How to remove Windows. Do this before deleting my Virtual Machine?

[dianajhunter]

Should I remove Windows 7 first and how can I do this, before deleting my Virtual Machine?  I am using Vmware Fusion 6 on a Macbook Pro running OS 10.9.5. As faculty for a university I am licensed to use Office 365 for Mac so I understand that I no longer need to have a copy of Windows on my Mac nor do I need to use VMware Fusion 6.  Sadly my Macbook Pro runs very very slowly when using my virtual machine. I do not access Windows 7 through Bootcamp and my machine is NOT partitioned.   After removing Windows and not leaving bits and parts, what is the best way to delete the Virtual Machine?  I will say that those in tech support have been very kind.  Thanks for your help.

[wila · Accepted solution]

Hello,

If you want to throw away your Windows 7 then all you have to do is:

- shut down your Windows virtual machine if it is running.

- in VMware Fusion Library, select the virtual machine

- from the menu "Edit" select the option "Delete"

That will show a screen like this:

Then select "Move to Trash"

When you empty your trash all of the space that your Windows 7 virtual machine takes will be released back to the system.

Of course this means that ANY data in the virtual machine has been thrown away as well.

For clarity you do not have to remove Windows 7 before deleting your Virtual Machine as deleting the virtual machine will also remove Windows 7.

In your case I would also make sure that Office 365 works for you before throwing away the virtual machine. I would probably copy the virtual machine to an external USB disk before deleting it so that you have a way to go back.

PS: Not sure on the Macbook Pro running slowly when using a virtual machine. That might be fixable, but it is hard to say without more details.

Hope this helps,

--

Wil

[dianajhunter]

Thanks so much!  Part of the reason my MacBook Pro (late 2008) ran slow was that I take lots of pictures and it ran down my memory a lot.  Even though I freed up over 25 GB, Windows ran so slow as to make me not want to use it.  I really could not do my work.  Hopefully it will work better on Office 365 for Mac but I appreciate the idea of backing up my virtual machine on an external hard drive.

Blessings