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MikeIOW
Contributor
Contributor

Fusion 7.1 Win7 vm to Fusion 12 Player - will vmx just open?

I have a Mac running MacOS 10.11.6 (El Capitan) with Fusion 7.10: I use a Win7 image for an old application (Quicken 2000)

Finding I need to upgrade the Mac (for other reasons), and I know I cannot stay with Fusion 7.1.0

I see there is Fusion 12 Player available for personal use - I have the dmg downloaded.

If I do the following:

  • upgrade the Mac OS to Big Sur (11)
  • install Fusion 12 Player

can I expect to be able to open the Win7 .vmx file to just open and work?

I'm no Fusion guru - wondering if is *should* work, and whether there may be any tricky steps to trip me up!

Appreciate any guidance, hints or tips!
thx

 

 

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Technogeezer
Immortal
Immortal

i would think that your virtual machine should work as is on Fusion 12. Double check the hardware requirements for Fusion 12 (available on the VMware site) if you are installing on an older Mac.

 I would also

  • make a copy of the entire contents of the virtual machine’s package (the folder that contains the .vmx and .vmdk files) to another drive before any upgrade of Fusion. Do not rely on a Time Machine backup. 
  • Assuming you are going to upgrade macOS in-place, uninstall Fusion before upgrading macOS.
  • Don’t upgrade virtual machine hardware versions at first run of your VM under Fusion 12 if you don’t have to. You can always upgrade it later. 
  • But install the latest version of VMware tools in your VM. 
- Paul (Technogeezer)
Editor of the Unofficial Fusion Companion Guides
MikeIOW
Contributor
Contributor

Thanks for the reply

My 2014 MBPr should work with those versions okay.

I hadn’t thought about uninstalling my Fusuin 7 - not even too sure how I would do that, I wondered about just installing the 12 Player over the top: you think that might cause issues?

Yes, I will take multiple backups….worst-case scenario I can potentially use Time Machine to roll *everything* back to start again, but yes, taking separate copy of the vim folder makes good sense.

thx!

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ColoradoMarmot
Champion
Champion

So couple of important things:

 

1) Shut down (not suspend) the guest before upgrading anything.

2) Backup the guest - not using time machine (it's not reliable)

3) Drag the fusion.app file to the trash and empty trash

4) upgrade to big sur

5) install fusion 12

6) boot the guest.  When prompted upgrade the virtual hardware

7) if it doesn't auto upgrade vmware tools, then do that manually

 

and you should be good to go.

One note - Windows 7 is out of support and insecure.  I would not, ever, use a web browser in it to go to the internet these days.  If there's a file you need, do that on the host, then drag/drop into the guest (or vice versa).

MikeIOW
Contributor
Contributor

Nice one, thank you!
& yes, I don't go to the internet on the Win7, it is *just* Quicken

(one day I will fine an easy/better alternative....but it's worked just great for over 2 decades, & each time I look to find an alternative, I come back to "actually, quicken is easy and just works" !!
Thanks!

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MikeIOW
Contributor
Contributor

I thought I should drop back in & say THANKS to both for responding - I now have Big Sur and Fusion Player 12 with ye olde Win7 Quicken up and running - hurrah!!

(now wondering if I can move "the accounts". such as they are, to just a google sheet, if I'm brutally honest, but at least I have the option to stick with Quicken12 !!)
Cheers!

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Technogeezer
Immortal
Immortal

You're welcome. Glad you were able to keep your Win 7 VM operational!

- Paul (Technogeezer)
Editor of the Unofficial Fusion Companion Guides
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