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werpu
Contributor
Contributor

Fusion + Win7 IE9 Rendering broken

Hello

As it seems the new VMWare Fusion seems to break the IE9 rendering, Images are still displayed, the fonts and the scrollbars are not.

The only workaround i could find so far is to turn off 3d entirely on the vm config level. Does anyone know of another workaround, and

is this a known bug of 4.0.1?

(See also the image regarding the problem)

broken_ie.jpeg

To me this seems eerily like a driver problem, since IE9 reverts to directX/direct3d for font rendering.

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40 Replies
mluecke
Contributor
Contributor

werpu
Contributor
Contributor

Reverting to IE8 is no option for me, since I use the VM mainly for testing purposes on various IE versions.

Anyway thanks for the help. Seems to me the only option for me for now is really to turn off 3d entirely on vm level.

I can live with that until the problem is fixed.

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TheLoneVM
VMware Employee
VMware Employee

What model mac are you running?

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werpu
Contributor
Contributor

Macbook Pro 13 inch 2009 model (the one which still has an nvidia graphics card in there) running Lion. But a friend of mine could also reproduce the problem on a 2010 iMac.

In both cases the VMs were converted from an old vmware 3 vm to a version 4 vm, by the vmware upgrade process.

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adrinux
Contributor
Contributor

I do remember having to disable 3D acceleration before, because it was breaking a site I was testing. But I can't remember on which OS (might have been XP), or which browser (maybe it was the Blackberry emulator).

Either way I have 3D turned on in win7 now, and IE9 works fine.

Did you 'upgrade' the Guest VM when you upgraded to fusion 4? I did.

Did you update the vmware tools on the guest? I did.

HTH

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mluecke
Contributor
Contributor

I'm running a Macbook Pro 15" / 2011 model with AMD Radeon HD 6750M and Lion. My VM was also converted from Fusion 3.

There is also a issue with the preview application icons in Windows 7 Aero.

black_icon.jpg

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mgartner
Contributor
Contributor

I have the same problem on both Windows 7 guests! Rendering in Interent Explorer 9 is broken! I think it's a problem with the display driver/hardware acceleration.

I installed a fresh VMWare Fusion 4 and a brand new Windows 7 64 bit guest on my Early 2011 MacBook Pro 15, 8GB ram - but the problem persists.

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werpu
Contributor
Contributor

Just to add a few infos, I am running a windows 7 ultimate sp1 32 bit edition.

So it is not a matter of having a 32 bit and/or 64bit windows installed.

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SvenGus
Expert
Expert

Have you tried to enable this setting (from within Windows 7):

Control Panel -> Internet Options -> Advanced -> Accelerated Graphics -> Use software rendering [...]

...?

That should fix the problem (at least for me, IE9 works correctly in a Win7 Fusion 4 VM with this setting enabled in IE, and of course with 3D enabled as default in the VM settings)...

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werpu
Contributor
Contributor

Ok this seems to have fixed my problem, excellent thanks for your help.

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SvenGus
Expert
Expert

BTW, here (for example):

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/ie/ff959805#_Graphics

... there is some official info directly from Microsoft.

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mgartner
Contributor
Contributor

In my Win 7 VM I can't change this setting! It always uses software rendering... Only disabling 3D accelleration of the VM solves the problem.

Directly from the Microsoft site:

Running Internet Explorer 9 in a VMware virtual machine
Internet Explorer 9 always uses software rendering in a VMWare virtual machine. This is due to a code bug in Internet Explorer introduced by recent changes in the rendering engine. The Internet Explorer team will be addressing this in a future update.

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ShaddamIV
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

For those who cannot change the IE 9 settings of the 'Use software rendering' setting in Internet Options:

I've had the same problem right after having installed Fusion 4. To fix, you need to edit the Windows registry.

1. Close IE.

2. In regedit.exe, find this (either by using the 'Find' command, or by manually navigating towards those keys)

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Mic­rosoft\Internet Explorer\GPU

There you'll find the 'Software Fallback' key in two versions. One is called "SoftwareFallback" (for 32 bit Windows), the other "Wow64-SoftwareFallback" (for 64 bit Windows).

3. If the value is "0", change it to "1". I did it for both keys but I guess it's sufficient if you change the value only for the key appropriate to your Windows version (32 or 64 bit).

4. Close the registry editor.

5. Open IE 9 and enjoy.

Hope this helps,

s.

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mgartner
Contributor
Contributor

This is the solution! Thanks alot!

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dklien
Contributor
Contributor

Hi, yes this is the solution, but after closing IE9, the value in the registry falls back to 0. What can be done to keep the value of SoftwareFallback on 1 forever? 😉

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mgartner
Contributor
Contributor

Opened, closed IE9 mutliple times, restarted VM - but the value persists.

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ShaddamIV
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

I found something on the web regarding the stickiness of the SoftwareFallback setting:

http://www.mydigitallife.info/force-enable-gpu-hardware-acceleration-graphics-rendering-on-old-gpu-i...

"In addition, Internet Explorer may automatically disable and turn off GPU graphics hardware acceleration support, and in order to avoid the possibility, it’s recommended (if the hack does help in IE’s performance) to remove the ability for SYSTEM user to write and edit the HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\GPU registry key.

To do so, follow the brief guide below at your own risk.

Right click on “GPU” and select “Permissions”. Go to “Advanced”, and uncheck the “Include inheritable permissions from this object’s parent”. Then, add “Administrators” group or your user name and allows “Full Control” permissions, and (must) add in “SYSTEM” user with “Read” (at least Read Control and Query Value) privileges."

... I did that once and then opened IE (everything was fine), changed the permissions on GPU back to what they were (in particular re-enabled the inheritable permissions) and have had no trouble since.

Enjoy!

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dklien
Contributor
Contributor

Hi

Thanks for the link. Unfortunately, both does not work. IE9 still changes the value of SoftwareFallback back to 0 when closing IE9.

I think vmware should do something with it's graphic driver. It should support hardware acceleration und it should be possible to switch to hardware acc on IE9 - at the moment this option cannot be changed (checkbox is disabled in advanced IE options).

Best regards

Daniel

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maggix04
Contributor
Contributor

I am having the same problem on my Lion (10.7.1) MacBook Pro (5,3) with VMWare Fusion 4.0.1 and a 32-bit Windows 7 Professional, which has been upgraded from a "Version 7" hardware (it was running on Fusion 3) to a "Version 8" hardware for Fusion 4. I have 3D enabled and installed the latest VMWare tools that come with Fusion 4.

It's not just a IE 9 issue (MSN and other applications do not display objects on screen), and I disagree with the people who say the problem is "Fixed" by enabling software rendering. This is related to some problems with the 3D drivers. Of course, disabling 3D in Fusion is a workaround, but it's not a fix to the problem

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