Windows 11 rendering artifacts with VMware Fusion 12

[david_eisner]

I'm running Windows 11 Enterprise 21H2 under VMware Fusion Professional Version 12.2.1 (18811640) on macOS Monterey version 12.0.1.

When I enable transparency effects in Windows 11, I get these strange rendering artifacts around the edges of windows. You can see them in the screenshot below -- the white dots and dashes:

Is anybody else seeing this, and are there any suggestions for a fix? Here are my display settings for the VM:

Thanks!

[Min-Yu]

Hello,

Could you please send us your mksSandbox.log (this file should be under your Win11 VM's folder)?

Thanks!

[david_eisner]

Here you go. Thank you!

[Min-Yu]

Hello David,

It took me some days to reproduce the issue and to figure out what was wrong.

I found the following:

1) This is a bug in some Intel Metal drivers. As far as I can tell, this issue only happens on Broadwell, Skylake, Kabylake, and Coffeelake. It will NOT happen on Intel Icelake, AMD GPUs, and Apple M1.

2) You will only see the artifacts when you turn on BOTH the dark mode and the transparency effects in Windows 11. (You can also disable 3D for this Windows 11 VM, if you do not need to run 3D applications.)

I have already filed a bug to Apple. Hopefully, they can fix it soon.

[david_eisner]

Thanks, Min-Yu! I know it can take some time to diagnose this kind of problem. I don't know how responsive Apple will be, but it sounds like the ball is in their court now.

And yes, I noticed that light mode helped (I had already switched to it). I wasn't sure if it was just because the white artifacts blend in with the light background, but whatever the reason, it's a reasonable workaround for now.

Thanks again.

[Robben-Kim]

I am also experiencing the same symptoms after installing Windows 11, and I am currently using dark mode with transparent mode turned off.

[david_eisner]

I just wanted to update the thread to report that the problem has been resolved for me, at least, with

• VMware Fusion 12.2.3 (19436697)
• macOS Monterey 12.4 (on Intel MacBook Pro, AMD Radeon Pro 5500M / Intel UHD Graphics 630)
• Windows 11 Enterprise Version 21H2, OS build 22000.708

[david_eisner]

It came back. :^(

[RicardoGerbaudo]

It worked for me when I changed the Accelerated 3d Graphics "Battery Life" option to "Always Use High Performance Graphics (Shorter Battery Life)".

[RicardoGerbaudo]

It worked for me when I changed the Accelerated 3d Graphics "Battery Life" option to "Always Use High Performance Graphics (Shorter Battery Life)".

[Min-Yu]

I do not think Apple/Intel has fixed this issue.

Since this issue is on Intel GPU only, selecting "Always Use High Performance Graphics (Shorter Battery Life)" will make Fusion use AMD GPU to avoid this issue.