Will I have to reinstall my virtual Windows 8 environment and associaated programs if I update VMWare Fusion?

[drewshollmier]

I am currently running VMWare Fusion version 8.5.7 and recently updated my MacBook to macOS Catalina 10.15.4 of which this version of VMWare Fusion is not compatible. What version of VMWare Fusion should I update to and if doing so, will I have to reinstall my virtual Windows 8 and all associated programs after the fact? Thank you!

[Mikero · Accepted solution]

Think of Fusion like Microsoft Word, and your VMs are Documents /.docx files.

Updating Word doesn't delete your documents, in the same way that updating Fusion does not affect your Virtual Machines until you decide to upgrade them at launch.

Here's what I would do:

- Back up your VMs. : Note: Time Machine is inadequate for this. Power-Off the VMs and copy them to some external drive.

- Update to Fusion 11.5.5

- Start Fusion and your VM

- when it asks, Yes you want to upgrade the VMs.

- It should update VMware Tools automatically, and then reboot.

That's it, should be all there is to it.

[drewshollmier]

Thank you Mikero!

How do I go about accessing my VMs to copy them to an external drive?

[drewshollmier]

Never mind, I found it under Documents > Virtual Machines and see a VM file called Windows 8.

[drewshollmier]

It looks like my only available download of VMWare Fusion is 10.1.6. Will that be compatible with Catalina?

[scott28tt]

Check here: VMware Knowledge Base

[ColoradoMarmot]

No, you'll need to upgrade to 11.5.x.

[drewshollmier]

That did the trick. Thanks everyone!