VMWare Time Synchronization for Windows

This might seem obvious but it is not enough to simply put a check in the “Time Synchronization” options box for VMWare as shown here:

You also need to make sure that your Windows VM “Date & Time” properties are set properly:

Having both the Windows VM and your host computer (the one running the Windows VM) perform time synchronization can cause Windows to report the wrong time. Instead, just let the host computer do all the work.

Tags: VMWare Fusion

VMWare Fusion 1.1.1

© VMWare

The full details of the new upgrade can be viewed on the VMWare web site but the following bug fix, alone, makes it all worthwhile:

“VMware Fusion now transparently remaps keyboard shortcuts when the user goes back and forth between applications in the guest and in the host. For example, VMware Fusion remaps COMMAND+X to Ctrl+X in the guest. The same remapping happens for COMMAND+Z/+C/+V/+P/+A/+F.”

Sweet, no more finger gymnastics!

Tags: VMWare Fusion

Fusion versus Parallels

I have been playing with Fusion and Parallels in order to run other operating systems on my Mac OS. In my case, I have been running Windows XP mostly due to the nature of the development work that I am doing at the moment. I will not claim to be an expert in knowing the differences of Fusion and Parallels but I can say that I like Fusion a lot more and ended up buying a copy. Here are a few reasons why I choose Fusion over Parallels:

1. One File - Fusion saves all VM data to one file that ends in a .vmwarevm extension. This makes management of my various VMs easy. I ended up creating what I call a “fresh” VM that is Windows XP SP2 with all the latest updates installed and configured the way I like it. This file is roughly 3GB in size. It is from this file that I make duplicates to use for home, work, etc. Easy to duplicate and destroy at will.
2. Dual Processor Support - I can configure Fusion to use both cores of my processor. Parallels doesn’t do this.
3. DirectX 9.0 - Supports the latest 3D graphics (well almost, as DirectX 10 is out now). Parallels uses a version older than 9.0.
4. Java Swing - Some aspects of Java Swing like the rendering of windows, panels, etc did not work properly when using Parallels but worked fine in Fusion.
5. Stability - While Fusion has some bugs I found it to be more stable than Parallels in terms of not crashing and locking up. In fact I had more problems with Parallels in this regard and have maybe only froze my Fusion image once (and I use Fusion almost every day).

While I do like Fusion, my only gripe is that Fusion does not release system memory once it has been shut down (or so I seems). Annoying but something I can deal with for the time being.

Tags: VMWare Fusion

Virtual Windows XP Power Settings

One of the first things I usually do when I install and setup Windows is to configure the power settings. This is important when running Windows XP Professional within VMWare Fusion on a Mac OS, for example. The reason is that I find it annoying to switch back to my virtual Windows environment after a period of time only to find it sound asleep. I want it to be always running just like any other application that I might have open. In order to prevent this I have adjusted my power settings as shown here:

(click to view)

One word of caution. Leaving a virtual operating system always running can eat up a lot of memory, CPU, and power. For a laptop user this can mean that your hardware might get really hot so keep your machine well ventilated.

Tags: VMWare Fusion, Windows

VMWare Fusion 1.1.0

© VMWare

I was just about to give up on VMWare Fusion when I noticed that they released Version 1.1.0 and solved the full screen issue! Now I can COMMAND+TAB between my applications on the Mac without constantly popping out of full screen mode of my virtualized environment on my Mac OS. That was unbelievably frustrating.

Now I am really torn as to whether I like Parallels or Fusion better.

Tags: VMWare Fusion