topic Re: Poor resolution in Windows XP virtual machine in VMware Fusion Discussions

Poor resolution in Windows XP virtual machine

stamford13 — Wed, 01 Nov 2023 10:31:06 GMT

I'm trying out VM Fusion for an old Windows XP engine as my latest Mac doesn't support a version of Parallels I have.

The XP machine loads fine in Fusion but the resolution is poor - nowhere near as good as in Parallels. I have used the same Windows settings for the monitor (1920x1200) but the icons and apps look rather fuzzy and out of focus. It's usable but I'm wondering if there is a fix for this.

Re: Poor resolution in Windows XP virtual machine

RDPetruska — Wed, 01 Nov 2023 11:41:32 GMT

Did you install the VMware Tools? At least on Workstation, I have no issues with plenty of Windows XP VMs here.

Re: Poor resolution in Windows XP virtual machine

stamford13 — Thu, 02 Nov 2023 10:48:08 GMT

OK to close this, it is my fault. I assumed I had to set XP display settings to the same as the monitor (1920x1200) but taking it back to 1280x1024 gives good results. I booted up the old Mac to see what i had in the Parallels set up and it is .... 1280x1024. So D'oh.

Anyway this may be of help to someone else. Here are screenshots at the two settings. The second one is 1280x1024 and looks better than the screenshot in fact.

I then had to work out how to share files with the Mac - that's not as easy as Parallels which just does it but I've managed it.