Windows 7 in a VM on VMware Fusion 2: Unity view too!
Dom Barnes twittered us at the VMware Fusion twitter address @vmwarefusion this morning, noting that he’s running a developer preview of Windows 7, the successor to Windows Vista, in a virtual machine on his MacBook Pro with VMware Fusion.
We were intrigued, of course, and my immediate response was, “Cool! Is Unity view working?”
Turn out, sure enough, it is. And to prove it, Dom posted a screenshot of Windows 7, running in Unity view on Flickr. Check it out:
Thanks for sharing Dom!
Any time! Thanks for the mention.
Also blogged here - http://dombarnes.com/2008/10/windows-7-running-in-unity/
Posted by: Dom Barnes | October 31, 2008 at 04:00 PM
Another report - seems to work great: http://blogs.tedneward.com/2008/11/02/Windows+7+VMWare+6VMWare+Fusion+2.aspx
Posted by: John Troyer | November 03, 2008 at 04:56 PM
Has anyone gotten Aero to work with Windows 7 on Fusion 2?
Posted by: ryan | December 09, 2008 at 10:23 AM
I tried intstalling Windows 7 on my mac. VMWare Tools won't install.
It will also only use the standard VGA adapter so the graphics are not good.
Posted by: M | January 08, 2009 at 01:26 PM
hmm, vmware tools loaded just fine for me. i dont know if its relevant, but i told vmware that it was a windows vista installation.
Posted by: rob | January 11, 2009 at 07:31 PM
I installed Windows 7 in a VM. It's being crashy – but I can't necessarily blame that on Fusion.
I want Aero Glass, though. Since VMware has DirectX 9 support, my understanding is that all that's needed is a WDDM driver.
It's something that I image a lot of people would like (and I think it applies to Vista, too, though I've never tried running that in a VM).
Posted by: J.R. | January 12, 2009 at 02:30 PM
Just finished playing around with a fresh install of the Windows 7 beta on VMWare Fusion 2 - it runs much better than even Vista! Great product, you guys!
If only Internet Explorer 8 ran a little better...
Posted by: Jeff Geerling | January 13, 2009 at 09:55 PM
I had not issues installing VM Ware tools as the code base seems to be based on Vista anyway, there should be no problems.
I'm unable to get Aero Peek or the live application previews from the Taskbar to work, probably due to the graphics drivers.
This is on the build 7000 public beta version now.
Posted by: Dom Barnes | January 14, 2009 at 03:12 AM
Installed Windows7 build 7000 on VMWare Fusion 2 /MBP.. GREAT EXPERIENCE! Did this at work too. I let it run in the background and in less than 30 mins, I check the status and it's all installed and ready to go. Then installed vmware tools and everything just works! (Apart from AERO)
Posted by: Bobby | January 14, 2009 at 06:16 PM
Has anyone been able to get Aero going yet? I, too, installed the beta on my MBP without a hitch (twice!).
Posted by: Kevin Harter | January 16, 2009 at 05:45 AM
I've successfully managed to load Windows 7 on my MAC using the vmware but my windows isn't recognizing the NIC or wireless. (it's already set to share connection in the settings option)
Any ideas? (at the start of the install, I chose "other" for the O/S when setting up through vmware because windows 7 was not an option.
Thanks for you help!
Posted by: Chris | January 16, 2009 at 12:46 PM
Having the same problem as Chris above...
Install went fine, except for Ethernet.
I think I will try again, building using the default "Vista" option.
Posted by: Pete | January 16, 2009 at 04:06 PM
Worked like a charm.
Used VMWare Fusion 2.0.1
Use the "Windows Vista" options in VMWare when creating the new image, not the "Other" This way the VMWare Tools will install correctly and you'll have network support, etc.
Installation took 30 minutes tops!
Posted by: Pete | January 16, 2009 at 05:20 PM
I've got it up and running in Fusion too - pretty good, certainly much btter than vista, though still nowhere near osx
Has anybody managed to get aero working? I'm running a new MBP which is certainly capable, but aparently i need to update the driver to a "WDDM-compliant driver"
Nvidias website says im all up to date - any ideas?
Posted by: simon | January 16, 2009 at 07:58 PM
I also choose to install it as "Vista" and installation was without a problem.
The only issue so far is when the laptop battery died. For Vista or prior, few minutes before battery draining Fusion would put the VM in hibernate mode for easy recovery. With Windows 7, this did not take place and it couldn't boot again listing a disk error.
Posted by: Data Head | January 17, 2009 at 08:40 AM
I have an iMac 2.8GHz Intel Core 2 Duo with 2B 800 MHz DDR2 SDRAM. I also have Fusion Version 2.0.1 (128865). I installed Windows 7 using Boot Camp, which work great on everything. Now when I launch that install using Fusion, everything works great BUT the NETWORK ADAPTERS! What the heck?
Posted by: Dean | January 17, 2009 at 04:55 PM
@Dean I have the exact same problem. I'm glad it's not just me.
Posted by: earnest | January 19, 2009 at 11:21 AM
I am having the same issues as others are above. I created a bootcamp partition and installed Windows 7. Everything works great.
Tried to use my bootcamp partition to create a virtual machine in VMware fusion 2. Everything loads fine except I dont have network support as my wireless card is not being recognized. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. I chose Windows Vista as operating system in VMWare. Thanks!
Posted by: John | January 20, 2009 at 07:01 AM
@Dean, @earnest, @John:
The best place to ask technical questions is on our user support forums, here: http://www.vmware.com/go/fusionforums
There are some applicable threads on there, like this one:
http://communities.vmware.com/click.jspa?searchID=4759942&objectType=2&objectID=1141360
Posted by: Peter Kazanjy | January 20, 2009 at 08:24 AM
i got windows 7 running through boot camp no problem. i've also imported the boot camp partition using vmware and everything works perfectly... except networking. i can't get on the internet. i've tried nat, bridged, host-only. i've re-imported it as XP, Vista and (as another guide suggested to do, windows server 2008). and every time it's the same: no internet.
and yes, i can connect to the internet just fine from the mac OS. and i can also connect just fine when starting up in the windows partition from boot camp. only the vmware partition won't connect.
PLEAS HELP!
Posted by: steve | January 28, 2009 at 11:15 AM
UPDATE: i resolved the network issue by doing a new install of windows 7 (thru vmware) rather than importing the boot camp partition.
Posted by: steve | January 28, 2009 at 01:12 PM
Hi,
Hope could of them facing the problem of finding Ethernet or connecting to an internal network, could anyone has exp or suggestions to get it go forward?
Posted by: dhamodhar | March 01, 2009 at 10:52 PM
I got the same issue. Installed in BootCamp, works great. Tried to open VM in Fusion afterwards...all works except (Aero of course) but Network. Found that tools doesn't install the AMD PCI NIC, so I copied the vmxnet directory from another WIndows 7 VM that I have, and used that to install the NIC, works great now.
Posted by: mjones | March 12, 2009 at 01:59 PM
I have installed windows7 on the macmin and trialling VM ware, works good but no internet as 7 states there is no ethernet adapter driver, has anyone found a solution yet. I have done bootcamp on the macmini and then created a virtual machine, should I start again?!?!
Posted by: PJ | April 02, 2009 at 06:50 PM
Thanks M! Changed mine from "Other" to "Vista 64 bit" and the VMWare tools installed perfectly!
Posted by: Carlo | June 25, 2009 at 11:13 PM