VMware Fusion [OLD VERSION]

Other products by Smith Micro Software Inc.

Product Features

• Run multiple operating systems, including Windows, Linux, and Solaris, on your Macintosh at the same time as Mac OS X--without rebooting; copy or paste between operating systems, or drag and drop files from desktop to desktop
• Run Windows applications just like Mac applications--easily launch your Windows applications and switch between all your Windows and Mac applications; use your familiar Mac keyboard shortcuts the whole time
• Capture and save the exact state of your virtual machine with VMware Fusion's innovative Snapshot feature; if your Windows virtual machine becomes unresponsive, use the Snapshot feature to rollback to a known stable state with the click of a button
• Take full advantage of 64-bit and multi-core processors of your Mac for maximum flexibility--run 64-bit operating systems such as Windows Vista Ultimate 64-bit Edition or leverage Virtual SMP to create and run multi-processor virtual machines
• Cutting-edge 3D technology even lets you to play select DirectX 8.1 games on your Mac; get full read/write support for CDs and DVDs and complete USB 2.0 support--even for proprietary video cameras, Bluetooth devices and other Windows-only peripherals

Product Details

• Shipping Weight: 4 ounces
• Shipping: This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S.
• Note: Gift-wrapping is not available for this item.
• ASIN: B000UK3GVA
• Item model number: VMFUSMBX2
• Date first available at Amazon.com: October 2, 2001
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars See all reviews (242 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #514 in Software (See Bestsellers in Software)

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Product Description

Amazon.com
Run multiple operating systems, including Windows, Linux, and Solaris, on your Macintosh at the same time as Mac OS X--without rebooting. Designed from the ground up for the Mac, VMware Fusion allows you to run Mac and Windows applications side-by-side--quickly and effortlessly sharing information between the two operating systems' environments.

Run Windows and other operating systems on your Mac.

Run any version of Windows.

Full support for Windows, Linux, Solaris, and FreeBSD.

Run Windows applications just like Mac applications
Say goodbye to the Windows desktop and use the VMware Fusion Launch Palette or Spotlight to easily launch your Windows applications. Switch between all your Windows and Mac applications using Expose. Keep your favorite applications in the Dock, bring forward only the application you care about, and use your familiar Mac keyboard shortcuts the whole time.

Turn back time on your PC
Capture and save the exact state of your virtual machine with VMware Fusion's innovative Snapshot feature. If your Windows virtual machine becomes unresponsive, use the Snapshot feature to rollback to a known stable state with the click of a button.

Get the most out of your Mac hardware
Take full advantage of 64-bit and multi-core processors of your Mac for maximum flexibility. You can run 64-bit operating systems such as Windows Vista Ultimate 64-bit Edition or leverage Virtual SMP to create and run multi-processor virtual machines.

Our cutting-edge 3D technology even lets you to play select DirectX 8.1 games on your Mac. Plus, get full read/write support for CDs and DVDs and complete USB 2.0 support--even for proprietary video cameras, Bluetooth devices and other Windows-only peripherals.

Run multiple operating systems on your Mac with ease
Easily use UNIX-based operating systems such as Linux and Solaris right alongside Windows and Mac OS X, with the ease and simplicity you've come to expect from your Mac. Only VMware Fusion makes it possible to copy and paste text between Mac and Linux or Solaris, or to drag and drop files from the Mac desktop to Linux or Solaris.

Get up and running with your favorite Windows applications quickly.

Enjoy access to Windows applications through a familiar Mac interface.

Customize your toolbar for integration with Fusion.

Built for the Mac

Run Windows applications like Mac applications
VMware Fusion transforms your Windows applications with VMware Unity feature, giving you the seamless Mac experience you expect. Minimize Windows applications to the Dock, switch between Windows or Mac application with Expose, find and instantly launch any Windows application, and use familiar Mac keyboard shortcuts to copy and paste between Windows and Mac applications.

Designed for the Mac user
Get up and running with your favorite Windows applications quickly. VMware Fusion's user interface was designed exclusively for the Mac so things will work the way you expect them to, including customizable toolbars and configuration sheets.

Run Windows Vista, Windows XP, and Mac OS X at the same time
Run Microsoft Vista Business, Enterprise, or Ultimate 32-bit or 64-bit editions or any Windows XP edition side-by-side with Mac OS X.

Use your Boot Camp install side by side with your mac
Run Windows XP side-by-side with Mac OS X from your existing Boot Camp partition, which VMware Fusion automatically detects and when run the first time is updated to use optimized drivers when run as a virtual machine. Access your existing Boot Camp partition with the flexibility of running Windows natively or as a virtual machine. In addition, VMware Fusion has experimental support for Microsoft Vista on Boot Camp partitions.

Install Windows easily
Answer a few simple questions, insert a Windows CD and VMware Fusion does the rest to create a Mac-ready Windows virtual machine without you becoming a Windows expert.

Roll back and recover
Rollback allows you to take a Snapshot of the virtual machine at any point in time. If problems occur later, you can roll your virtual machine back to that known-good state with a single click.

Start where you left off
The suspend feature stores your applications' states so you can quickly resume work without restarting Windows and opening all your applications.

Move your virtual machine by copying a file
Exclusive feature:Your complete virtual machine is stored in a single, easy-to-manage package. Move your virtual machines to another hard drive or Mac simply by copying a file.

Use Shared Folders to share your Mac home folder or other folders to your virtual machines.

The suspend feature stores your applications' states so you can quickly resume work without restarting Windows.

Keep an eye on your laptop's battery level from Windows.

The Most Complete Virtualization Platform

Full support for Windows, Linux, Solaris, and FreeBSD on your Mac
Exclusive feature: Run 32-bit or 64-bit editions of Windows, Linux, Solaris, and FreeBSD on your Mac. Copy and paste text and drag and drop files between your virtual machines and the Mac. Use Shared Folders to share your Mac home folder or other folders to your virtual machines. Resize the virtual machine window and the resolution of the virtual machine automatically changes. You can even download pre-configured Linux or Solaris virtual machines from the VMware Virtual Appliance Marketplace to get started.

Future Proof with 32-bit and 64-bit virtual machines
Exclusive feature: Run both 32-bit and 64-bit operating systems in VMware Fusion virtual machines. As the world moves to 64-bit applications, you will be ready with 64-bit virtual machines on the latest Intel Core 2 Duo and Xeon Macs.

Multi-core for maximum flexibility
Exclusive feature: Leverage the full power of your Intel Mac by using two-way Virtual SMP to assign multiple cores with your virtual machines for maximum flexibility.

Easily share data between virtual machines and your Mac
Use Shared Folders to share your Mac home folder or other folders to your virtual machines. Copy and paste text and drag and drop files between your virtual machines and the Mac.

Run more virtual machines
Exclusive feature: VMware Fusion can use the full 16 GB of memory available with the Mac Pro or Xserve to run more virtual machines at the same time.

Accelerated 3D graphics let you run DirectX 8.1 3D savvy applications and play select DirectX 8.1 games.

Accelerated 3D graphics
Experimental hardware with accelerated 3D graphics let you run DirectX 8.1 3D savvy applications and play select DirectX 8.1 games in Window XP with Service Pack 2 virtual machines.

USB 2.0 support
VMware Fusion offers complete USB 2.0 support--even for proprietary video cameras, GPS, Bluetooth, and other devices that only work in Windows.

CD and DVD burning
SuperDrive is fully supported in any virtual machine with VMware Fusion.

Seamless, powerful networking
Windows shares your Mac's network connections and provides effortless switching between wired and AirPort/Wi-Fi connections. Add up to ten virtual network interfaces to support private and public networks. Or use host-only networking to keep your virtual machine isolated from the network for maximum safety.

Battery pass-through
Exclusive feature: Keep an eye on your laptop's battery level from Windows, ideal when running Windows full screen.

ACPI support
Your virtual PC shuts down completely when you say shut down and supports hibernation when using Boot Camp partition virtual machines.

Move to the Virtual World

Migrate your existing Windows PC to a virtual machine
Migrate your existing Windows PCs into Mac-ready virtual machines with the free VMware Converter Starter.

Virtual appliances
Choose from over 450 3rd party virtual appliances, pre-configured virtual machines designed to meet specific needs, at the VMware Virtual Appliance Marketplace.

Fully compatible with other VMware products
Existing VMware customers can leverage existing VMware virtual machines created with other VMware products, including VMware Workstation, VMware Server, and VMware Infrastructure 3, which are all fully compatible with VMware Fusion.

Product Description
From the proven leader in desktop virtualization comes VMware Fusion--the most seamless way to run Windows applications on your Mac. VMware Fusion combines a clean and intuitive interface that Mac users expect with a virtualization platform trusted by millions of users today. VMware Fusion allows you to launch your Windows applications from the Dock and switch between Windows and Mac applications using Exposé. With the industry's most advanced virtualization technology VMware Fusion is ready for the future and lets you leverage all the hardware available on your Mac to simultaneously run 32 and 64-bit operating systems, use two processors at the same time, run select 3D games and utilize USB 2.0 devices. Access the widest range of USB 2 devices, allocate up to 8GB of memory to virtual machines, run over 60 guest operating systems from DOS to Microsoft Windows Vista, Linux, Solaris, Netware and FreeBSD. Run your Boot Camp partition side-by-side with Mac OS X without any additional setup. Run any of the more than 550 virtual appliances available from VMware Virtualize your existing PC with the free VMware Converter Starter Built Exclusively for the Mac - Built with features such as customizable toolbars, easy-to-manage virtual machine packages, and much more The powerful Unity feature transforms your Windows applications and gives you a seamless Mac experience Requires Any Intel Mac computer with a 1.5GHz or faster Intel processor; 512MB of RAM (1GB or more recommended)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

115 of 120 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars MUCH better than Parallels, October 27, 2007

By	Heath G. Gerlock "zeloeistotheo" (Kansas City, MO, USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Usage: I'm a web developer and graphic designer. My workflow involves using a number of tools that are specific to Windows and others that are specific to the Mac. I also use virtual machines for remotely controlling computers and supporting asp and [...] websites.

Experience: I'm an owner of Parallels 2 and, as released, upgraded to Parallels 3. I was also involved in the Beta testing of VMWare Fusion. I have to acknowledge that the Beta versions of Fusion were not stable, however the release version was a tremendous step up from the Beta and significantly faster than Parallels. Parallels is fine if all you're running it for is IE6/7 browser support for IE specific website (i.e. quickbooks online). If you own Parallels and use it sparingly switching to Fusion is a waste of money. If you use audio, video, and graphic editing programs in your virtual machines you WILL notice huge performance gains running Fusion over parallels. There are numerous *free* appliances available from VMWare you can download, which work immediately and seamlessly with Fusion. Very nice.

Summmary/Recommendation: If you're in the market for a Virtual Machine application VMWare Fusion is my recommendation. If you already own Parallels and use it sparingly there's no need to switch. If you use Parallels with processor intensive programs I recommend switching to Fusion as it is much faster.

129 of 139 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Former Parallels user, August 24, 2007

By	Jeffrey Ammon "computer_geek386" (Los Angeles, CA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I am very impressed with this product. The virtual machine is running noticeably faster than the one I had running in Parallels, probably because of the multiprocessor support. Also I can finally use my x64 Windows XP Pro without resorting boot camp. Additionally, VMware is way more stable than Parallels. Parallels version 3.0 was crashing spontaneously at least once a day and the suspend feature would always result in blue screen of death on resume. I have yet to see a crash of any kind or a BSOD on resume with VMWare.

53 of 55 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Works As Advertised - And Works Well, December 11, 2007

By	Electronic Gadgetphile (St. Paul, MN) - See all my reviews

Like many MacAddicts on this site, I have a couple of PC based applications that I need to run apart from my Mac applications and didn't want to invest in separate hardware. I used Bootcamp Beta on my older iMac and found it to be OK but didn't like having to reboot to get to the other OS. Recently I purchased a new iMac 2.8 Mz with 4 GB of ram and wanted to see if VMware Fusion would provide me with the convenience of easily switching between Leopard (Mac) and Windows Vista Ultimate. The installation was reasonably painless and I had both systems up and running in short time. I loaded up my essential PC programs - MS Money and MS Publisher - and they worked like a dream. I did note that the Vista Aero effects would not work even when I optimized the system using the VMWare tools. Not a big deal. I then installed a PC game, Call of Duty, and could not get it to run effectively. I dropped back to earlier PC games such as MS Age of Empires and Command and Conquer and they also failed to perform adequately. I assumed it was a Vista thing and installed a separate copy of Windows XP which ran really well but just not games. Curious as to whether it was a virtualization (likely the MS/VM video drivers) versus hardware issue, I un-installed the Windows systems, re-based the Leopard system, installed Bootcamp and then Windows Vista Ultimate. After assuring Microsoft that I was not using my copy of Windows on multiple machines they gave me the secret code with authorized my Vista copy on my Bootcamp partition. When I brought up Vista through Bootcamp I found it to be very quick, Aero effects worked and more importantly, my PC games all installed and ran flawlessly. Now I am considering reinstalling VMware Fusion on the machine along with Windows XP to allow the easy switching back and forth between OS's (via VMware Fusion) and still have the capability of playing my *essential* PC games on the same machine via Bootcamp. In summary, I like VMware Fusion and it performs very well - just not with my PC based games.
(December 26, 2007 Update) I did install VMware Fusion on the Leopard partition and am running Windows XP and it is really running everything well with the exception of games. I love the ease of dragging pictures and files back and forth from WinXP to Mac and vice versa with no problems. I have PhotoShop in the Mac side and Microsoft Publisher on the Windows side and it is really painless editing jpegs and then dragging them into Publisher. Running very stable on both sides of the partitions. Still have Windows Vista Ultimate on the Bootcamp partition and it really handles the PC games well but not convenient for switching back and forth between PC and Mac OS's - reboot requred for every change. One curious feature I noted is with the two Seagate external backup drives I have attached to the iMac - one FAT 32 for Windows and the other HTFS format for the Mac. When I am running Leopard I can see and access both drives but when I start up VMware Fusion and bring up Win XP, the FAT 32 drive disappears from the Mac desktop and shows up on the WinXP side only. As soon as I suspend the VMware Fusion the FAT 32 pops up on the Mac desktop again. Not a problem, just interesting. I would suggest that if you are installing VMware Fusion on your Mac that you create enough space in your Windows partition to accommodate your future needs as well as your current ones - the methods I have seen for expanding partition sizes are fairly complex. Still really happy overall with this software.