• Pros Stable and reliable. Runs guest macOS virtual machines. Can use the same virtual machines created on VMware products running in Windows and Linux. Can be used to run nearly any intel-hardware OS. • Cons Slower and less beginner-friendly than Parallels Desktop.

SMBIOS.use12CharSerialNumber = 'TRUE' did the trick for me on VMWare Workstation 10.0.1 for my OSX Mountain Lion VM. Here is a new utility to patch the EFI firmware in VMware Workstation and Fusion to allow the non-server versions of Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard) and 10.6 (Snow Leopard) to run. ./vmware-resolutionSet 1920 1080. Note: Ensure you have sufficient video memory configured for your VM for larger display resolutions. One other thing to note is if you plan on using higher display resolution than 2560x1600, you may need to configure some additional VM Advanced Settings due to.

Virtual machines not as tightly integrated with macOS as Parallels Desktop's. • Bottom Line VMware Fusion 8.5 is a top corporate-level choice for virtual machines on Macs.

It's rock-solid, flexible, and can share its virtual machines with Windows and Linux machines running other VMware software. VMware Fusion is the steady, reliable workhorse app for running Windows apps under macOS, and steady and reliable are good things. Like its rival, Parallels Desktop 12, Fusion lets you either run a complete Windows desktop or run individual Windows apps in a macOS window or full screen. Like Parallels, Fusion lets you drag and drop files to and from the macOS desktop and the Windows desktop running in a. Fusion lacks Parallels' speed, some of its fancy trappings, and its appeal to less technical users, but it surpasses Parallels in its overall solidity. Both are Editors' Choice utilities. VMware Fusion and and Parallels Desktop tend to come out in new versions within a few weeks of each other.

After Parallels Desktop got a full-version update from version 11 to version 12, VMware Fusion got a no-cost 'point-five' upgrade from version 8 to version 8.5 (which is what I review here). The new version supports macOS Sierra's built-in tabbed-window feature, which reduces desktop clutter if you keep more than one virtual system running at the same time. Otherwise, it works exactly like version 8, with some minor bugs fixed and full support added for macOS Sierra. Getting Started You start using Fusion by creating or importing a virtual Windows machine—or, if you prefer, a virtual Linux machine or any of a few dozen other operating systems, including corporate-level OSes like Novell Netware or Solaris and obsolete ones like OS/2 or even the two macOS precursors designed by Steve Jobs, NeXTstep and OpenStep. You can install from a DVD or disk image, or import an existing PC using a free transfer utility available from VMware. You also have the option of creating a Windows virtual machine from a Boot Camp partition, if you have one on your Mac.

You can even install a second, virtual copy of your current using the recovery partition on your Mac. Virtualbox for mac 10.8 snow leopard. The point of creating a virtual copy of your current macOS is that you can use the virtual copy for testing without risking your normal copy.

When you've finished installing your virtual machine, you can install VMware Tools software (for Windows, Linux, and macOS systems), which makes it easy to share files between the virtual guest and your macOS host systems. A well-packed panel of options lets you decide how deeply to integrate the guest and host systems—for example, whether to use macOS apps to open mail or Web links on the guest Windows system, or to use Windows apps to open mail or Web links in macOS, or any combination, like using macOS Mail to open mail links in Windows, or the Windows 10 Edge browser to open macOS web links. For more details on the way virtualization software works in general under macOS, see my review of. Like Parallels, Fusion lets you switch on the fly among a mode where Windows runs full screen, a mode where the whole Windows desktop runs in a window on the macOS, and a mode that Fusion calls Unity, in which a single app—for example, Excel or Word—runs in an macOS window, as if it were an ordinary macOS app. Notifications that normally appear in the Windows notification bar (at the right end of the Taskbar) appear in the macOS top-line menu bar. Integration Fusion, like Parallels, automatically installs your macOS printers into a Windows guest machine, so you can print from Windows apps in the same way you print from macOS. Other integration features include a Shared Folders icon on the Windows desktop that lets you access any macOS folder that you choose to make directly accessible from Windows through that icon.