VMware Fusion 10- No Applications Menu

[ipottersmith]

Hello all! Since installing Vmware fusion 10 I have no applications menu in my Mac's menu bar, and I can't find any way to enable it in the software preferences. Is this a default change in Vmware fusion 10? Or am I experiencing a glitch? Thanks!

[GrumpyLabRat]

This has got to be the single most idiotic UI decision I've seen from a major software company in a while.  The absolutely need to bring it back.

[testyourui]

Since that menu is gone, how do we use the application when running in Unity mode?

did somebody test that on your team?

Bad decision.

[tjchap]

I very much agree that removing the menu bar app in Fusion 10 was an idiotic move - and clearly reviewed by any group of actual users.

I used the menu icon to quickly switch between Full Screen and Single Window mode many times a day. That menu based functionality seems to have been completely removed with the removal of the app menu. There are two work-a-rounds that I've found.

OSX solution:

If VM window is currently active:  press  Ctrl+Cmd+F  to enter or exit full screen

or

A: 4 finger swipe up, to reveal desktops.

B: Mouse hover over VM desktop icon, and a small icon (><) will appear in top left corner

C: Click that (><) icon to exit full screen mode

Rant follows: Removing functionality, without providing an alternative, and as a result forcing your users to find their own work-a-rounds, is a sure way to alienate loyal customers, and lose business.

Great idea VMWare... you've made it onto my list of idiotic decisions to alienate loyal customers:

- Apple adding wireless charge ability to new phones, but not providing a wireless charger,

- Apple eliminating all but USB-C ports on their so-called "Pro" Macbooks, (oh, goodbye brilliant magsafe cable)

- Apple deciding to go with a touch function bar?!, instead of a touch screen.

- Apples removal of the headphone jack on phones (but not laptops?) (yay, bluetooth, one more thing to charge)

[Legend0]

A comment from staff @ VMware would be nice...

[Legend0]

bump

[RobStaf]

Just upgraded to Fusion 10.

Adding my disappointment about the loss of the Applications Menu.

Not happy but hopeful it can be enabled it in a update 10.x?

Seems VMWare responded to the complaints of users who couldn't find how to turn it off and didn't check who was using it?

Using it every day too...

I wait in hope.

[Legend0]

To put it simply, VMware doesn't give a shit about Apple users.

Vote for the feature here:

[cjcam]

Not only an idiotic move to nuke this key feature, but also very poor customer care to not tell users about this feature removal, leave the applications menu and pinned icons visible, and then throw up useless error messages "File not Found" requiring all of us to waste time troubleshooting.

[yeahdongcn]

Hello guys, could you please describe how do you use the Application Menu? Thanks.

[SvenGus]

Personally, I find the Applications Menu very useful primarily for:

- launching VMs without opening the Fusion VM Library;

- resuming suspended VMs;

- launching Windows apps directly from the app list (previously this worked also for Linux guests).

It’s a very useful and unified “control center“ for your VMs and (Windows) guest apps, in other words: and personally I find its original - “always on” and for all guest OSes - position in the Menu Bar to be much better than the current one - visible only in Unity and only for Windows guests - in the Dock (but nothing prevents from having an option to choose where to put it); and an improved design and new features wouldn’t be bad, too: even if simply restoring the original Applications Menu‘s full functionality in the Menu Bar would always be a very good thing, to begin with... :smileycool:

[yeahdongcn]

Thank you for telling me this

Is there anything useful you would like to see in this application menu?

[SvenGus]

Well, as I also said before, live miniature previews of the VMs in the Applications Menu could be an interesting feature: in other words, a form of miniature version of the VM Library, also in the Menu Bar (currently, in Fusion up to 8.x, there is only a drop-down menu, for selecting the VMs: quite good, but could be enhanced).

[SvenGus]

... But let's also hear some other forumers, for new features in the Applications Menu...! :smileycool:

[cjcam]

Hi,

Well the way I used it before it was broken was as also mentioned above - to 'pin' Windows app shortcuts to the Mac Dock and then use those icons to  Resume/Start the associated VM if needed and/or give a quick shortcut to start a Windows app in Unity mode from the Mac desktop. For example I was using this to easily start Windows Outlook which I need to use instead of MacOS Outlook sometimes due to plug-in / feature differences.

Now after the latest update(s) if you pin a Windows app to the Dock and click it, you get "File not Found".  The only workaround I have found is to use the full Windows Taskbar/Tray in Unity mode, which is an annoying step backwards in my opinion. 

[SvenGus]

A more radical redesign of the Applications Menu could be to simply turn it into the VM Library: for example, the VM Library could have an option to be displayed as a menulet in the Menu Bar, which would be the new Applications Menu; the VM Library already has most of the functionality needed for the Applications Menu: one can easily launch and resume VMs, for example, and many other things; by also adding an apps list for those OSes that support it (for example, by right-clicking the VM miniature preview, or by directly showing (an icon for) the Start Menu for Windows guests, or in other ways), a Fusion VM Library menulet in the Menu Bar would be a complete and always available control center for all your VMs, with the possible advantage of not having to maintain additional code.

(BTW, it would probably look much better and clearer if there were smaller previews of the VMs also in the list to the left in the VM Library, as it was in some earlier Fusion versions: see also the attached pictures (notice also the much richer design, instead of today's excessive flatness)...)

Just some ideas, among others: any other ideas...?

[SvenGus]

Yes, all this definitely needs to be fixed: and an “Applications Menu“ which is visible only for Windows guests and only in Unity mode is not a good UI choice...

[Mikero]

This is an area I'm pretty passionate about, just as a note.

I am thinking of a VERY minimalistic approach here.

So, what are the things you'd need to do to a VM that you don't need console UI for?

That stuff is what I think belongs here.

Thoughts?

[SvenGus]

OK, now it's clearer: the main "console" would remain the standalone VM Library, while a new Applications Menu would be an utility focused on some quite specific functions (in some way, similarly to the full screen minibar), bypassing the VM Library to give quick access to some basic VM functions...

IMHO (YMMV), I think that Fusion really needs a menulet*, mainly for launching and resuming VMs, and maybe also give some quick visual informations: so, something similar to the VirtualBox Menulet could be appropriate, with the addition of (optionally live) previews of the VMs.

(* VMware Fusion needs a menulet also because it doesn't automatically add icons for the VMs in the Dock, as Parallels does; so, in order to not be forced to open the whole Fusion application and the VM Library, a menulet is a very good thing, especially for power users with many VMs: the former Applications Menu was very handy also for this direct access to all your VMs; while direct access to applications (essentially, the Start Menu) is now limited to Windows VMs: this could be an optional feature to re-add to the new menulet.)

And now it's probably time for me to shut up and also let others talk...:smileylaugh::smileyinfo:

[SvenGus]

... Just to keep the discussion alive, here is some visual feedback of how a minimalist VM Menu could look like (original images taken from the web and from previous Fusion versions); imagine clicking on the Fusion icon in the Menu Bar and obtaining this: essentially, a subset of the VM Library, respectively in icon and list view (toggle buttons needed)...

Of course, only as a quite general vision, without any details (there could/should be other info and commands); and also other implementations are possible.

The graphical VM previews give immediate visual feedback, which IMHO (YMMV) is very good...

(The VM Menu could perhaps also be proposed - maybe on the Mac App Store - as a standalone app: not only for Fusion, but also for VMs of other vendors; just an idea, of course: something like the VirtualBox Menulet, but more powerful and universal.)

[SvenGus]

Another interesting and inspiring feature is Parallels' PiP (Picture-in-Picture) mode, which could be implemented by Fusion in the new Applications Menu (instead of free-floating): just another idea...

Needless to say, the new menu extra, however made, should also support dark mode out of the box (the current Applications Menu - up to Fusion 8.5.10 - doesn't seem to support it).