Upgraded to Fusion 3, no menu bar?

[Doc69]

I just upgraded from Fusion 2 to Fusion 3.1. Now I can't access the Fusion menu bar in full screen mode. Instead, I have a new "Title bar" which is annoying (since you have to click to open and close each menu, and it takes up unnecessary space). How can I get to the Fusion Menu bar in full screen mode in Fusion 3?

Also, my first impression is that 3.1 is not faster than 2. Actually, it seems the other way around. My VM is a Win XP VM.

[WoodyZ]

It is my understanding that the following is unsupported although it should work.

Edit the VMware Fusion preferences file...

/Users/$/Library/Preferences/VMware Fusion/preferences

Add the following:

fusion.showFullScreenTitleBar = "FALSE"

Note: Shutdown, not suspend, the Virtual Machine and then close VMware Fusion before editing the file.

[Doc69]

Thank you for your reply. However, I'm a bit reluctant to try something unsupported. Could this line make Fusion unstable? And is there really no other way?

After using Fusion 3 for a month now, the new Full Screen Title Bar that has replaced access to OS X's Menu bar is still extremely annoying. This is definitely a step back. I'm flabbergasted about VMWare changing something as important as this. Not having the OS X's Menu bar available was also the number one reason I didn't like Parallels Desktop. Am I the only user who is annoyed by this? Where can I leave feedback for VMWare?

It was very convenient to have access the the Fusion Menu bar by just moving the mouse to the upper part of the screen. Now if I want to access the Menu bar, I first have to leave Full Screen mode, which also messes up the placement of the icons on my desktop.

[WoodyZ]

I've been using this parameter since VMware changed it and haven't had any problems so if you want the old style back then, at the present time, this is your only option with this version of Fusion. BTW While it may not be supported it was given to the forum by one of the Fusion Developers.

[admin]

Am I the only user who is annoyed by this?

No. However, the new menu bar is a conscious design decision we made after a lot of consideration. This doesn't mean we're not open to feedback, but it wasn't arbitrary. Big considerations included being easily discoverable while not obscuring controls of maximized windows.

Also note you can have it always hide, autohide, or always show based on the setting in the View menu.

Where can I leave feedback for VMWare?

These forums are fine, we read them.

It was very convenient to have access the the Fusion Menu bar by just moving the mouse to the upper part of the screen.

What about the OS X menu bar do you want to use that Fusion's menu bar does not provide?

Now if I want to access the Menu bar, I first have to leave Full Screen mode

If you have another Fusion window open (such as the Library, Settings, or Preferences) you can command-~ to it and get the menu back without knocking yourself out of fullscreen.

[ColoradoMarmot]

"What about the OS X menu bar do you want to use that Fusion's menu bar does not provide?"

First, to get out of the way.

Second, when I'm presenting using a VM, I need access to the display icon in the menu bar. Second, access to my VPN connection. Third, access to my cellular modem connection. Fourth, access to the mac speaker control. In other words, access to the rest of the icons across the top - it's not fusion functions that I use, it's the mac functions.

If you want to keep the non-standard, dumbed-down, menu bar as the default fine, but give us a real preference to change it back to the mac default (rather than hacking preferences files).

[Doc69]

"What about the OS X menu bar do you want to use that Fusion's menu bar does not provide?"

I agree with dlhotka. It's not only the Fusion functions that I'm after but that I want to also have quick access to my Mac OS icons. Adding to his list is checking battery life, switching Wi-Fi on and off, spaces, checking time and date etc. etc.

Another annoying thing with the new Title Bar is that you have to close one drop-down menu in order to open the next. In the OS X Menu Bar, if you click once, you can then move your mouse between the different drop-down menus to find the item you're looking for. This is convenient for people like me who have not memorized which items are under which menu. So with the new Title bar, I may have to click 5 times to find the item I'm looking for if it's not in the first two menus I look. That seems pretty unnecessary.

[StonyUK]

Just found this post - thank you so much - I love the old-style menu bar and positively hate the version 3 one.

EDIT: Just in case VMWare read this - like the poster above, it's not access to VMWare's functions that I want, it's access to all the menu icons - starting the VPN, checking on Dropbox's performance - all these useful things, which the new-style VMWare "Full Screen Menu" effectively, albeit unintentionally, prevents.

[d0wntime]

Anybody else notice that VMware Fusion 4 ignores

fusion.showFullScreenTitleBar = "FALSE"

?

[WoodyZ]

Make sure that VMware Fusion is closed when editing the /Users/${USER}/Library/Preferences/VMware Fusion/preferences file and that the added preference is on its own line.

BTW...

1. This preference is/was not officially supported to begin with and may no longer work at any given point in time with subsequent releases of VMware Fusion 3.x and later.

2. As a personal general rule I've been using this unsupported preference since the change was introduced in the VMware Fusion 3 and have continued to use it in VMware Fusion 4.x, currently VMware Fusion 4.0.1, without any problems.  I have not yet upgrade to VMware Fusion 4.0.2 since the only thing it addressed was a future release, which I'm not running, of Mac OS X Lion in a Virtual Machine and also introduced many new issues for some Users which I didn't want to have to deal with.