VMware

VMware Fusion Release Notes

Knowledge Base | Discussion Forums

Notes on VMware Fusion Version 2.0 Beta 1, Build 89933

Build 89933 is a beta 1 build of VMware Fusion.

This Beta 1 release is in English only.

The release notes contain the following:

VMware Fusion 2.0 is a Free Upgrade for All VMware Fusion 1.x Customers

VMware Fusion 2.0 will be made available free to owners of VMware Fusion 1.x

What's New in VMware Fusion 2.0 Beta 1

New and Improved Features in VMware Fusion 2.0

VMware Fusion 2.0 has a large number of enhancements, including:

  • True Multiple Display Support
    • VMware Fusion automatically detects multiple displays by default
    • Each display shows up as a separate, distinct display in virtual machines
    • Handles changes to resolution and display orientation automatically
    • Option to use one or all screens in Full Screen mode
    • Unity windows can be dragged between displays, and will maximize correctly to just the display they're on
    • Correctly handles plugging and unplugging displays
    • 3D supported on primary display when using multiple displays
  • Virtual Printing
    • Virtual machines automatically pick up your default Mac printer and all configured Mac printers
  • UI Enhancements
    • New high resolution (512x512) icons for VMware Fusion
  • New Virtual Machine Library
    • Provides greatly improved management of virtual machines
    • Shows screenshot of last or active states
    • Option to set a virtual machine to be started automatically when VMware Fusion is launched
    • Easily find your virtual machines on your hard drive with the Show in Finder option
    • Menus now act on whichever virtual machine is selected in the Library window
    • You can move old and unused virtual machines to the Trash directly from the Library
  • New Settings Editor
    • Provides quick overview of all virtual machine settings
    • Works just like System Preferences
    • Works in Unity, Full Screen, and Single Window views
    • Add existing virtual hard drives to virtual machines and even optionally copy them into the virtual machine bundle
  • Shared Folders Improvements
    • Simplified Shared Folders setup in the new Settings editor
    • Shared Folders are easier to discover. New Shared Folders option in Status bar and Virtual Machine menu. Can open all Shared Folders or just a specific Shared Folder in the virtual machine
    • Improved compatibility with Windows applications including QuickBooks and Visual Studio
    • Improved compatibility running Java applications from a Shared Folder
    • Files ending in .alias are no longer treated as aliases
  • Integrated VMware Importer
    • Just choose File>Import to import your Parallels Desktop and Virtual PC for Mac virtual machines
    • Outputs a completely new VMware virtual machine based on the input virtual machine
    • Importation process is nondestructive, so you can continue to use the original source virtual machine with the product used to create the source virtual machine
    • Import your Boot Camp partition to a true virtual machine and take advantage of suspend/resume and snapshots
  • USB Improvements
    • Allow USB mice/tablets in a virtual machine without custom configuration
    • Faster USB Storage performance
    • USB devices are recognized by type in the Status bar
    • Improved USB robustness including:
      • Canon DR-2580c no longer hangs after scanning documents
      • Now able to sync BlackBerry Pearl devices
      • Able to print from Kodak AiO 5100 in Windows virtual machines
      • Fix USB crash in UsbgHost_CancelPipe (mach_port_extract_member failed)
  • Networking Improvements
    • Virtual machines in Bridged networking mode know when your Mac's network connection is available or become unavailable, and will refresh their network address automatically
    • DNS and WINS server pass-through with NAT networking
    • Browse for Bonjour printers with NAT networking
    • Improved performance when using NAT networking
    • Manual option to override the MAC address to any MAC address in VMX settings file, previously limited to VMware-specific MAC addresses
    • Automatically obtain a new DHCP lease when switching between NAT/Bridged networking
    • Windows guests now able to join Active Directory domain with NAT networking if WINS is enabled on Mac OS X
    • Improved compatibility with wireless bridged networking and certain DHCP/routers
  • Unity Improvements
    • Virtual machines resume and start directly in Unity view
    • Quit Windows applications from the Dock icon
    • Unity windows now respect the Dock location and won't maximize underneath the Dock
    • Exposé now filters out non-application windows
    • Drag and Drop to overlapped Unity windows now works
    • Cursor not hidden while typing in Unity Mode
    • Handle Unity windows without titles better
  • Full Screen Improvements
    • Virtual machines resume and start directly in Full Screen view
    • Full Screen can use one or all displays on the Mac
    • Supports super large displays that are over 2048 (MacBook and MacBook Air) or 4096 (iMac, MacBook Pro, Mac Pro) pixels wide

Issues Resolved in VMware Fusion 2.0 Beta 1

  • VMware Fusion no longer cancels restart or shutdown attempts in Single Window and Full Screen views
  • DivX-encoded movies no longer play upside down in Windows Media Player
  • Timezone and regional settings are now set to the Mac's settings in Windows Easy Install
  • Copy and paste no longer get out of sync between the virtual machine and Mac
  • VMI-enabled Ubuntu virtual machine no longer freezes MacBook Pro when resumed from suspend state of lid closure
  • No longer shows cursor trails in AutoCAD
  • CentOS 5.1 64-bit 2.6.18-53.el5 no longer stalls for about a minute at boot time
  • Fixed bora/vmx/main/pollVMX.c:2301 ASSERT on suspend or discard snapshot operations on Linux RHEL 5 virtual machine
  • Tools correctly install on Vista Home Premium (Error 1920. Service VMware Tools Service (VMTools) failed to start.)
  • Leopard Screen Sharing App now can view virtual machines that export VNC connections
  • Mac OS X 10.5.3 and later systems can now use the Optimize for Mac OS application performance setting
  • No longer results in an unrecognized USB device error when the RAM assigned to a virtual machine exceeds 2 GB

Before You Begin

Use the recommended versions of the Mac OS X operating system.
For Mac OS X 10.4 (Tiger) we recommend version 10.4.11 or higher. For Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard) we recommend Mac OS X 10.5.2 or higher.

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.

Installing VMware Fusion 2.0 Beta 1 will overwrite earlier versions of the application
It is not possible to have multiple versions of VMware Fusion installed at the same time, so if you install VMware Fusion 2.0 Beta 1 on a machine that already has VMware Fusion 1.x, the Beta version replaces the earlier version. If you want to revert to version 1.x, you will need to reinstall it.

Back up all your virtual machines before installing VMware Fusion 2.0 Beta 1
This is beta software. We advise that you make backups of all your existing virtual machines before starting the installation.

Installation Note

For best performance after upgrading to Fusion 2.0 Beta 1, you need to do two things:

  1. Shut down your virtual machine, go to the Virtual Machine menu and select Upgrade Virtual Machine
  2. Install the latest VMware Tools and restart the virtual machine

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.
    AltGr 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 AltGr on Mac laptops.

Known Issues with VMware Fusion

  • Windows drivers are not signed with VMware Fusion beta releases.
    As with previous betas, Windows drivers are not signed during the beta process and require confirmation when installed. This will be addressed before VMware Fusion 2.0 ships.


  • Do not move a virtual machine while VMware Fusion is running.
    Changing a virtual machine's location in this situation causes a number of problems. Move a virtual machine only when Fusion is not running.


  • "Taking ownership" of a virtual machine after it has been copied from one location to another might result in Fusion failing.
    After being copied from one location to another, a virtual machine may appear locked in the Virtual Machine Library. Double clicking on the locked item displays a dialog box asking for you to "Take ownership." Periodically, when you select to take ownership, Fusion will fail with an ASSERT message.

    Workaround: If you see the virtual machine is locked in the Virtual Machine Library, navigate to the specific virtual machine, usually in ~/Documents/Virtual Machines, and show package contents. In the contents of the package you will see directories identified by the .lck extension. These can be safely removed, by deleting them. Once these have been removed, the virtual machine should power on successfully.


  • Powering off a virtual machine while it is in Unity view results in not being able to see the virtual machine's login screen when you power it back on.
    This happens only with virtual machines set to show a login screen at startup. To work around this problem, from the View menu choose View > Single Window or View > Full Screen. You can return to Unity view once the virtual machine finishes powering on. Alternatively, set the virtual machine's operating system to auto login.


  • No visual feedback that the virtual machine is powering on and that it will switch to Unity view.
    With VMware Fusion 2.0, the virtual machine will open using the same view used at the time of shut down. Because Unity view is "headless," during a restart to Unity view there are no visual indications that the virtual machine is loading. If the virtual machine takes a long time to boot due to installed services this lack of visual feedback can be mistaken for unresponsiveness.


  • When running a Microsoft Vista machine in Unity view, don't quit an application from the dock if another application is open that doesn't appear in the dock.
    In a Microsoft Vista virtual machine in Unity view, if you quit an application through its icon in the dock when another application without a dock icon is open, Fusion can fail. Some examples of applications that don't have an icon in the dock when they are runniing are Add Hardware, Task Scheduler, Autoplay, Backup and Restore, and any of the applications in Administrative tools.


  • Unable to remove USB device after taking a snapshot.
    After taking a snapshot, a previously connected USB device is disconnected from the virtual machine, but appears connected in the UI. Attempts to disconnect the device from the UI will be unsuccessful. To work around this issue, either connect or disconnect a USB device from any USB port on the Mac, and both the UI and the virtual machine's operating system will be updated to reflect the current state of connected USB devices.


  • Using "Safely Remove Hardware" for a device results in inability to interact with virtual machine.
    Whenever a device is removed from inside the virtual machine using the Windows Safely Remove Hardware icon, VMware Fusion does a suspend/resume cycle. A problem with this cycle results in you not being about to interact with the virtual machine afterward. Workaround: suspending and resuming the virtual machine again recovers mouse interaction.


  • Installing Windows Vista SP1 causes reactivation problems in the native Boot Camp partition and the Boot Camp virtual machine.
    Ordinarily, Fusion manages activation issues so that the user does not have to reactivate the operating system when going back and forth between the Boot Camp partition and a Fusion virtual machine of the Boot Camp partition. At this time, Fusion can't do this with Windows Vista SP1, but VMware is working on the issue.

    Two workarounds: either 1) Don't upgrade to SP1; or 2) until the issue has been resolved, don't boot back and forth between Boot Camp and the Boot Camp virtual machine--pick one and stay with it.


  • Importing a Boot Camp partition for the first time can result in it getting stuck in the processing stage the first time you start it up.
    The Boot Camp partition shows up in the Virtual Machine Library, where you can elect to import it to a VMware Fusion virtual machine. However, after importing it, if you start the Boot Camp partition by clicking the play icon next to it in the Library, the process becomes stuck in the Preparing your virtual machine stage.

    Workaround: Force quit Fusion. Delete the folder ~/Library/Application Support/VMware Fusion/Virtual Machines/Helper. Restart Fusion.
    In the Virtual Machine Library the Boot Camp partition is shown and you can click the play button. This time the processing dialog box appears, asks for your password, completes the processing in a timely fashion, and the Boot Camp virtual machine powers on.


  • Flat Hard-Disk Image Cannot Be Imported.
    VMware Importer does not import Virtual PC virtual machines with any flat hard-disk images. If you attempt to import such a virtual machine, VMware Importer reports that the virtual disk is corrupt.


  • Reconfiguring the CPUs on an imported virtual machine results in an error.
    Some virtual machines imported from Microsoft Virtual PC or Parallels Desktop for Mac will not work with more than one CPU, so don't customize the import by changing the Processor configuration to two. Changing the CPU setting to two virtual processors while importing a virtual machine results in an error when you start up the virtual machine. You see the message, "The CPU has been disabled by the guest operating system. You will need to power off or reset the virtual machine at this time." If you get this error, go to the Settings pane and change the Processors setting back to one virtual processor.


  • Attempting to import a Virtual PC virtual machine results in a message stating the virtual hard disk is corrupt.
    After you click the Import icon, a message appears saying "Virtual hard disk is corrupt. The virtual machine cannot be imported." This can happen with a Microsoft Virtual PC virtual machine running Windows XP Pro with minimum memory (32 MB) or maximum memory (512 MB).

    Workaround: Change the memory to 256 MB. If you do not have access to a PowerPC Mac running Virtual PC, open the file Configuration.plist with TextEdit, and change the number that appears under the line Memory/RAM Size. You can find Configuration.plist in the folder containing the Virtual PC virtual machine.


  • Unable to save Microsoft Office 2007 files or attachments directly to a shared folder.
    When you attempt, in a Microsoft Office 2007 application, to save a file to a shared folder, the file cannot be saved. To move such a file to a shared folder, save it to another location in the virtual machine, and use Windows Explorer to copy it to the shared folder.


  • Enabling or disabling printers for a running virtual machine does not take effect immediately.
    Selecting or deselecting the Enabled check box on the Printers sheet in Settings does not add or remove printers if the virtual machine is running. To change the setting for printers and have it take effect, you must power off the operating system in the virtual machine, make the change, and power the operating system back on.


  • Overlapping windows have redraw issues in Exposé.
    Overlapping windows in Exposé still have redraw issues with only the top most non-overlapping windows showing correctly. This will be addressed in a future beta release.


  • The Notes fields in the new Virtual Machine Library and Settings Editor are not enabled.
    The Notes field in the new Virtual Machine Library and Settings Editor are not enabled in Beta 1 and will be enabled in a future beta release.


  • Screens moved in Unity view do not redraw properly.
    When using a Mac display layout greater than 2048 pixels wide or high (MacBook Air, MacBook, Mac Mini), or 4096 pixels wide or high (other Macs), shaped Unity windows may not correctly redraw when dragged very far to the right or downwards.

    To work around this issue, resize the shaped Unity window after dragging it.


  • Mouse with button pressed is "ungrabbed" from the virtual machine when it gets to the edge of the display in Full Screen view.
    In this instance, moving the mouse back from the edge does not "regrab" it. You need to release the button before the virtual machine can regrab the mouse.


  • The Upgrade button in the Options tab of the VMware Tools Properties dialog box does not work.
    After you upgrade to VMware Fusion 2.0 Beta 1 you need also to upgrade to the new VMware Tools version. Upgrade by choosing Virtual Machine > Install VMware Tools from the Fusion menu bar. In this Beta 1 release, the Upgrade button in the Options tab of the VMware Tools Properties dialog box does not work. This is the dialog box that appears when you right-click on the Tools icon in the virtual machine's status bar and choose Open VMware Tools.


  • Cannot Resume Guest in a virtual machine in which Windows Vista 64-edition has been set to hibernate.
    In this situation, Windows Vista will not resume in the virtual machine. You need to restart the virtual machine to have the operating system come up properly.

    To work around this issue, do not attempt to hibernate the virtual machine from within Vista. Use the Fusion Suspend feature instead.


  • Uninstall, install, or upgrade VMware Tools only while Fusion is set to Single Window view.
    Due to possible temporary display corruptions, it is not recommended to uninstall, install, or upgrade VMware Tools in a virtual machine while it is set to Unity view, or full screen view on a system with several displays.


  • Virtual machine applications in Unity view may cancel the system shut down, restart, or log out processes.
    The Mac OS X shut down, restart, or log out processes may be cancelled by a virtual machine application that is shown running in the Mac dock. To proceed, you must suspend or shut down the virtual machine.


  • In vertically stacked displays, windows in Unity view can show up offset.
    When you use multiple displays stacked vertically, any windows in Unity view might be offset by the dimension of the menu bar. To work around this issue, move your menu bar to the topmost display.


  • Disabled processors can cause a virtual machine to fail when powering on.
    Do not disable some CPUs and then power on a virtual machine. Mac Book Airs, however, might automatically disable processors when they become too hot. In this case the workaround is to wait for the machine to cool down (and thus re-enable all its CPUs) before attempting to power-on a virtual machine.


  • VMware Tools for the just released Ubuntu 8.04 do not work currently.
    This will be addressed in a future beta release. See the following for a potential workaround: Peter Cooper: "How to Install VMware Tools on Ubuntu Hardy 8.04 under VMware Fusion"


  • For networking to work properly in your virtual machines, reboot your Mac after upgrading its operating system, or after using the Migration Assistant.
    After upgrading from Mac OS X 10.4 (Tiger) to Mac OS 10.5 (Leopard), you must to reboot your Mac for networking to work properly in virtual machines running under VMware Fusion. Similarly, after using Apple's Migration Assistant to move your data and applications from one Mac to another, you will need to reboot the new Mac for networking to work properly in virtual machines running under VMware Fusion.


  • Unity view in VMware Fusion can disrupt the operation of Spaces virtual desktops in Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard).
    If you are running VMware Fusion in Unity view in one space but working in another space, the appearance of a popup window (for instance, an Outlook calendar event reminder) in the VMware Fusion virtual machine can cause Spaces to jump back and forth between the two virtual desktops.

  • Conflict in Mac OS X 10.4 (Tiger) between VMware Fusion and anti-virus software can cause memory corruption.
    Running a virtual machine in VMware Fusion creates a .vmem file either inside the virtual machine's package, or in /tmp/vmware-. If you are running Mac OS 10.4 (Tiger), and the Norton AntiVirus' Auto-Protect feature scans the .vmem file while the virtual machine is running, host memory corruption can occur. The problem described here has been reproduced with Norton AntiVirus, but it is possible that the problem could occur with other anti-virus or backup software as well.

    Upgrade to Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard) to avoid this problem altogether.

    To prevent this conflict from occurring in Mac OS X 10.4, exclude both the Virtual Machines folder and the /tmp/vmware-<YourUserName> folder from the Norton AntiVirus SafeZones (System Preferences > Norton Auto-Protect > Safe Zones > Everywhere EXCEPT in).

    A typical symptom of this problem is that when you try to suspend the virtual machine, it gets stuck, and VMware Fusion can no longer run virtual machines. To recover from that situation:
    1. Shut down the host operating system as soon as possible and restart it.
    2. Prevent the conflict from occurring as described above.
    3. Discard the .vmss file for the affected virtual machine. Note: Whatever state was saved in the last suspend is lost.
    4. Boot up the virtual machine.

  • Cannot select anything on the guest desktop with the mouse when in Unity view if you select Show the Desktop from the Taskbar.
    To recover from this problem, do one of the following:
    • Select any of the Unity windows, which are minimized to the dock in this situation.
    • Use Alt-Tab to select a window in the guest.
    • Use the Applications menu to launch an application.


  • No audio can be heard in virtual machines created with some very old guest operating systems.
    Old operating systems, such as DOS, Windows 3.1, and Windows 95, may not have drivers for the virtual ES1371 sound device that Fusion presents. Other VMware products optionally present a Sound Blaster 16 device for these guests, but Fusion does not have this capability. This clarification also applies to previous versions of VMware Fusion.


  • The Mac stops responding or experiences a kernel panic if you run two virtual machines on a RAID 0 disk.
    RAID 0 volumes are not a tested configuration for VMware Fusion. Work is in progress on this problem.


  • In new virtual machines, the VMware Shared Folders shortcut is not created on certain French or Japanese Windows desktops.
    Ordinarily, when creating a new virtual machine, VMware Fusion creates a shared folders shortcut on the guest operating system desktop. However, in the case of virtual machines created with French or Japanese Microsoft Windows XP Pro SP2 as the guest operating system, this does not occur.
    Workaround: Create your own shortcut.
    1. Open the Explorer.
    2. Type \\.host in the Address field.
    3. Press Enter.
    4. Right-click on the Shared Folders icon.
    5. Choose Create a Shortcut.
    6. Click Yes to the message Windows cannot create a shortcut here. Do you want the shortcut to be placed on the desktop instead?
    A shortcut to Shared Folders is now available to the user on the French or Japanese Windows XP virtual machine.


  • Creating a new virtual machine with Solaris 10 might fail if there is insufficient memory.
    Before creating a new virtual machine with Solaris 10 as its guest operating system, ensure that you have enough memory assigned to the virtual machine to complete the process. You need 490MB and an additional 50MB for each NIC. For instance, if you were creating a virtual machine with two NICs, you would need to assign a minimum of 590MB to have a successful virtual machine creation.


  • Turbolinux 10 Server does not reboot automatically after installation in a virtual machine.
    At the end of the installation of Turbolinux 10 Server in a virtual machine, when you click Finish the system does not reboot and the screen becomes black. This results from a problem Turbolinux has switching from X to VGA. Workaround: Press the Enter key to continue with the reboot.


  • Microsoft Money does not update financial information over the internet if its data file is stored on a Shared Folder.
    This will be fixed in a future beta release. In the near term, the two workarounds are: 1) Store the Microsoft Money file in the virtual disk of the virtual machine; or 2) Enable Windows File Sharing on your Mac's System Preferences, share the folder that contains your Microsoft Money data file, and mount the Mac's network share in the virtual machine to access it.


  • Using the Boot Camp partition as a virtual machine can, in a few rare instances, result in a 07B failure when the virtual machine is booted.
    If this happens, boot into Boot Camp natively, immediately hold down F8 and select boot into last known good state. This will restore the functionality of your Boot Camp partition only in native mode.
    To help VMware better understand what happens in this case, please file a support incident that includes your Boot Camp logs. The logs can be found in your home folder as the file
    ~/Library/Application Support/VMware Fusion/Virtual Machines/Helper/naos-1.0.vmwarevm/vmware.log
    Please note that the folder naos-1.0.vmwarevm is a package. If you are opening it with Finder, right-click the icon and select Show Package Contents.


  • When you copy or move a virtual machine to a new location, the virtual machine does not retain information from the original virtual machine about applications displayed in the Mac dock in Unity view.
    To work around this problem, delete the Applications folder from the copied or moved virtual machine:
    1. Power off the virtual machine.
    2. Control-click or right-click the virtual machine in the Finder and select Show Package Contents.
    3. Locate the Applications folder, move this folder to the Trash, and empty the Trash.
    4. Power on the virtual machine.

  • Some file systems, such as FAT and UFS, are unable to support very large files.
    If you are creating a virtual machine that will be used in a hard drive with a file system that does not support very large files, select the New Virtual Machine Assistant option Split disk into 2GB files. This option is in Advanced disk options, in the Virtual Hard Disk panel of the New Virtual Machine Assistant.


  • Applications that use Multiple Document Interface (MDI), such as Microsoft Excel, might not display correctly in Unity view.


  • Unity view is not supported when more than one user is logged in to Windows.
    Fast User Switching is not compatible with Unity view.


  • In Windows virtual machines, if you uninstall the VMware pointing device driver, and then Control-click or right-click to select an option from an application displayed in Unity view, the virtual machine might quit unexpectedly.
    This problem can occur if you uninstall the VMware pointing device in My Computer > Properties > Hardware > Device Manager, and then, in a virtual machine application window displayed in Unity view, Control-click or right-click and select any option, for example, Properties.


  • Switching to Unity view while a snapshot operation is in progress may result in unpredictable display behavior.
    Do not switch views while a snapshot operation is in progress. To recover from this situation, switch to Single Window view and then back to Unity view.


  • When you cancel a drag-and-drop operation between the Mac host and a virtual machine, it may take several seconds before another drag-and-drop operation is possible.
    The virtual machine guest operating system can require several seconds to cancel a drag-and-drop operation. When you attempt a drag-and-drop operation, a plus sign (+) should appear on the file or folder you are dragging and dropping. If the plus sign does not appear, the virtual machine could be processing a prior operation. Wait a few seconds and try again.


  • In rare circumstances, a virtual machine can fail to detect any bootable CD in the CD/DVD drive, including the Windows XP installation CD.
    To work around this problem, try the following:
    1. In the virtual machine, open Virtual Machine > Settings > Removable Devices > CD/DVD.
    2. Change the setting from Automatically detect physical CD/DVD drive to Specify physical CD/DVD drive, and select cdrom0.
    3. Click OK.

  • If the antivirus software Alwil avast! 4.7 is installed in a virtual machine, when you access VMware Fusion shared folders through a Uniform Naming Convention (UNC) path (rather than through a mapped drive letter) it can cause Windows Explorer to become unresponsive or quit unexpectedly.
    To work around this problem, access VMware Fusion Shared Folders through a mapped drive letter and not through a UNC path. You could also use a different antivirus program: this problem has not been observed with other antivirus programs.


  • If the antivirus software Alwil avast! 4.7 is installed in a virtual machine, the virtual machine might become unresponsive when you open a document from a VMware Fusion Shared Folder with permissions set to read/write.
    To work around this problem, move the document from the VMware Fusion Shared Folder to a local folder in the virtual machine. You could also use a different antivirus program: this problem has not been observed with other antivirus programs.


  • Powering on a virtual machine within a host window that has a scrollbar might cause the virtual machine to respond to mouse input incorrectly or incompletely.
    To work around this problem, click the host window's scrollbar to scroll the display up or down.


  • In virtual machines running Linux distributions with kernel versions lower than 2.4, VMware Fusion does not support drag and drop operations between the virtual machine and the host.


  • The VMware Fusion BIOS posts too quickly to access.
    Most users will not need to access the BIOS, but advanced users might want to do so, to change the boot order, set a boot password, or enable a second floppy drive. To work around this problem, use a text editor to add the following line to the configuration (.vmx) file of the virtual machine:
    bios.forceSetupOnce = "TRUE"
    The next time you boot up the virtual machine, it will automatically boot into the BIOS. This configuration option then reverts to FALSE. You must set the option to TRUE each time you want to boot the virtual machine into the BIOS.


  • Installing VMware Tools in Fusion for a virtual machine created in Japanese Workstation 6 might cause the installer to fail.
    In Fusion, if you open a virtual machine created in Japanese Workstation 6 and try to install VMware Tools, the installation might fail with an error message.
    Workaround: Uninstall the tools from within the virtual machine and then install the Fusion 1.1 tools.
    1. Open the virtual machine.
    2. Choose Virtual Machine > Install VMware Tools to display the VMware Tools wizard.
    3. Select Remove, and click Next and Remove.
    4. Choose Virtual Machine > Install VMware Tools to go to the VMware Tools wizard and install a fresh version of VMware Tools.

  • If you are installing Microsoft Windows Vista from multiple installation disks, Windows Easy Install does not work.
    To install Vista from multiple installation disks, use the standard installation: in the New Virtual Machine Assistant, when the Windows Easy Install panel is displayed, deselect Use Easy Install and click Continue to proceed with the standard installation.


  • Powering on multiple virtual machines (whose combined memory allocation exceeds that of the host physical system) can slow the system.
    If the memory allocated to running virtual machines approaches or exceeds the physical memory available on the host, the system can become very slow. This can happen with one or more virtual machines running. Make sure to only power on virtual machines that have memory allocations that your host machine can handle. If you encounter this problem, close one or more virtual machines. You might also consider reducing the memory allocation of some of your virtual machines (Virtual Machine > Settings > System Hardware > Memory).


  • On Macs with more than one CD-ROM drive (internal or external), physical CD-ROM drives cannot be moved between running virtual machines.
    This occurs when two or more virtual machines are powered on, and one of the physical CD-ROM drive is connected to one of the powered-on virtual machines. If you disconnect the physical CD-ROM drive from the virtual machine, and then attempt to connect the CD-ROM drive to one of the other powered-on virtual machines, the connection fails.

    To work around this problem, reset the virtual machines.


  • Virtual machines stored on drives formatted with FAT32 may crash in VMware Fusion.
    This problem is accompanied by the error message: Argument list too long.
    Testing suggests that this problem may indicate a corrupted disk.


  • Migrating Linux virtual machines between Intel and AMD hosts.
    VMware recommends you do not migrate a Linux virtual machine between hosts when one host is running on an AMD processor and the other is running on an Intel processor.

    During installation, many distributions of Linux choose a kernel that is optimized for the specific processor on which it is being installed, and some distributions install a generic kernel by default, but provide architecture-specific kernels that the user can choose to install. The kernel might contain instructions that are available only on that processor. These instructions can have adverse effects when run on a host with the wrong type of processor.


  • For 64-bit SUSE Linux versions lower than 10.1, VMware virtual machines support the X graphical windows system only if you have installed VMware Tools in the virtual machine.


  • When the virtual machine tries to play a sound it gets the error "Cannot connect virtual device sound."
    In rare instances with certain virtual machines originally created with a product other than Fusion, the virtual machine gets this error and is unable to play sound each time it powers on and each time it tries to play a sound. To work around this problem, power off the virtual machine, remove the sound device by going to Settings and clicking the Remove Sound Device button in the Sound pane, and re-add it by clicking the button (now labeled Add Sound Device) again.


  • Fixing sound problems in virtual machines running Vista 32-bit edition
    When you install Microsoft Vista 32-bit edition in a VMware Fusion virtual machine, there is no sound output. To correct this problem, run Windows Update to update the sound driver from within Vista.

    To update the sound driver in a VMware Fusion virtual machine running Windows Vista 32-bit edition:
    1. In the virtual machine, from the Windows start menu, right-click Computer and select Properties.
    2. In the left pane, under Tasks, select Device Manager.
    3. When prompted for your permission to continue, click Continue.
      Windows displays the Device Manager.
    4. Right-click the Multimedia Sound Adapter with a warning symbol (indicating that there is no driver) and select Update Driver Software.
    5. At the prompt How do you want to search for driver software?, select Search automatically for updated driver software.
      Windows finds and installs the appropriate driver for your virtual sound card.
    6. When you are prompted to restart, click Restart Now.
      7. Sound should now work in your Microsoft Vista 32-bit virtual machine.

  • Sound does not work in virtual machines running Windows 2003 Server 64-bit Enterprise Edition R2.
    To enable sound in a virtual machine running Windows 2003 Server 64-bit Enterprise Edition R2, you must enable the Windows Audio Service: open the Sounds and Audio Devices Control Panel. Windows prompts you to enable the audio device. When you enable the device, Windows reboots. Sound should now work in the virtual machine.