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VMware Fusion has become a valuable tool for users across various industries and professions. Users have found it particularly useful in …
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What is VMware Fusion?
Vmware Fusion is a virtual user session software built to run Windows applications on Macintosh to run any Windows applications.
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What is VMware Fusion?
Vmware Fusion is a virtual user session software built to run Windows applications on Macintosh to run any Windows applications.
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What is VMware Fusion?
VMware Fusion: Desktop Hypervisors for Mac
Software designed to give users the freedom to be more productive, agile and secure in a preferred environment. IT professionals, developers and businesses can use VMware Fusion desktop hypervisors for OS support, rock-solid stability and advanced features. With Fusion Player and Fusion Pro, run nearly any OS as VMs on Mac for development, testing, gaming or even simulating production clouds on local desktops.
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VMware Fusion Technical Details
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| Mobile Application | No |
Frequently Asked Questions
Vmware Fusion is a virtual user session software built to run Windows applications on Macintosh to run any Windows applications.
Reviewers rate Support Rating highest, with a score of 10.
The most common users of VMware Fusion are from Mid-sized Companies (51-1,000 employees).
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(1-19 of 19)Companies can't remove reviews or game the system. Here's why
April 04, 2022
An excellent fusion of great virtualization features, high performance, and pricing that fits the bill for almost everyone.
VMware Fusion is used in a multitude of development scenarios including spinning up Linux servers for early-stage development before the code is pushed to an internet-facing dev server for clients to see. It allows easy maintenance of different VM images to test different application environments easily and safely. It is also a great "lab rat" to test code against bleeding edge versions of PHP and popular web apps. Fusion is also used to run Windows-only business-related applications on the intel mac platform, thereby eliminating having to reboot or run maintain multiple physical hardware. While the Mac software library has grown, Windows counterparts from the same developer are often still better so Fusion helps eliminates this shortfall.
- The option for a perpetual license makes it a cost-effective option for occasional-use scenarios.
- Features like "Unity" are well implemented to make windows applications appear as if they were native macOS apps.
- Support for external USB devices (especially audio) runs more stable than Parallels.
- Snapshots are helpful in quickly returning to a previous state if a setting or application causes issues.
- The low power footprint makes it a great option for laptops on battery power. (Idle power consumption of the VM is negligible when measured at the wall using a Kill-A-watt).
- Configuring a boot camp install to run inside macOS via VMware fusion can be tricky to configure and sometimes leads to license/activation issues depending on the application.
- Some apps become sluggish/do not behave well when running the VM in "Unity" mode.
- Fusion lags behind its competitors in terms of graphics API support.
- Although early at this time, lack of M1 support is an area of concern for the future.
I use VMware Fusion on my Mac so that I can run business-related software that is only available on the PC. This allows me to run Windows-based software seamlessly on my Mac, which is a huge improvement over having to use two computers (one Mac, one PC) side-by-side on my desk or, worse yet while traveling.
- Runs a full version of Windows on a Mac, allowing access to both environments.
- Gives an immersive Windows experience when running the app in full screen. It is like having two computers in one.
- Allows for copying and pasting from one environment to another, which is very handy.
- It is very rare for this to happen, but sometimes the Windows environment loses the internet connection while the Mac environment still has it. Rebooting the Windows environment in VMware Fusion fixes it.
- It does not always recognize printers that are set up through the Mac, particularly if they are connected via WiFi instead of hardwired.
February 25, 2020
Switch Between Software Development Environments With Ease
We use VMWare Fusion to run disk images of Windows operating systems on a Mac, as well as running VMWare Fusion on a Debian Linux machine to run other Linux environments. The reason for this is so we can save a pristine climate configured perfectly for a project without risk of corrupting the environment by changing configuration variables on the host operating system.
- Running isolated software development environments. Setting up environment variables and installing the right software versions for a given project can be time consuming and fragile. By doing all of this within a virtual disk image, we can easily switch between software environments without risk of breaking anything.
- Running Windows-only programs on a Mac is invaluable. We use MacBook Pro laptops for our primary development environment. There are simply some programs we cannot run on OS X. Having VMWare Fusion is an invaluable asset for running Windows apps on Mac laptops on the go.
- This is not the fault of VMWare Fusion, per se, but the disk images are rather large. Being able to have one parent disk image and then save smaller variants of the disk image with slight changes would be nice.
- Copying files to and from the disk image and its host machine is a little bit clunky. It would be nice to be able to drag-and-drop files. I have read that this is possible but have not personally been able to get it working, so instead, I just put files in a shared folder. It's not too tricky, and I imagine there is a way to get drag-and-drop working, but it doesn't seem to work right out of the box, at least for me.
February 18, 2020
I have two computers on one screen....kinda!
Our company switched from PC based to Mac based back in 2012. For the most part, our applications are MAC OS. However, we have not found a suitable Mac version of our bookkeeping software, QuickBooks. We found the simplest and most elegant solution is to partition our computer and run the PC version of QuickBooks on the Mac. I'm quite satisfied with the combo and the recent upgrade to VMware 11 is FANTASTIC.
- Running PC software on a Mac.
- Easy file transfer and file sharing across platforms.
- Setup a bit too cryptic.
- Options could use some easier direction.
August 29, 2019
An excellent high performing product that makes desktop virtualization simple and cost effective
As a charter school management organization, we strive to provide the best educational tools to our students. As such, we have deployed Mac labs utilizing Apple iMac computers, which work great for almost all curriculum, except some STEM and liberal arts applications that are not available for Mac. The decision to go with VMware Fusion was an easy one after we evaluated the available options for virtualizing MS Windows on the iMacs in order to get compatibility with some of the Windows-only programs. Unlike the competition, the VMware Fusion upgrade and update process as new versions come out is much simpler and as easy as point and click. it is also cheaper and its performance is on par with all the other visualization desktop products. A great addition to anyone's toolkit.
- Accelerates Windows applications on Mac very smoothly.
- Great options for VM management down to CPU cores and host RAM utilization.
- Very easy to update/upgrade with just a click of the mouse.
- Video Acceleration could be improved.
- More features can be added for integration to the host OS, such as to send email to VM client.
- Smoother coherence.
VMware Fusion is being used as a virtual machine monitor to allow Mac users to test how things work on Windows machines. It is used mostly by developers and quality analysts, since most of them are using Mac, and the core business is web development, so we need to use VMware Fusion to test how things run on Window's browsers, like Internet Explorer and Microsoft Edge.
- Allows users to install a lot of operating systems, like the latest Windows 10 release.
- It's possible to integrate with Chef and Vagrant.
- The price is too expensive to do things that you can do with other products for free.
- It has a lot of lag when testing a Windows 10 environment, it was supposed to be faster.
VMware Fusion is primarily used by clients who need to access Windows-specific applications on their Macs. In most organizations I manage, VMware is used as a last resort, when no Mac alternatives are available. Typically, VMware is used on a user-by-user basis, only those users that need to run a specific Windows program will have access to VMware, to reduce licensing costs. In addition, VMware Fusion is also used by myself personally to create multiple virtual machines across different OSs (Windows, Linux varieties, and macOS) for testing and experimentation purposes.
- In general, VMware Fusion is very easy to set up and manage, with a fairly comprehensive step-by-step install process for different OSs.
- For non-3D work, VMware is quite fast and can handle a number of CPU-demanding work loads.
- VMware has tight integration with macOS through various ways of sharing files b/w virtual machines and the real machine, window management (such as using macOS' native full-screen mode and its Unity mode, wherein virtual applications appear to be running natively within the OS) and printer sharing.
- VMware has a very good and reasonable licensing system - a single license is good for two computers, especially when compared to Parallels.
- VMware Fusion is designed to work with other VMware products, such as VMware Workstation, ESC and vCenter Server. This allows VMware Fusion to create a virtual machine on a remote server.
- For 3D work or 3D gaming, VMware Fusion falls short of the main competition of Parallels. Though, 3D work in general is not well suited for virtual machines.
- VMware Fusion lacks some more professional features such as a headless mode, by being run as a service in the background. In order for a virtual machine to be up and running, the VMware Fusion application must be open and the virtual machine visible. By comparison, Parallels allows for a virtual machine to automatically open at login, and in the background without the Parallels program needing to be opened. This is a great feature if a VM is being used a server and does not require regular user interaction.
- VMware Fusion's integration with Apple's Bootcamp technology is severely lacking when compared to Parallels. Whereas Parallels can boot directly from a Bootcamp partition, or even use a Bootcamp partition as a disk within a VM, VMware Fusion can only create a new VM based on a Bootcamp partition.
- While Fusion supports most Linux variations, it lacks the ability to automatically download the freely available OS install images (unlike Parallels).
December 10, 2018
VMware Fusion - The go to Mac virtualization application
VMware Fusion is the preferred workstation virtualization application for Mac users. It allows users to virtualize a multitude of operating systems on their workstation. We have used Fusion to virtualize firewalls, test systems for development and running OS specific applications that are unavailable on Macs.
- Managing workstation-specific virtualization for Mac.
- Host/Guest resource management.
- Feature and patch releases are added several times a year to make sure Fusion maintains its leadership role
- With OSX - 10.14.1 and the latest version of Fusion - 11.0.2 the user interface has taken a step back IMHO.
- I would like to see price decrease.
- Better remote host connection capabilities - remote server connections are available but connections are spotty.
September 07, 2018
VMware Fusion is a great choice for IT pros
I use VMware Fusion primarily for my own use. My organization does not have many Macs deployed, but for my work it makes the most sense and gives me the best productivity. However, there are times when Windows software must be used, such as managing Active Directory or creating diagrams with Visio. VMware Fusion gives me the ability to run this handful of apps in a Windows VM, which is more convenient than having a second machine. It also works well for testing new OS deployment scripts and running Linux-based applications.
- Lightweight desktop hypervisor. Less invasive into the system than the main competitor.
- Good performance. I don't notice VMs being any slower than the native OS.
- Conveniently integrates with VMware ESXi servers. Good for working with standalone servers.
- Not as tightly integrated with the host filesystem as competitors. Creates the occasional challenge if you want to open a file from someplace outside your Desktop, Documents or Downloads folders.
- Video performance is fine for business apps, but doesn't seem to cut it for demanding video applications.
- USB drivers are sometimes flaky with Windows VMs and don't work as well as one could hope.
We use VMware Fusion for end-user Windows desktops for our IT department. We've also used VMware Fusion for our server development and testing. I love the fact that you can easily isolate a test bed for development. Using Fusion for running Windows clients on end-users' laptops gives us a way to access locally installed applications that may not be available when the network is unavailable.
- VMware Fusion provides an excellent platform for running Microsoft Windows on a Mac.
- VMware Fusion provides a way for our dev/ops team to run isolated servers and applications.
- VMware Fusion is also very intuitive for our users.
- VMware Fusion has the ability to open apps from the Mac desktop.
- Installation could be easier.
- Pricing is a little higher compared to other virtualization platforms.
- Need the ability to covert VM to other platforms such as Hyper-V and others.
- Need better ability for nested VMs.
April 12, 2018
Virtualization for Macs!
VMWare Fusion allows Apple users to run a Windows or Linux operating system inside a virtual machine on their Macintosh. As a paid software it is much more stable than Virtualbox in my experience. Fusion is very easy to set up and configure as all VMWare products because VMWare makes their software for the end user.
- Allows users to run Windows only applications on their Mac without switching devices.
- Fusion is excellent for Windows image creation, and works exceptionally well on the Mac environment.
- Assists a Mac user to virtualize Windows apps.
- Excellent for installing Linux distros for penetration testing.
- Windows 10 setup could be slightly more user-friendly
- Price could be cheaper
- Some testing a VMWare on different Mac hardware configurations, because I have had issues with Fusion being sluggish at times.
December 19, 2017
Running Windows on A Mac
As Mac users it is nice to be able to test landing pages and websites on Internet Explorer. It also enables running a few programs that do not offer Mac versions.
- Testing different operating systems versions
- Running Windows on a Mac
- Running Internet Explorer on a Mac
- It works great
November 20, 2017
Fusion, make any Mac even more effective!
My previous employer used VMware fusion on our MacBooks which we needed to use because our customers also used MacBooks and we need them to test our software on Macs but those machines weren't compatible with our ERP software we used in the office which was Windows only, so the machines didn't get much use in our office until we discovered VMware Fusion where we could load Windows applications on MacOS, so they made the Macs much more functional at our office and because they are the regular machine for one of our users who preferred MacOS. If you have a Mac that isn't compatible with your software, worry no more because with VMware Fusion, there is no such thing as incompatibility anymore!!
- VMware fusion lets you install Windows applications on MacOS computers.
- VMware fusion lets you run fully in Windows if you want on a Mac computer, so if you are more comfortable with Windows, you can still get a Mac and slowly transition yourself to the MacOS if you want.
- You no longer have to worry about incompatibilities with your Mac computer anymore if you have VMware Fusion.
- It would be awesome to get VMware fusion preinstalled on every Mac!
- It takes several minutes to startup VMware Fusion the first time you use it after a reboot.
- Using Vmware fusion can slightly slow down your computer while you are using it.
November 14, 2017
Intuitive, Simple, and Quick!
VMware Fusion is being used by Mac OS users in our Platform Operations department. VMware Fusion provides us with the ability to quickly spin up development or testing environments and easily migrate them to our vCenter virtual environment if needed. It also allows us to seamlessly integrate required applications that only run on Microsoft Windows into the Mac OS experience.
- Integrates other operating systems seamlessly with Mac OS.
- Can cause your system fans to come on at full power at times but that may just be part of running multiple operating systems at the same time.
May 16, 2017
VMware Analysis
It is being used by the entire organization. Generally we use Macs, so we use it for a Windows environment for programs that require that.
- Resume virtual machine state
- Create virtual machines
- Flexibility
- Requires a fair amount of RAM to run constantly - I had to upgrade to 16GB
April 10, 2017
VMware Fusion-Best of both worlds!
As a student and Mac user, there were times when I required different operating systems on my laptop. VMware Fusion resolved my problem and gave me the best of both worlds. With just a few clicks, I was able to run multiple operating systems on my laptop.
VMware Fusion also gave me a great virtualization environment. VMware Fusion's installation is straight forward. With its easy user interface and multiple features like capturing snapshots, changing the networks etc., made my work easy. Dealing with the disk partition or assigning the RAM to the new OS has always been a simple process. Ultimately, I was happy to be able to use my laptop and the virtual OS both at the same time rather than switching between two different laptops with two different OS.
- Running multiple OS with few clicks. For example, for a project I required windows and ubuntu OS. I was able to run both of them easily with VMware fusion.
- Snapshots of OS. Easy recovery from snapshots. For example, I was doing my project in openstack kilo version but already did other things in juno version. So with the snapshot of juno version, I was all set with my previous work.
- I have found the product perfect. Cannot find any flaws.
April 05, 2017
VMware Fusion is a legit tool for corporations.
IT uses VMware Fusion for a few different things.
Often, we use it to run Windows on our Macs and in my experience, and for the most part, it's been pretty smooth. We use our Windows machine to access different servers, our domain controllers for example. We also use VMWare Fusion to run Windows machines for testing, so that we are able to test IT changes (for example, something with group policy) before pushing them out.
We also use WMWare Fusion to take snapshots as a basis for our Windows image that we use on all of our Windows machines. Other users in the company use VMware Fusion to run a Windows machine on a Mac, as well, so that they can install and use different financial software. We also have developers that use it to run quality assurance testing.
Often, we use it to run Windows on our Macs and in my experience, and for the most part, it's been pretty smooth. We use our Windows machine to access different servers, our domain controllers for example. We also use VMWare Fusion to run Windows machines for testing, so that we are able to test IT changes (for example, something with group policy) before pushing them out.
We also use WMWare Fusion to take snapshots as a basis for our Windows image that we use on all of our Windows machines. Other users in the company use VMware Fusion to run a Windows machine on a Mac, as well, so that they can install and use different financial software. We also have developers that use it to run quality assurance testing.
- Getting around the settings of VMware Fusion is very intuitive, I've never had trouble finding or tweaking a setting (hard disk increase for example).
- Creating and restoring Snapshots is very easy and useful.
- Installing and pulling in a previously created VM is very simple.
- Running VMware Fusion in Unity on a Mac is not always reliable. Sometimes, launching a Windows app just does not work. Either it will not come up or will not run with the same settings I had I opened it in the original VM.
- Continuing on Unity mode, it just doesn't feel as straight forward and simple as the rest of the program is.
- Sometimes, after I have been using a Windows VM for a few months, VMware Fusion will say its messed up and ask me to try to repair it, and of course I can never get a successful repair, so I have to recreate the VM.
November 03, 2016
Fusion OS
Our company runs on Macs for a variety of reasons - stability, speed and overall less issues. Most importantly, a new Mac seems to be a perk for any employee. Still, many Windows apps are needed and are very critical for day to day tasks - particularly access to legacy systems. We use VMware Fusion to allow easy and quick access to Windows.
- Ease of opening Windows apps.
- No need for rebooting. Loading a new os.
- It's fast and like you're using a native Windows box directly on Mac hardware.
- Installation of Windows.
- More of a turn key solution for non tech savvy users.
- Need for more compatibility.
September 13, 2016
Vmware Fusion From a Mac IT guy
VMware fusion is used here mostly for testing environments or replicating a network that can be easily wiped out and rebuilt without issue. For many years it has been used for development testing of operating systems and applications in those operating systems. It is the go to app for virtualization and quick testing of anything needed.
- Quickly creates virtual machines for testing.
- Easily allows management of VMs even in other VMware products.
- The user interface could use a little update, but mostly it works fine.
- It would be nice to have the option of having network templates for commonly used setups to make testing easier.
- Compression of virtual machines would be a nice option also, making them take up less of a footprint.