Geoffrey84's Posts

That is correct.  Not all systems are affected.  So far I've noted owners of MacBook Pro 16" and 13" (2020) models reporting issues, which is why I suspect the problem may not only be attributable to "a regression error" with Apple.  I don't have any idea what VMware means by this.  I understand that this is Beta software and that Parallels also had embarrassing kernel panic reports with their first version of Parallels Desktop 16.0, but they quickly released a fix and I hope to be able to return to VMware Fusion as soon as possible in macOS Big Sur. 

Still not working with macOS Big Sur Beta 7 20A5374.  (MacBook Pro 16" 2019) It would seem Apple has ignored VMware's feedback or this problem won't be an easy one to solve.  I'll keep trying with each Big Sur Beta and report back here.

Thanks for the quick reply! I would recommend you add this caveat to the Release Notes, since I didn't find it there and suspect until this problem is solved by Apple others will be checking in here looking for help. Geoffrey

Does this new version support Snow Leopard in 64-bit mode? VMware Fusion is the only program I really need which doesn't yet support this kernel. If not, is there a Beta version available to registered VMware Fusion owners which does support the 64-bit kernel? Thanks

Were you able to solve this problem? When first starting VMware Fusion the Boot Camp partition should be detected automatically, and you can make adjustments to the default settings prior to starting up the virtual machine. Here's what I can recommend based on my experience with Windows 7 and VMware Fusion V2.05: 1. Start VMware Fusion and wait for the Boot Camp partition to be recognized in the Virtual Machine Library before proceeding. If it doesn't pop up, then click the Virtual Machine Library in the Window title bar menu. 2. Before starting up the virtual machine for the first time, select "Settings" in the Virtual Machine menu bar and use the drop-down fields provided to make a few changes to the default settings: - Select single CPU (assigning both CPUs to the virtual machine slows down the Mac OS X partition considerably). - Increase the default alloted RAM to 2048 MB if you have 4 GB of RAM installed. - Ensure that Windows Server 2008 has been selected as the guest operating system. This guarantees installation of the required ethernet driver by default. - Shared folders can also be selected as desired between the two operating systems. - 3D Graphics should be disabled, since this is not yet supported by this version of VMware Fusion with Windows 7 (A WDDM graphics driver is required but not available). - Do not share printers between the two systems; otherwise multiple printers will appear when switching back to the Boot Camp partition. - If Cisco VPN Client is needed, ensure the network has been set up in bridged mode (NAT is the default setting). 3. By default the virtual machine loads a number of PCI Bridge drivers, which causes the Windows hardware detection service to go crazy after initial start up and aren't needed. To speed up the Windows virtual machine, simply shut down VMware Fusion at this stage, go to the VM configuration file (Boot Camp Partition.vmx), right-click it and select "Show contents", and open the .vmx file with a Text Editor to view the configuration file. Look for the following entries: pciBridgex.present = "TRUE" and change all but the first entry to "FALSE" (there should be 4 additional entries numbered 4-7). 4. Ensure a LAN connection is present before initially starting up the virtual machine to allow installation of the virtual ethernet driver. 5. Now we're all set! Just start up VMware Fusion again and then start the virtual machine. The display will go crazy for a while but with a bit of patience the log in window should appear. As soon as you've logged in to Windows the VMware Tools should install automatically. If they don't, you'll need to install them manually from the virtual DVD drive. Let the installation complete and reboot. 6. When running the virtual machine under battery power I limit the CPU speed to 50% of maximum. Otherwise don't be surprised if you get less than 2 hours on the battery when running both partitions simultaneously. 7. Since the Aero feature isn't supported the default basic taskbar will be shown when running the virtual machine, but you can modify its dull grey color to something more your liking by downloading a UXTheme patcher and a basic theme of your choice to replace the default .msstyles files. If you ever have any problems with the virtual machine and want to start over, simply delete it by entering the following command line in Terminal: rm -dfr "/Users/$/Library/Application Support/VMware Fusion/Virtual Machines/Boot Camp" Then you can start over! Let me know if this helps and what else I can do for you... Salut

Each time I start up the Windows 7 Ultimate as a virtual machine from the Boot Camp partition and check the System settings in the Control Panel I note there are 3 days left to activation...and that for the past four days! So I've kept my current activation in the Boot Camp partition and so far have ignored the virtual machine. Unless I receive a pop-up message warning me to immediately activate the virutal machine I'll leave it at that. Salut

That's what I thought...well, I hate to go back to Windows XP and am kinda enjoying playing around with the new version. I'll just keep activating both sides when prompted while we wait for an update from VMware. Salut

I'm having the same problem with Windows 7 x86 activation with VMware Fusion V2.05. Can you please provide instructions on how to create two different hardware profiles for Boot Camp and Fusion in Windows 7? With Windows XP this was not a big deal, since a tab in the Advanced settings was available which allowed you to change the profile at will. But in Windows 7 this tab is not available. If I create a new User with admin rights and name him "VMware", will this allow me to log in to my user name or VMware upon start up, and if so, will this change the associated hardware profile to get me out of the activation loop? I could try it, of course, but thought I'd ask before I start medding with the system settings. Thanks for your help! P.S. Otherwise VMware Fusion supports Windows 7 as a Boot Camp virtual machine rather well.

The Windows 7 activation loop issue has not been solved with the newest (2.05) version of VMware Fusion. I've disabled activation in Windows 7 (32-Bit) Build 7260 to avoid the need to continually activate Windows in the Boot Camp partition and virtual machine, since I don't think we're allowed an infinite number of activations even with the Beta releases. However, I'm now getting an occasional "This copy of Windows is not genuine", although so far no loss of functionality has been triggered. The Apple Boot Camp V3.0 drivers extracted from the latest Snow Leopard image are a welcome relief to anyone suffering from oversenstive multitouch trackpads in Windows. I've now restored the tap to click option in the Boot Camp control panel and haven't witnessed a single BSOD. I recommend them to anyone using any Windows version, since both XP and Vista drivers have been updated. I'm looking forward to the future version of VMware Fusion offering full support of Windows 7 and will certainly upgrade to the new operating system along with Snow Leopard once they are available (if I can get Windows 7 Ultimate via our Home Office program - paying €300 for a retail version is out of the question). Salut

I tried a clean installation of the Mac OS X and Windows 7 Ultimate partitions and then tried to set up the new Boot Camp partition virtual machine using the Windows Server 2008 settings as suggested. Both 3D enhancement and folder sharing were unchecked, since neither of them worked. The ethernet adapter did not install automatically but worked with a modification of the .vmx file. Unfortunately, the activation loops continued and I couldn't solve this issue by uninstalling and reinstalling VMware Tools. I've since reverted back to Windows XP Pro SP3 in the Boot Camp partition, which works just fine. As soon as VMware Fusion supports Windows 7 as a Boot Camp virtual machine I'll upgrade and try again. Geoffrey

I've since been able to repair the VMware Tools installation while running Windows 7 Ultimate as a virtual machine and the VMware services seem to be starting up automatically. However, activation is still required when switching between machines. I've also disabled 3D functionality under Settings since this doesn't appear to be supported. I've also modified the Compatibility of the following executables to Windows Vista SP2 and have them all running with administrator priveleges: VMware Service.exe, VMware Tray.exe, VMware User.exe and VMware Host Open.exe. When running Windows in the Boot Camp partition the following process is reported as running and cannot be stopped via Task Manager (error message received that this is not a valid process) : VMware Host Open.exe. There are at times many of these instances running at once. Thought this update might help. Geoffrey