Will Fusion 7 run on High Sierra?

[cxFusion7]

Apologies for asking a cheapie question.  I only use Fusion to run one windows app (Quicken), so really would rather avoid upgrading Fusion unnecessarily.

Anyone know if vmware Fusion version 7.1.3 will run on macos High Sierra?

Thanks!

[wila]

Hi,

Doubtful. It certainly isn't supported, it wasn't even supported on Sierra, although some people have been able to use it on Sierra.

With High Sierra you might get more problems.

Not only on the host side of things.

If your guest OS is running Windows 10 then you are getting more and more issues on that end too (eg. latest Windows 10 appears to create black screen with Fusion 7 graphics adapter)

It is up to you of course.

If you do want to update to Fusion 10.

If you want to test the newer version to see if it is worth your spending you can install and run a 30 day fully functional version before actually committing to spending anything.

After the 30 days, you buy a license to change the installed Fusion into an unlimited version.

Fusion evaluation (top right download now link)

Then shutdown -not suspend- all your virtual machines.

Drag Fusion 7 from the applications folder to your recycle bin to uninstall.

Run the downloaded installer to upgrade to Fusion10.

--

Wil

[cxFusion7]

Thanks wila, appreciate your reply.

I am running 7 on Sierra now, for an XP vm (i know it’s obsolete). It works pretty well. A few minor keyboard anomalies, and quitting Fusion throws an error, but seems harmless. 

If 7 runs on High Sierra, I’ll upgrade to HS. 

My alternative if 7 doesn’t work is to ditch Fusion altogether. Can‘t really afford to pay for Fusion just to run one app.  I guess I could run my one app on a VM on azure, but would rather not do that.

My other alternative is to stay on Sierra, which I can do for awhile—just personal preference to upgrade to HS if I can.

Thanks

[wila]

Hi,

For a WinXP VM there's other alternatives I guess.

Note that I don't run it atm, so cannot tell you if it is compatible with High Sierra or not, but there's always the free VirtualBox if VMware Fusion 7 isn't working out for you.

OTOH In your case I would probably wait until somebody has tried it out and replies to this thread with a Yes/No if it works or not.

--

Wil

[ColoradoMarmot]

7 wasn't supported on Sierra (though it works with limitations), and definitely doesn't work on High Sierra if you have APFS.  You'll need to upgrade.

I'd strongly recommend against putting an XP VM on Azure (even if they'll let you) - that's like dangling red meat in front of every drive-by hacker on the net.

[cxFusion7]

Thanks again Wil. I was not aware of virtualbox, and will look at it.

[cxFusion7]

Thanks I would put Windows7 (or newer) on azure. I don’t think XP is an option.

From what I’ve read, High Sierra only forces APFS for SSDs. Mine is still spindle. So still holding out hope. Thanks

[MikeIOW]

I have a very similar question: MacOS 10.11.6 (El Capitan) on mid-2014 MBPr, Win7 pro, Quicken2000, running in Fusion Version 7.1.0 (2314774)

No special desire to upgrade any of it, but finding a few things that mean I probably need to move the MacOS to High Sierra soon.....but I do use Quicken 2000 for one small but important thing, & have never found a good alternative (think very small business account tracking that has worked for us for 15 years!!)

I can see from the support matrix that even ElCap isn't supported with Fusion 7: but that works just fine!

Anyone here using High Sierra with Fusion 7?

The "test the latest Fusion" path suggested sounds a possibility - can it co-exist *with* Fusion 7 on the same VM to allow this testing?   I would be loathe to try it only to discover I could not revert if things fail!

Thanks, any ideas much appreciated!

[wila]

Hi,

You can't  run Fusion 10 alongside with Fusion 7.

You can run VMware Fusion Pro Tech Preview alongside Fusion 7. That is run Fusion Tech Preview OR Fusion 7. Not run both at the same time.

If you start a VM, it will ask you to upgrade the virtual hardware.

When you upgrade the virtual hardware it will no longer run under Fusion 7.

You can however downgrade the virtual hardware using the newer VMware Fusion back to be compatible with Fusion 7.

Select the VM -> Settings -> Compatibility

You can't downgrade from the newer Fusion version using Fusion 7, so before you uninstall the newer version you have to make sure the virtual hardware works for Fusion 7.

Oh and as for getting Fusion 7 to run on High Sierra. Technically perhaps possible, but I know of nobody that succeeded.

It would mean having to disable a number of security settings and tweaking various low level parts of the OS. Which by itself is not recommended.

If an update then breaks it, you are going to have to try and resolve it again.

IOW, not recommended to even spent the time on and try.

Finally be aware that Fusion 10 (and higher) has different hardware requirements, see System Requirements for Fusion for the details.

--

Wil

[cxFusion7]

FYI, I've run Fusion7 on everything mentioned here up to and currently on Catalina.  There have been some minor tweaks here or there (display driver won't work on Catalina, I have to use screen sharing to get to the display).  Crossing my fingers on Big Sur, but probably won't try that for several months or more.

[ColoradoMarmot]

It absolutely can't run on Big Sur because it uses Kernel extensions, which are no longer supported.

I'm stunned you have it running at all on Mojave, let alone catalina.  Definitely not recommended to even try.

[wila]

Hi,

You don't need to try Fusion 7 on Big Sur. We now have a free VMware Fusion Player.
So instead of spending time on trying to get Fusion 7 to work on BS, you can go straight to Fusion Player 12.

Note that the free license is only for personal use, if you are going to use it in a business setting than you still have to buy a license.

--
Wil