Fusion 10 MacBook Pro Touch Bar configuration?

[raiford]

Is it possible to configure what is displayed on the touchbar?  As it comes out of the box is pretty horrible.  You can no longer see all of the function keys and instead see a bunch of garbage.  Maybe if I could configure what is displayed I would accept having to press a button to see the function keys again and would not care that I have to slide the function keys over to see keys F10, F11, and F12.  At this point I would be happy to go back to no touch bar support.  If it isn't possible to configure the touch bar, is it at least possible to turn off support all together?

I'm obviously quiet unhappy with the default configuration.  I would go back to a previous version of Fusion except my work recently upgraded to the latest vCenter and I need this support from the new Fusion 10.

[zhus]

The touch bar support in Fusion using the App region to show the customized app controls. The App region is the middle area of the touch bar which is designed by Apple for customized app controls. Open different application you may find different contents in this area. It will not affect the original behavior of the touch bar, so you can still use the F1-F12 function buttons by holding Fn key. It is the default behavior.

You mentioned the Fn key on Fusion's touch bar which need to slide the keys, that is not designed to replace the Function keys on you macOS, it is the equivalent of the menu item Virtual Machine -> Send Key -> Fn. When you press keys here, it sends the key to guest only.

Anyway, if you just want to show Fn keys only on touch bar. Open System Preferences -> Keyboard, select "F1, F2, etc. Keys" on "Touch Bar shows" list, instead of "App Controls with Control Strip".

[raiford]

Thank you for your reply.  You did not answer my ultimate question, but you did explain how VMWare designed the support and this was very helpful.  Is there any hidden setting somewhere to configure this at all?  Is it possible to turn off the touch bar support completely without affecting the touch bar support of other applications?  After further reflection I guess my real issue is the list of VM's that are NOT running while viewing the VM Library (and when pressing the 3 horizontal line button while on a running VM).  This is very distracting.  So much so that I'd rather turn it off than to see the somewhat useful buttons while VM's are running.  If it were possible to only show running vm's so you could switch between them (including ones from vCenter or ESXi), *that* would be useful.  Overall I guess I shouldn't complain too much since I'm not seeing some of these other issues people are reporting.

BTW, I upgraded to Fusion 10 because we are upgraded our vCenter and I didn't like the idea of using a web browser to connect to it.  I was very happy to find Fusion 10 let me continue just like I was before (except for the distracting touch bar).  I realize internally it may be using one of them, but since I work on these hosted VM's all day I'm glad I didn't need to mess with a new interface.

(Also, I apologize for venting my frustration into my original message.  I was pretty harsh for no reason)

[sdecarolis]

There is a big risk (has already happened to me several times) that you accidentally hit the Unity button in the Touch Bar. This is VERY annoying.

Please add the possibility to configure the touch bar.

Apple has it in all (or most) their apps under View > Customize Touch Bar...

[zhus · Accepted solution]

Um...The current Fusion does not provide a customized Touch Bar. I think we could consider it as a feature request.

If your purpose is disabling Touch Bar support in Fusion only, there is a workaround:

1. Open System Preferences -> Keyboard -> Shortcuts on your host macOS.

2. In the left sidebar, select "Function Keys" option on the list.

3. Click "+", go to /Applications directory, select VMware Fusion.app, click "Add" button.

After that, while you focus on Fusion UI, the Touch Bar will show F1-F12 instead of the App Region and Control Strip. It won't affect other applications.

[mhov]

Please make this a feature request! The default vmware touchbar "App Controls" are not useful at all.  We're inadvertently suspending our machines if we go a little high typing "5" on super low profile keys.  I know it's an option to have it always show all Fn keys instead, but then we lose out on the "Control Strip" (volume, brightness, etc) which actually is useful.

[Bradall]

This looks like it stops the key bounce behaviour on my 2017 Touch Bar MAC. Shame that VMware could not find it after 2 years. Think that reflects upon the effort involved. Thanks for the hint but I had to move to an alternate product a year ago for anything to be usable. Still nice to know that there is some way for Fusion to behave on a later MAC.