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ipottersmith
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VMware Fusion 10- No Applications Menu

Hello all! Since installing Vmware fusion 10 I have no applications menu in my Mac's menu bar, and I can't find any way to enable it in the software preferences. Is this a default change in Vmware fusion 10? Or am I experiencing a glitch? Thanks!

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yeahdongcn
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This has been removed from Fusion 10.

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yeahdongcn
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This has been removed from Fusion 10.

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SvenGus
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Not a good choice, IMHO, to remove the Applications menu: it was a very good, centralized place for starting VMs and their applications, and thus quite useful and smart. It’s true that recently its full functionality was practically only for Windows VMs, but it was nevertheless useful also for other OSes, albeit only with basic functions.

Now, it has been moved to the Dock, in Unity mode, only with Windows guests: which looks and feels strange; and this also probably means, sadly, that Fusion is becoming more and more Windows-centric, with less features for Linux and macOS guests (for example, Unity support for Linux was removed some time ago, and has never existed for macOS).

Personally, I find all this rather disappointing...

zhus
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Hi SvenGus,

The feedback is very important for Fusion. Thanks.

Personally, I agree with you.

ipottersmith
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That's too bad! I found it really helpful. Thank you for letting me know!

billwhe67
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I actually called support about this last week and was extremely disappointed to hear the application menu was intentionally removed.  It has drastically altered my workflow and not for the better.  Really bad decision to remove it.

SvenGus
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I really hope (maybe only wishful thinking, but anyway...) that the Applications menu will return, in some future update/release...

In the meantime, we could wait for some third party developer (remember, for example, the native VMware Fusion VMDK Mounter, which was discontinued, it too for "strange" reasons? now it has an alternative in Paragon VMDK Mounter) to make something like the VirtualBox Menulet - http://statusmenus.sourceforge.net - also for VMware Fusion, or maybe try to find some workaround: BTW, I just got a rather obvious idea, even if it is only for launching VMs (thus replicating only the functionality you also get by right-clicking the VMware Fusion Dock icon, but in the menu bar) - so, here's an example of this workaround (which probably can be done also with other popular menu bar launchers)...

1. Download XMenu, from the developer's site - http://www.devontechnologies.com/products/freeware.html - or from the Mac App Store (I had it already installed from there; the version is the same: 1.9.8).

2. In its Preferences, make a custom launcher, then from the XMenu menu go to Open folder in Finder, and then option-command-drag-and-drop your Virtual Machines (the name may vary, according to your language) folder into the ~/Library/Application\ Support/XMenu/Custom folder, thus creating an alias to your VMs folder.

3. ... Et voilà: you have a list of your Fusion VMs in the Virtual Machines section of the XMenu menu bar item! Smiley Happy:smileycool:

4. Optionally, if you use XMenu only for VMs, you can disable its Applications list.

Of course, this is only a very, very basic menu, and only for launching VMs from the menu bar - but always better than nothing, for the time being...

Update: The Applications menu seems to be still present in the VMware Fusion 10.0.1 application bundle, at /Applications/VMware\ Fusion.app/Contents/Library/VMware\ Fusion\ Start\ Menu.app, now with version 10.0.1: so, if this really is the former menu bar item (and from the miniature icon at /Applications/VMware\ Fusion.app/Contents/Library/VMware\ Fusion\ Start\ Menu.app/Contents/Resources/statusIcon.tiff this would seem to be the case), it probably would not be too difficult to make the Applications menu functional again - if there were the will to do it...

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SvenGus
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... Regarding some possible reasons for the sudden removal of the VMware Fusion Applications menu, maybe it could also be due to the new MacBook Pro Touch Bar functionality...?

https://blogs.vmware.com/teamfusion/files/2017/09/UI-Roundup.png

But not all Macs have the Touch Bar (only a minority of them, sofar), so this doesn't really seem to be a good reason for removing a so good and useful UI element...!

dgl1952
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I am disappointed as well... I tended to RELY on the VMWARE icon in the menu bar as a quick way to get to the one of two VMs that I open every day, several times a day.  IMHO, it was a REALLY POOR CHOICE to remove it!

dgl1952
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SvenGus,

Thanks for the tip about XMenu... I followed your directions and now have quick access to my VMs!

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dgl1952
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SvenGus,

I tried the old trick of adding the "VMware Fusion Start Menu" to my "Login Items" (in System Preferences), but always seems to disappear shortly after I add it... and it doesn't work anyway!

Instead, I followed your XMenu instructions and have my system set up ALMOST where it was before.

Thanks a lot for the tip!

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dgl1952
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Also tried an older version (8.0.0) of the "VMware Fusion Start Menu" applet that HAD been working before upgrading to Fusion 10 and it no longer work either.

The applets apparently both run (I can see them each in "ps"), but they don't DO anything to the menu bar.  Since both have the same behavior, I assume something has changed in VMware itself that prevents the applet from getting the information it needs.

C'est la vie!  XMenu seems to be doing what I needed anyway.

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SvenGus
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Glad to know that the XMenu workaround was useful to you!

It indeed looks like the VMware Fusion Start Menu - of any version - is non-functional in 10.0.1.

... So: why, oh why, oh VMware, did you remove it (one of the best features of Fusion)...?!? :smileyconfused::smileyshocked:

(One can of course understand that lack of programmers might have forced unpopular decisions, so to speak (see also the removal of Unity for Linux); but why remove something that worked very well and probably didn't require a lot of maintenance, at least if left with the same, good old features as before...?!? As for the "new" Unity menu in the Dock, IMHO there should be an option to display it in the Dock, or in the menu bar, with the Applications menu as before.)

HanSooloo
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Very useful feature ... completely arbitrary looking removal of feature.

Wonder if there was A/B testing done on this.  Here is to hoping that 10.1 will restore it.

SvenGus
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Here's an even simpler (and hopefully temporary) workaround for launching VMs from the menu bar:

1. Open Script Editor, at /Applications/Utilities/Script\ Editor.app.

2. In its Preferences, choose to show the Script menu in the menu bar (and you can also optionally choose to not show the computer's scripts, if you only use the menu for VMs); then quit Script Editor.

3. In the Script menu, in the menu bar, open the user's scripts folder, at ~/Library/Scripts, and option-command-drag-and-drop to it your Virtual Machines folder, thus creating an alias to all your Fusion VMs (if stored elsewhere, of course adjust accordingly).

4. ... And you now have a Virtual Machines section in the Script menu, in the menu bar, from where you can launch your VMs (and, of course, this can be done also with the similar VirtualBox, Parallels and QEMU, etc. etc. folders, if present)...! :smileycool::smileyinfo:

(I thought about this solution, also because XMenu sadly doesn't have high resolution icons in the menu bar, and thus looks a little blurry on a Retina display.)

Legend0
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I switched to parallels, they were smart and didn't remove the applications menu bar.

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andywise
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Adding my vote for this important part of the UI to be returned so I have a convenient way to suspend and resume my VMs

I only upgraded to VMware 10 to keep current - seems I wasted my money & should have stayed with the previous version that worked for me

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Legend0
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It sucks! there's no hot key you can use to invoke the application menu, it totally breaks workflow having to reach for touch pad or mouse.

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Legend0
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Added it as an 'idea'

Legend0
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bump

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