VMware Communities
karupspc
Contributor
Contributor
‎05-29-2010 08:48 PM

Disable auto start when opening a machine

Hello all

Fusion 3.1

Does anyone know why when opening a virtual machine then answering the question of moved, or copied it then the virtual machine starts up immediately?

Is there a way to disable this?

The reason why this is so annoying to me is if I create a virtual machine elsewhere then want to use it on my laptop, often I would make adjustments to the machine either memory or disk or network,etc. I would like to make the modifications before starting the machine up. However Fusion has always started the machine up immediately after opening it.

0 Kudos
1 Reply
BMcGroarty
Contributor
Contributor
‎08-09-2021 03:16 PM

This is a late reply, but in case anyone else runs into it:

If you move or rename a virtual machine while VMWare Fusion is not running, it will remember and forever keep trying to launch the machine in its old location.

If you're comfortable in a terminal:

  • exit VMWare Fusion
  • Open Terminal.app as the user who uses VMWare Fusion (generally NOT root - don't su)
  • cd ~/Library/Preferences
  • Make a backup of your vmware config file:
    • cp com.vmware.fusion.plist com.vmware.fusion.plist.backup
  • Make the config file human-editable by converting it to XML:

    • plutil -convert xml1 com.vmware.fusion.plist

  • Use your favorite programming editor to find the Virtual Machine(s) that are starting.

    • They'll be in the powerOnAtStartup.cfg section.
  • Erase those full lines. It's okay if this leaves an empty powerOnAtStartup.cfg section.
  • Save and exit your text editor
  • Convert the config file back to binary:

    • plutil -convert binary1 com.vmware.fusion.plist

  • Launch VMWare Fusion - the phantom VMs won't continue to start up