Wow, VMware Fusion + Boot Camp is amazing.
Since I’ve gotten my Macbook, I’ve been using OS X Snow Leopard as my primary OS. The only problem is that I need to use some old windows only applications from time to time at work, probably 3 or 4 times a day. I installed Windows 7 using Bootcamp, which works very well, but you have to reboot every time you want to switch to Windows or back to OS X. Not exactly an ideal solution.
I’ve used VMware Fusion for Windows before, and it’s cool, but I didn’t really have a need for it then. I decided to try the Mac version, and I’m blown away.
Upon install, it automatically detects your bootcamp installation of Windows, and asks if you want to run it as a virtual machine. Select yes, and it sets everything up automagically. Once it goes through the initial setup and installs VMware Tools, you’re set. Just open VMware and you can boot into your Bootcamp windows installation inside of OSX.
The pictures do a much better job of explaining, so here ya go.
Click the VMware icon in your top bar. BootCamp will automatically be selected, just hit “Start Up”.
You’ll get a new window and your Windows BootCamp installation will begin booting.
It boots to your Windows Desktop, just like you’re booting a physical install.
And you can open IE, go to websites (Including those that require ActiveX), run windows programs, even use the USB and Optical hardware on your Mac.
Absolutely amazing software if you’re a Mac user that occasionally needs Windows. There’s advanced settings to decide how much of the CPU and RAM you’re willing to let the Windows Virtual Machine use, etc, but I figured I would just cover the basics here, as those things will depend heavily on what you intend to do with the virtual machine, and the hardware you install it on.
I would give this 6 stars if I could, it’s easily the most useful software I’ve seen for OS X.
Rating: 