Disable Lion Full Screen Mode

[bleh2947249]

Is it possible to disable Fusion's use of OSX's full screen mode, and go back to the way it was in SL, or am I SoL? (har har)

I absolutly hate full screen mode. That goes double for fusion's use of it.  It definitely makes my life more difficult. :smileysilly:

Thanks!

[dmshaw]

I don't have an answer, but allow me to second this.  I'd love to be able to use the old Snow Leopard-style full screen with Fusion 4.  The reason is that I use keyboard shortcuts to flip from screen to screen (i.e. control-1 for screen 1, control-2 for screen 2, etc).  My Linux box is control-4, and has been for many years.  Unfortunately, the Lion full-screen mode is not a "screen" in that sense, and you can't use a keyboard shortcut to get to it.  I have to either take my hands off the keyboard to use the mouse, or switch to screen 3 and then control-right arrow.

[BeyondPrint]

I'd like to vote for this as well.   I don't see the point in lion's full screen mode.   I'm constantly changing between virtual environments, using drag n drop, etc.   This make it almost impossible to do anything other than use the VM.   Please let us turn off this "feature".

[admin]

You can switch to the full screen minibar (View > Full Screen Minibar > Always show) and hide the full Fusion menu and toolbar (View > Hide Menu Bar in Full Screen) then drag the minibar to the top edge of the display.

You can still use keyboard shortcuts to jump to a specific space on Lion, as detailed in item 3 here: http://mattgemmell.com/2011/07/27/using-spaces-on-os-x-lion/

Simon

[dmshaw]

Simon B wrote:

You can still use keyboard shortcuts to jump to a specific space on Lion, as detailed in item 3 here: http://mattgemmell.com/2011/07/27/using-spaces-on-os-x-lion/

Simon

Unfortunately, you can't.  You can only use keyboard shortcuts to jump to a *desktop* in Lion.  A full-screen app like Fusion is not a desktop, and so cannot be targeted by a keyboard shortcut.  Try it: say you have three spaces, the middle one being Fusion in full-screen mode and the other two being regular desktops (i.e. not full-screen apps).  You can use control-1 to jump to desktop 1 (the leftmost space), and control-2 to jump to desktop 2 (the rightmost space).  You cannot jump to the middle space as it isn't a desktop.  At best, you can jump to desktop 1 and then hit the arrow key to move right a space.

That's why we're asking for a way to optionally use the old-style full-screen mode.  In this mode, it's just (effectively) a very large window on a regular desktop, and can thus be targeted by a keyboard shortcut.

I understand that Lion full-screen mode has its advantages, but since it can't be targeted by a keyboard shortcut, it's a showstopper for me.  I'm stuck on VMware 3.1.3 because I can't use 4.x.

[admin]

Oh, I understand. Command-Tab works for me but here goes.

1. Create an AppleScript to activate the VMware Fusion application:

tell application "VMware Fusion" to activate

2. Use FastScripts to assign a global shortcut to the applescript:

http://www.red-sweater.com/fastscripts/

Shortcuts are set under the FastScripts preferences. I believe Quicksilver or Alfred have equivalent functionality if you're using one of those.

[dmshaw]

I'd do that if I could, but I usually run between 2 and 4 VMs at all times.  I need to be able to target a particular VM/desktop/space.  I thought about making some macro to jump to desktop 1 and then move right, but that gets silly for my 3rd or 4th VM: "jump to desktop 1, right, right, right" - each accompanied with the zooming screen animation.

Is there some preference or setting that can be used to tell Fusion that it isn't really running on Lion so it should use the old full-screen mode?  I'm sure that my usage is unusual, but this is a showstopper for me.  Fusion 4 still runs on Snow Leopard, so the code must still be in there somewhere.

[bleh2947249]

Another huge thing that is lost is the ability to group/stack like-VMs and applications on the same desktop.  I used to be able to set "desktop 3" as my workday desktop.

Desktop 3 would contain 2+ VMs open, stacked on the same desktop.  I then could use gestures/hot corners to switch between them (and I think Command + `, though to be honest I don't remember.)

This also allowed me to stack other applications on the same desktop as the open VM for easy Command-tabbing or expose.  Now, tabbing away from the VM causes me to have to wait for the slide animation to finish... it was cool the first time, now it just slows me down -- especially if I have to do it a hundred times a day.

And another thing lost...

This one is minor, but still an annoyance. Whenever I resume a full screen VM, it adds itself on to the end of the open full screen apps, in the order it was resumed.  In order to get it in the order I want, I have to open expose, and then drag it to the correct order.

And one last thing... this may be a bug or setting I'm missing.  But, since full screen, I can no longer consistently keep full screen VMs open (so that they show the big pause button.)

I just paused two separate Win7 VMs.  The first one paused, in place, and remained open.  The second one shrunk down to the virtual machine library with an animation.  If this consistently remained open, it kinda renders my previous point moot since they would always be open in the correct order.

[Edit: To turn my post into a drinking game, please drink everytime you read the word "order".]

[admin]

A slightly more complex Applescript will jump to the correct VM directly (at least it does for the single window and full screen cases I tried.) I'm no Applescript expert but this appears to have the behaviour you're looking for by matching the Virtual Machine name and making it the top-most window:

tell application "VMware Fusion"
    activate
    set b to "Work" -- Substitute for the name of the VM that this script should activate
    set thiswinID to (get id of item 1 of (get every window whose name contains b))
    set index of window id thiswinID to 1
end tell

I'm not aware of a hidden option to force SL-type behavior but will ask around.

[seani]

I'd like to add my vote for changes to the way that full screen mode works.

I have several VM's open at the same time (Win Server 2008, XP, Ubuntu 11.04)

The behaviour of the appearance of he main menu is random; it works as I'd expect for a while - appears when my pointer remains stationary at the top - and then disappears forever, regardless of the show / hide settings set for it.

Similarly, the Lion Dock, which I have positioned vertically LHS will appear randomly when my mouse hits the left hand edge regardless of the VM having focus.

There are two things that would make a big difference for me:

1) Add the ability to switch between VM's from the minibar

2) Abandon the pointlessly timewasting animation that accompanies a switch.

[taylordesign]

VMWare absolutely needs to give us a preference to turn off Mac OS X Lion full screen mode. I tried the Fusion 4 demo and downgraded back to Fusion 3 over this single issue. I refuse to pay for any upgrade until this is fixed.

This single issue would be enough to drive me to Parallels 7, which has the requested preference, except that it has its own problem: it refuses to obey desktop assignments.

[dacmp]

The behaviour of the appearance of he main menu is random; it works as I'd expect for a while - appears when my pointer remains stationary at the top - and then disappears forever, regardless of the show / hide settings set for it.

I'm running Fusion 4 in SL and noticed a similar problem. I run in full-screen mode, and prefer not to see the main menu, just the mini-bar (which is set to auto hide). I move between spaces using Expose hot-corner and select via the track pad. This works for a short time, however eventually I'll switch out of/back into the space containing the vm and the main menu will again appear -- I can only hide it again by setting/resetting the show/hide option for it. This is particularly annoying because the vm desktop doesn't resize -- so the top 1/4 inch or so is hidden behind the main menu.

This may seem like a small thing, but it's a major PITA when you switch into/out of that space all day...

[tetrapackage]

I don't actually follow. Can anyone provide a much easier way to do this?

[mhist]

I agree with the original poster: using a hotkey to switch to vmware fusion is an important part of my experience removed by the Lion fullscreen mode.

I find applescript + third party app for hot key to be a fragile solution - it takes 15-20 minutes to set up plus maintenance from time to time on different sorts of upgrades, and each upgrade you have to find this thread and figure out how to do it again.

Cmd-tab isn't an ideal solution as you have to interact with the pop-up from time to time depending on what apps you've used lately.

Worse, Lion fullscreen doesn't play as well with multiple monitors as the older fullscreen mode.

From my perspective, there are no advantages to the lion fullscreen mode, only drawbacks.

I like the improved speed of the latest VMWare upgrade (finally idle CPU has been reduced to negligible: 1-5%) but the fullscreen mode is an equal step back for me.

Worst for me is that every time I use fusion now I'm reminded of this frustration.  Enough so that I've spent 20 min registering and writing this comment.

[dmshaw]

taylordesign wrote:

VMWare absolutely needs to give us a preference to turn off Mac OS X Lion full screen mode. I tried the Fusion 4 demo and downgraded back to Fusion 3 over this single issue. I refuse to pay for any upgrade until this is fixed.

Unfortunately, I purchased Fusion 4 before discovering this problem.  I now have a useless license since I also was forced to downgrade back to Fusion 3.

VMware folks - pretty please, with sugar on top, fix this.  You still support Snow Leopard, so the code to do regular old full screen has to be in there somewhere.  Please make it usable on Lion again.  Crazy clunky workarounds with Applescript and 3rd party hotkey apps are not the answer.

[gguess]

Folks,

Late echo.. but this is one of Apple's most IDIOTIC ideas of improvement and, VMWare are only doing what Apple is suggesting developers did. I as a developer am faced with the same issues.

BUT PLEASE, DO COUNT MY VOTE to make this a user selectable checkbox so we can opt to not use Lion's way of going full screen which is absolutely anti-productive thanks to the lack of short-cut keys to switch to such a space.

Quick solution: Unless you need features added in 4.1 and above, I just downgraded to VMWare 4.0.2 and am enjoying my spaces short-cuts again as that older version did not take advantage of Lion's (retarded) full-screen mode.

Cheers!

Gilles

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[mhist]

gguess wrote:

Folks,

Late echo.. but this is one of Apple's most IDIOTIC ideas of improvement and, VMWare are only doing what Apple is suggesting developers did. I as a developer am faced with the same issues.

BUT PLEASE, DO COUNT MY VOTE to make this a user selectable checkbox so we can opt to not use Lion's way of going full screen which is absolutely anti-productive thanks to the lack of short-cut keys to switch to such a space.

Quick solution: Unless you need features added in 4.1 and above, I just downgraded to VMWare 4.0.2 and am enjoying my spaces short-cuts again as that older version did not take advantage of Lion's (retarded) full-screen mode.

Cheers!

Gilles

.

This is a good solution for me.  It took me a while to find the 4.0.2 download, it's here:

http://downloads.vmware.com/d/details/fus_402/dCVlYnRoZXBidGVqJQ==

Seems like a lot of users are complaining about Lion full-screen mode for large monitors - works well with small monitors but not for desktop use.

[dmshaw]

I'm not sure how closely VMware product management reads this forum (if at all), so if you really want this fixed, request it as a product feature and point them to this thread.  You can request features here: https://vmware.com/contact/contactus.html?department=prod_request

If many people request it, perhaps we can get the problem fixed.

[admin]

We follow pretty closely. 🙂 Filing a feature request is also welcome.

Simon

[gguess]

<q>We follow pretty closely. 🙂 Filing a feature request is also welcome.</q>

Thanks for the ack Simon. I filed the feature request as suggested 😉

Gilles

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