Friday, September 5, 2008

Mac: Running Windows XP with VMware Fusion on a MacBook

I finally got VMware Fusion after my friend nagged me for a few weeks. I already run Windows XP with Boot Camp, and I wasn’t really sure how VMware would make things better.

After trying it for a few days, I regret not having installed VMware earlier. I realized that having to reboot to switch to Windows was such a hassle. Being able to run both OS X and Windows simultaneously is really nice. For example, I can now access my iCal while working with stuff on Windows.

Here are the things I like about VMware so far:

  • It automatically recognized my Boot Camp Partition, and pretty much set everything up by itself. 

  • I can easily drag and drop files between Windows and Mac. 

  • I also really like the Unity feature, which allows me to run Windows applications as an application in Mac. This means you can minimize Windows apps to the dock and switch between windows using Exposé. 


  • Copy and paste between Windows and Mac.
My MacBook is 2.16 Ghz with 2 GB of RAM, and Windows XP has been running smoothly. There have been some glitches. For example, the Unity feature has some problems with dual screens. VMware wouldn’t allow me to drag a Windows application window to my second screen. It’s minor, and overall, I have to say, I’m quite impressed with VMware so far.

Related links:
VMware Fusion Website

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Justin,

You should download VMware Fusion 2 Release Candidate, which supports multiple displays.

You can learn more here: http://www.vmware.com/landing_pages/fusion2_beta.html

And here's a video of the multiple displays video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gREBVWUIqps

Pete Kazanjy
VMware Fusion Product Marketing

Anonymous said...

Oh, and thanks for sharing your experience with VMware Fusion! Glad you're getting a lot of good use out of it!

Pete Kazanjy