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HJR01
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How to Move from VM Fusion Pro 12 to Fusion Player 12

I've been a VM Fusion user since v5.  Recently I upgraded from v10 to v12, or so I thought.  I bought the v12 license on e-bay and since it installed with the key I thought it was legit.  Well today I needed support and found it was not a valid key.  So, since I'm now retired and only need Fusion for my personal use I would like to try Fusion Player.  I tried downloading Player and installing it thinking that process would downgrade my Pro version to Player but it didn't.  So it appears I probably have to uninstall the Pro and install Player but how do that without losing my VM's.  Can I safely copy my VM's from Pro to an alternative location, uninstall Pro, install Player and then copy my VM's back into Player?  If so, will Player recognize a copied VM from Pro since Pro is more advanced than Player?

Suggestions and comments are most welcome.

Thank you
  -- Howard

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ColoradoMarmot
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The VM's will work just fine, and won't be removed when you uninstall Fusion.  Just drag it to the trash, empty trash, reboot and reinstall.

 

however, I believe it's just a license key, so you should be able to just use the personal use key with your existing install and be fine.

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wila
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I don't think you need to uninstall.

At the moment the installers for both VMware Player and VMware Professional are the exact same bits.

The first thing I would try is to apply the new personal license key.
If it takes the new license key.. the problem is solved.
If it does not then you can do the uninstall with dragging it to the bin etc.., but I doubt that it is needed.

re. VMs.

In principle there is no difference.
However if you used VMware Fusion Pro to encrypt your VM then you're best off by removing the encryption before switching to VMware Player.

Oh and backups are always a good idea 😉 not just when you switch between player and pro.

--
Wil

| Author of Vimalin. The virtual machine Backup app for VMware Fusion, VMware Workstation and Player |
| More info at vimalin.com | Twitter @wilva

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ColoradoMarmot
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The VM's will work just fine, and won't be removed when you uninstall Fusion.  Just drag it to the trash, empty trash, reboot and reinstall.

 

however, I believe it's just a license key, so you should be able to just use the personal use key with your existing install and be fine.

wila
Immortal
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I don't think you need to uninstall.

At the moment the installers for both VMware Player and VMware Professional are the exact same bits.

The first thing I would try is to apply the new personal license key.
If it takes the new license key.. the problem is solved.
If it does not then you can do the uninstall with dragging it to the bin etc.., but I doubt that it is needed.

re. VMs.

In principle there is no difference.
However if you used VMware Fusion Pro to encrypt your VM then you're best off by removing the encryption before switching to VMware Player.

Oh and backups are always a good idea 😉 not just when you switch between player and pro.

--
Wil

| Author of Vimalin. The virtual machine Backup app for VMware Fusion, VMware Workstation and Player |
| More info at vimalin.com | Twitter @wilva
HJR01
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I down loaded the Fusion Player and applied the key.  That did it.  

Thanks for the response.  

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HJR01
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I down loaded the Fusion Player and applied the key.  That did it.  That was easy.  

Thanks again for the response.  

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