VMware Fusion 3: New Features

VMware Fusion 3: New Features

>_What's New in VMware Fusion 3.1 – (May 25, 2010)_

>VMware Fusion 3.1 is packed with more than 20 new features and enhancements

Improved Overall Performance - 35% Faster than VMware Fusion 3.0

*Reduced time for suspending virtual machines

*Faster Windows application launch times

*Greatly improved scrolling speeds in Windows Vista and Windows 7 with Mac OS X 10.6.3

2D/3D Graphics Improvements - Up to 5X Better 3D Graphics than VMware Fusion 3.0

*OpenGL 2.1 for Windows Vista

*OpenGL 2.1 for Windows 7

*Greatly improved graphics performance

*Aero is much faster on Windows Vista and Windows 7

*Some games up to 10x faster than VMware Fusion 3.0 with VMware Fusion 3.1 and latest Mac OS X release

*Greatly improved scrolling speeds in Windows Vista and Windows 7 with Mac OS X 10.6.3

Unity Improvements

*Minimizing Unity apps to the dock now shows app contents

*Works with Exposé and Dock Exposé

USB "EasyConnect"

*Easily assign USB devices to virtual machine or Mac when connected

*Remember USB device assignment between Mac and virtual machine restarts

Bigger, More Complex Virtual Machines

*8-way SMP

*2 TB virtual disks

PC Migration Improvements

*Improvements to Migrate Your PC assistant, including better validation of names and better location prompt

*Prompt user if Mac OS X guest account prevents guest access to shared folders instead of failing

*Open new virtual machine upon successful migration

*Enhanced user interface on PC being migrated including:

- New progress dialog on the PC being migrated as well as in VMware Fusion

- Option to show converter logs and troubleshooting steps on PC if PC migration fails

- Avoids port conflicts with Web server software installed on PC being migrated such as IIS, Tomcat, and Apache

Boot Camp Improvements

*Up to 5x disk performance in Boot Camp virtual machines

*New option to minimize prompting for password (authentication dialogs) when using Boot Camp virtual machines

*Handle Mac OS X disk changes better to avoid multiple references to Boot Camp partition in the Virtual Machine Library

*Support for Office 2010 activation in Boot Camp virtual machines

OVF Tool 2 Comes with VMware Fusion 3.1

*Directly convert between any vSphere, VMX, or OVF source format to any vSphere, VMX, or OVF target format

*Deploy virtual machines to vSphere using OVF Tool

*Import and export of OVF packages into a vApprun 1.0 workspace. For more information about vApprun, see http://labs.vmware.com/flings/vapprun

User Interface Enhancements

*Drag a disk image or virtual disk to the installation media pane of the assistant

*Add shortcut for opening a virtual machines configuration file in default text editor for VMware Fusion (Hold down option and right-click in Virtual Machine Library)

User Interface Enhancements

*User Experience Improvement Program

New Guest Operating Systems Supported

*Ubuntu 8.0.4.4: 32- and 64-bit

*Ubuntu 10.04: 32- and 64-bit

*SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 11 Service Pack 1: 32- and 64-bit

*SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11 Service Pack 1: 32- and 64-bit

*RHEL 5.4: 32- and 64-bit

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>_What's New in VMware Fusion 3.0.1 – (December 2009)_

>VMware Fusion 3.0.1 delivers more than 10 new features and enhancements

Optimized for Snow Leopard

*New 64-bit native networking subsystem to match the 64-bit native engine

Effortless Migration from Windows PCs to Mac

*Adds support for Windows Server 2008 R2

*Shows progress that VMware Tools are being installed in last step of migrating the PC

*Does not show the PC Migration Agent on each power on of a migrated PC virtual machine

*Adds only one network adapter to imported PC virtual machines

Moving to VMware Fusion

*Supports import of standalone VHD disks into VMware virtual machines

*Supports import of Parallels Desktop 5 virtual machines into VMware virtual machines

Improved Performance

*Reduced time for resuming virtual machines

Unity View Improvements

*"Always On" Applications menu defaults to the active virtual machine

3D Graphics Improvements (WDDM (Windows Vista and Windows 7))

*Windows Experience graphics scores are 20-80% better than VMware Fusion 3.0

*Greatly improved HD video playback for Windows Vista and Windows 7

Linux Improvements

*Adds support for Ubuntu 9.10 32-bit and 64-bit editions, including Easy Install and Unity 

FreeBSD Improvements

*Prebuilt modules for FreeBSD 8.x

Mac OS X Server Improvements

*Faster boot times for Mac OS X Server guests

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>_What's New in VMware Fusion 3 – (October 27, 2009)_

>VMware Fusion 3 is packed with more than 50 new features and enhancements

Optimized for Snow Leopard

  • Support for both 32-bit and 64-bit Snow Leopard kernels

  • New 64-bit native core engine leverages power of 64-bit Snow Leopard

  • Leverage K64 kernel performance improvements for reduced overhead

  • Leverage Snow Leopard changes for optimized disk and graphics performance

Effortless Migration from Windows PCs to Mac

  • Integrated Migration Assistant helps you move your entire PC to a virtual machine on your Mac in a few simple steps

  • Connect your PC to your Mac with a simple Ethernet cable – no additional setup required

  • Automatically discover your Windows PC on the same network as your Mac using Apple’s Bonjour technology

  • Works just like Apple’s Migration Assistant on the Mac

Ultimate Experience for Windows 7 Guests

  • Support for Windows Easy Install

  • First virtualization product to support Windows Aero, including Flip 3D and Aero Peek

  • Support for DirectX 9.0EX with OpenGL 1.4 with new WDDM graphics driver

  • Support for 32-bit and 64-bit Windows 7 on Boot Camp partitions

3D Graphics Now Supports More Applications and Games

  • Support for Windows Aero with WDDM driver for Windows 7 and Windows Vista

  • DirectX 9.0c with Shader Model 3 support for Windows virtual machines

  • OpenGL 2.1 support for Windows XP virtual machines

Performance. Finely Tuned.

  • New 64-bit native core engine maximizes overall performance for all Macs with 64-bit processors. Works on Mac OS X Leopard and Snow Leopard

  • Full support for 4-way SMP

  • Virtual SMP is now multi-core aware, providing multi-core CPUs to your virtual machines. This allows Home and Starter versions of Windows XP, Vista, and Windows 7 to use all enabled virtual processors instead of being limited to two.

  • Greatly reduced memory usage when using all Windows Vista and Windows 7 virtual machines. (Applies to Windows XP VMs created in VMware Fusion 3)

  • Improved 2D drawing and interactive performance in Unity, single window, and full screen views

  • Faster typing in Windows applications within Unity view

  • Improved responsiveness of remapped keyboard shortcuts

  • Faster disk and graphics performance on Snow Leopard host

  • Multiple-display full screen view with much better performance for monitor layouts larger than 4096 pixels wide or 4096 pixels high on most Macs.

Unity More Mac-Like Than Ever

  • Leave the “Start Menu” behind with the new “Always-on” Applications Menu

  • Search for Windows apps like Mac apps

  • Use a hot key to bring up the Applications Menu at any time

  • Find and launch Windows apps even if Fusion isn’t running and they will launch Fusion automatically for you.

  • Pin favorite Windows apps to the Application menu in any order you choose

  • Access recently opened documents by Windows applications

  • Access Computer, Documents, Control Panel, Run, and Power Commands

  • Control your virtual machine while in Unity including hardware settings and power states from Applications menu

  • Windows applications work more like Mac applications

  • Work with application-specific Exposé and Dock Exposé for a specific Windows app.

  • Use “command tilde” (`) to switch between multiple open documents in a Windows application

  • Quit a specific Windows app with “command Q”

  • Access to Windows taskbar tray items in Unity view in the Mac menu bar.

  • Run 3D games and play 1080p video in Unity view.

  • Preview window allows you to monitor your virtual machine desktop and resize the window, even in Unity view.

Virtual Machine Library

  • Redesigned to make actions more discoverable

  • Home pane is an easy to use launching point what you need to do:

  • Install guest operating systems

  • Migrate physical PCs

  • Use a Boot Camp partition as a virtual machine

  • Download a Windows trial virtual machine

  • Easily find and import virtual machines that were created by Parallels Desktop or Microsoft Virtual PC for Mac.

  • Live view makes it easy to see what is happening in your VMs and easily switch between all VMs for a quick status

  • Much faster to open when multiple virtual machines are in the Virtual Machine Library

Full Screen View Improvements

  • New Full Screen view menu bar gives you full control of your virtual machine, including choosing when the menu bar appears in Full Screen view.

  • Move the full screen view menu bar to any side of the screen to avoid blocking guest user interface elements such as taskbars in Windows, the desktop menu in Linux, or the menu bar in Mac OS X Server guests.

  • Smooth animated transition when entering and exiting Full Screen view.

User Interface Refinements

  • Redesigned menus make commands more logically organized

  • Integrated status in virtual machine window works better with Spaces

  • Cancel resume in case you resumed by mistake

  • Live, smooth resize when resizing a virtual machine window.

  • Live view in the Virtual Machine settings window gives

  • Access the Virtual Machine Library from the VMware Fusion Dock icon.

Try Windows for Free

  • Download and import free Windows trials from Microsoft to try Windows before you buy with VHD Test Drive support.

Automatic Updates

  • Built-in software updater that automatically checks, downloads, and installs VMware Fusion updates.

Multiple Display Improvements

  • Multiple-display Full Screen view with better performance for monitor layouts larger than 4096 pixels wide or 4096 pixels high on most Macs.

Shared Folders and Mirrored Folders Improvements

  • Automatically hide common hidden Windows files in a shared folder, for example, Thumbs.db, $RECYCLE.BIN, and so on.

  • Open Microsoft Outlook attachments with Mac applications.

  • Improved compatibility with third-party applications including Windows Live Writer, Office 2007, and more.

Copy and Paste, Drag and Drop Improvements

  • Copy and paste images between a Windows or Linux virtual machine and the Mac.

  • Copy and paste formatted text (RTF) between a Linux virtual machine and the Mac.

  • Drag Microsoft Outlook attachments from a Windows virtual machine to the Mac.

  • Drag files in a virtual machine directly onto Mac applications in the dock.

Full Support for Mac OS X Leopard Server and Snow Leopard Server as Guests

  • Mac OS X 10.5 Server Guests now full supported

  • Support for Mac OS X Server 10.6 Snow Leopard virtual machines running the 64-bit kernel (K64), even on Macs that can’t boot into the K64 kernel

  • New virtual EFI provides maximum compatibility with Mac OS X Server and provides more Mac like experience.

Keyboard Improvements

  • Automatically recognizes European keyboards. Sending keys like @, {, }, and others to Windows works just like it does on the Mac.

  • Improved responsiveness with remapped keyboard shortcuts

Virtual Hard Disk Improvements

  • Mount a suspended virtual machine's virtual disks as read-only Mac volumes.

Networking Improvements

  • Select a specific network adapter for bridged networking

  • Support for IPv6 in bridged networking

  • Override the Ethernet MAC address of the virtual adapter on the UI

Shared Smart Card

  • Access supported CAC or PIV smart cards from the Mac and a Windows virtual machine at the same time

Remote Management

  • Manage your virtual machines remotely without installing software into the virtual machine by leveraging VMware Fusion’s built in VNC server. Manage using the VNC client you choose

Select Startup Device

  • Like the Mac’s Startup Disk, choose the bootable device for your virtual machine in an easy graphical interface

Comments

"Automatically recognizes European keyboards."

I still cannot type @ etc. on my azerty belgian keyboard.

So what has changed?

>>Open Microsoft Outlook attachments with Mac applications.

So how does one go about doing this in v3.0? I know there's a registry hack in previous version, but this implies it is a new automatic feature in Fusion 3. Is there a setting I'm missing? I have the use Mac applications setting checked. Still opens Outlook attachments in Word 2007 for Windows on the guest OS.

Unity works worse than ever with Aero on. Seems like they should have thought that through before touting both those features as the coolest thing since sliced bread.

Still won't run non-server versions of Mac OS. Why is this?

To get your azerty keyboard to work try out my solution for Win XP

you can download it at http://www.brias.net/belgian-keyboard-driver/

sooo.... according to this ovf tool now comes with fusion.  I have fusion installed.  Where is it?

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‎10-21-2009 06:11 PM
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