apple Advance Camp 2012

The Apple advance camp is an event geared toward Apple Resellers and Apple Consultants. It was an amazing opportunity to share all the new features of VMware Fusion 4, as well as get feedback directly from some of the most knowledgeable Apple Consultants in the country. The response we received was incredible!  Hearing all the amazing stories of VMware Fusion 4 being deployed into everything from high schools to music studios was awesome!  

We truly feel that we have some one of the most loyal and creative user communities out there, and its a real pleasure to get out and speak directly to even just a small portion of you. We look forward to having more chances to meet with many more of you in the near future.

We are very excited to share that Macworld, the world’s Mac leading publication, has chosen VMware Fusion 4 as “the best way to run Windows on a Mac” highlighting its fast performance, easier installation and general operation, more Mac-like behavior and better value for money.

“So which virtualization solution should you purchase? In my comparison, Fusion comes out ahead“

 MacWorld 16^th of January 2012

We are extremely pleased with the outcome of this comparison and are excited to share some of the highlights of the article:

General performance: VMware Fusion 4 is faster than Parallels Desktop 7 in 9 out of 11 of the general performance tests!

Virtualization: “If you want to explore operating systems other than Windows, Fusion offers a much broader universe of alternatives”. VMware Fusion 4 offers the ability to virtualize more than 200 operating systems including Windows 7, Windows XP, OS X Lion as well as dozens of versions of Linux. VMware Fusion 4 also benefits from VMware’s broad ecosystem of “virtual appliances” which is 19 times larger than Parallels’. 

Price: At $49.99 for unlimited personal use, VMware Fusion 4 is far more affordable than Parallels Desktop 7 ($79.99SRP) which requires one license per machine. For example, if you have 3 Macs and would like to install a virtualization solution on your Macs for personal use, VMware Fusion 4 will cost you $49.99 while Parallels Desktop 7 will cost you more than 4 times that. (More on price below)

Installation and general operation: “Installing Fusion 4 is surprisingly simple […]. Parallels, by contrast, is installed via an installer, its extensions are installed in the System folder and are always present, even when Desktop isn’t running. In addition, two background processes continue to run after you quit Parallels.”

Mac Integration: “[…] if you’re going to the trouble of using an integrated mode, chances are you want your Windows apps to behave just like your Mac ones. And in that case it makes more sense to treat the windows the way Fusion does.”

So it’s been four months since we released VMware Fusion 4 and we have been thrilled with the response from our customers and the VMware Fusion community. With more than 150 customer reviews on Amazon averaging 4.5 out of 5 stars it shows our customers and leading publications believe that VMware Fusion 4 delivers the value they are looking for in running Windows on their Mac.

To continue the momentum in 2012, we have decided to make $49.99 the permanent price for VMware Fusion 4 moving forward.

That’s right, one edition, one price to switch to Mac and run Windows without rebooting.

VMware Fusion 4 makes it a breeze to run Windows and Mac Applications side by side with incredible speed and the reliability users need. Optimized for today’s multi-core Macs and OS X Lion, VMware Fusion 4 is the best way to run Windows on a Mac!

Try VMware Fusion 4 for free today!

Justin Holman, Senior Developer for Las Vegas Association of Realtors says, “VMware Fusion 4 is the clear choice for real estate agents.” 

A Must Have for Real Estate Agents

Working at the Las Vegas Association of Realtors as the head of Technology, Justin Holman is in charge of helping real estate agents in the Las Vegas area gain access to MLS (Multiple Listing Service) on their Mac. “MLS is the single most important tool for real estate agents, and you need Windows in order to view the site. I tell every agent that has a Mac that they absolutely need VMware Fusion.” 

Simplicity is key

 “Alot of real estate agents are not super tech savy, so they are naturally drawn to the ease of use of a Mac. We use VMware Fusion for the exact same reason. It is the simplest, easiest way to gain access to Windows programs. Every agent you talk to just wants the most reliable solution possible. A Mac running VMware Fusion is perfect for that.”

 Why VMware Fusion over Parallels?

I did a lot of research into the two programs before I purchased and every bit of information I read said that VMware Fusion had the edge in turns of reliability and ease of use.  The simplicity of VMware Fusion is so great, We have a lot of users here that are really new to Mac, so we really need a program that can get out of the way and just work.

Last week we covered how to use use Time Machine to back up your Virtual Machines using VMware Fusion 4. This week we thought we would take a closer look at some other options you have to back up your Virtual Machine. 

Back up just the files you need with shared and mirrored folders. 

Shared and Mirrored folders are an great way to backup just the files you need such as, documents, movies, and music using Time Machine. Here we will walk you through the process of how to set up mirrored and shared folders. 

You can access shared and mirrored folders in the settings menu under “Sharing” 

Shared Folders

Sharing folders allows you to select a folder and have access to any files stored inside that folder in both Mac OS and your Virtual Machine. This is a good way to manually select the files that you would like to have backed up via Time Machine. To choose the folders you would like to share, click the plus button to browse your Mac’s hard drive. Once you’ve selected the folder, you can simply drop the files into the shared folder to share between Mac OS and your Virtual Machine, because these files are stored in Mac OS X they will automatically be backed up via Time Machine.

Mirrored Folders 

Mirrored folders work in a similar way to shared folders. In this case mirrored folders allows you to select an entire folder such as Documents or Downloads and VMware Fusion will automatically mirror the entire folder.  Again, because these files are stored on the Mac, this makes it easy for you to always have a backup of your commonly used files. 

Its important to note that VMware Fusion does not create duplicates of the files in the mirroring process, but simply creates one folder that’s accessible from Mac OS X and your Virtual Machine. 

Looking back at Time Machine

With last weeks post we had some folks asking for more clarification regarding Time Machine Backup and VMware Fusion 4. 

Its important to note that when you are backing up a Virtual Machine using Time Machine, due to the large nature of the files you will most likely see your backup drive fill up faster than normal. By using Auto protect you can greatly decrease the size of the Virtual Machine files that Time Machine backs up. This will allow you to have a back up of your entire virtual machine, without taking quite as big of a toll on the hard drive that Time Machine backs up to.

In this weeks tip we will show you how you can include your Virtual Machine in the Time Machine Backup on your Mac.

Time Machine is an automated backup solution built into OS X that is a great way to protect all the data on your Mac. Now with VMware Fusion 4 you can include your Virtual Machine in the Time Machine backup, this ensures that your Virtual Machines are just as protected. 

You can set up your Virtual Machine to be included in your Time Machine Backups in a couple easy steps.

From the VMware Fusion Application Menu Click “Virtual Machine > Snapshots”

Once inside Snapshots in the bottom right corner you will see “AutoProtect” take the slider and move it to “On”

Next you can customize the settings for Auto Protect. This will allow you to customize the frequency of the snapshots (how often it a backs up your Virtual Machine), as well as the maximum number of snapshots it will keep stored on your machine. 

That’s it! Now that you have enabled Auto Protect, Time Machine will automatically backup your entire Virtual Machine. Instant piece of mind!

In this week’s tip we will walk through some of the new features in VMware Fusion 4.1

Smart Full Screen

 New to VMware Fusion Fusion 4.1 is the all new Smart Full Screen. 

   To enable smart full screen simply click the full screen button in the Fusion menu bar.

Once you select full screen, VMware Fusion will automatically adjust to your current display settings and give you the full screen mode that makes the most sense. 

If you are using a single display (i.e. a Mac Book Pro and not connected to a display) VMware Fusion will enable the Lion method for full screen, allocating a space for your Virtual Machine.

If you are currently using multiple displays on your Mac when you enable full screen, VMware Fusion will Automatically adjust full screen to allow you to take advantage of both displays.

More Control

Also new to VMware Fusion 4.1 is increased control from inside Full Screen. Now dragging your mouse to the top of the screen allows you to access the VMware Fusion toolbar and OS X application menu. You’ll notice there is a small delay from when you move the mouse to the top of the screen, to when you see the menu drop down. This is designed to make it easier to access the OS X Application Menu when running versions of OS X as a virtual machine.  

Another cool new feature of VMware Fusion 4.1 is the Full Screen Minibar. This feature gives you quick access to commonly used functions of the Virtual Machine, such as, Suspend, Settings Menu, and Toggling between view modes.

To enable the mini bar go to View > Full Screen Minibar > Always Show/Automatically Hide and Show.

Auto Launch your Virtual Machine

Lastly, a popular new feature of VMware Fusion 4.1 is the ability to Automatically Power on a Virtual Machine. Simply launch VMware Fusion 4.1 and your favorite Virtual Machine instantly launches with it. To assign this setting to Virtual Machine go to Settings > General > and select “start automatically when VMware Fusion Launches.” 

VMware Fusion 4.1.1 is now available for download or via “Check for Updates” within the application. Customers running Mac OS X Snow Leopard or Leopard in a virtual machine should consult this knowledge base article before upgrading.

In 1968...

this Computer could be picked up for a measly $1.6 million. For that you got a 1.3 MHz CPU, with half a megabyte of RAM and a 100 megabyte hard drive.

In 2011 on a MacBook Pro...

VMware Fusion 4.1 was released late last week and includes many great improvements.  One change was the introduction of a new license verification step for users to verify they are in compliance with the OS licensing terms.

When the license verification step was added in VMware Fusion 4.1 the server edition check was omitted. We are preparing an update.   

Running Mac OS X client in a virtual machine continues to require Lion (purchased from the Mac App Store or a USB thumb drive.)  Users should always ensure they remain in compliance with any applicable software license agreements.

It’s been two months since we released VMware Fusion 4, and we have been thrilled with the response from our customers and the VMware Fusion community. We have also been listening carefully to how we can improve.

To that end, we’ve been working hard and are pleased to announce the release of VMware Fusion 4.1, available today as a free update for all VMware Fusion 4 customers.

Here in the US we’re about to celebrate the Thanksgiving holiday. VMware Fusion 4.1 is our thanks to you, our users.

Here’s a short summary of the key features and improvements in VMware Fusion 4.1

Smart Full Screen

The number one feature request we saw from VMware Fusion 4 users was for native Lion full screen mode. But we knew we had to get it right; to work out all the corners cases and make sure it met all the same requirements as the old full screen and worked seamlessly with Mac OS X Lion. 

Here is how full screen works with VMware Fusion 4.1

• The standard Lion full screen button is now used in virtual machine windows.

• Like other full screen Lion applications, a VMware Fusion virtual machine will move to a new full screen space when using a single display.

• If you are using multiple displays, VMware Fusion will intelligently decide whether to use a full screen space or not. If the virtual machine is configured to use all displays in full screen, it will move to a full screen space. If not, full screen will take the whole display in the current space. This allows working in Mac applications on one display while the virtual machine can make full use of the other.

• The full menu bar is now accessible from full screen mode in both Snow Leopard and Lion. We added a short delay in showing the menu which allows users to access the top of the virtual machine screen, particularly useful when running Mac OS X Lion or Ubuntu in a virtual machine.

• When working with multiple displays some users might prefer the optional full screen minibar. It provides quick access to common actions without leaving full screen mode. It takes minimal space on the screen and can even auto-hide.

The Return of automatically powering on favorite virtual machines

We removed this feature in VMware Fusion 4 and you really wanted it back. Virtual machines can now be powered on automatically when VMware Fusion starts. This can be set for each virtual machine under Settings > General.

Faster than ever!

We’ve worked top to bottom to make VMware Fusion even faster. A few of the improvements are:

Greatly improved graphics performance for Internet Explorer 9 with hardware accelerated graphics are up to 6x faster than VMware Fusion 4.

• Improved rendering correctness in Solidworks 2012.
• Improved graphics performance when using Mac OS X 10.7.2.
• Improved animations for full screen mode, unity mode, library and snapshots.
• Improved startup time with Windows 7 virtual machines.

OS X Lion as a guest just got better.

Improved Mac OS X Lion virtual machine support including smoother mouse movement and support for FileVault 2 when using Mac OS X 10.7.2 and later.

See the release notes for more details on other fixes:

http://www.vmware.com/support/fusion4/doc/releasenotes_fusion_41.html

Update to VMware Fusion 4.1 Today!

If you already own VMware Fusion 4, you will be prompted to install the free update to VMware Fusion 4.1 on your next launch or select Check for Updates from the VMware Fusion menu.

After downloading and installing VMware Fusion 4.1, make sure to update VMware Tools in the Virtual Machine.

Try VMware Fusion 4.1 Today!

If you would like to try VMware Fusion 4.1, click here to download a free 30-day trial.

Thanks for your support!

As we approach this Thanksgiving holiday in the US, we can’t thank you enough for your support and we hope you enjoy using VMware Fusion 4.1 as much as we did making it.