VMWare Fusion 4 is out

bobnugget · Sep 14, 2011, 04:40 AM

Looks like Fusion 4.0 is finally out!

Release Notes

Download

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Pricing info is here - annoyingly I can't find any details on upgrade pricing at all, as I have two 3.0 licenses.

If you took part in the Beta, check the community as there is a discount coupon there, too.

bobnugget · Sep 14, 2011, 07:10 AM

Windows 8 appears to be working nicely - just installing now (x64 / Fusion 4.0.1 on Lion 10.7.1)

Kebabselector · Sep 14, 2011, 07:48 AM

I couldn't find any upgrade info either - but I guess as it's cheaper for a limited time it's probably not going to be available as an upgrade.

maflynn · 08:06 AM

I'm downloading the trial for now, and then I'll upgrade. I have my virtual machines backed up incase I need to downgrade back to ver 3.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kebabselector

I couldn't find any upgrade info either - but I guess as it's cheaper for a limited time it's probably not going to be available as an upgrade.

Given the price is now 49 bucks I wonder if there will not be an upgrade price. I forget but I thought that prior versions were priced higher

aristobrat · Sep 14, 2011, 08:31 AM

IMO, they shouldn't use Lion's full-screen icon in their toolbar if clicking it doesn't give you the same Lion full-screen experience (i.e. app moves to its own space, pointing at the top of the screen gives you the OS X menu bar back, etc).

bobnugget · Sep 14, 2011, 08:37 AM

So far my experience of the full screen interface is not quite the Lion one. I hit the full screen button and it took my system out, keyboard and mouse froze and it dropped off the network. Nice...

aristobrat · Sep 14, 2011, 09:41 AM

I'm sure this is documented somewhere, but for those like me that don't read documentation, you can go into the Settings of your existing VMs and change the compatibility level up to get more of the version 4 features.

firestarter · Sep 14, 2011, 09:51 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by maflynn

Given the price is now 49 bucks I wonder if there will not be an upgrade price. I forget but I thought that prior versions were priced higher

I don't mind too much if that's the case. I think version 1 cost me £50, then it was $12 for 1->2, and then about $12 for 2->3. So it's been a cheap app up to this point.

wpotere · Sep 14, 2011, 08:02 PM

Had video issues with version 4, so I am heading back to 3. I did uninstall the driver and reinstall it but it was still flickering. Guess I'll stick with 3.x...

hfg · Sep 14, 2011, 11:23 PM

Did anyone else find that their Windows7 required re-activation with a phone call after upgrading from Fusion 3 to 4?

I got the 30-day to re-activate notice, and the online activation apparently failed and requires the phone call 64-number activation drill again.

-howard

shyam09 · Sep 15, 2011, 12:57 AM

quick question. did you install the VMWare tools?

Honbe · Sep 15, 2011, 03:42 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by hfg

Did anyone else find that their Windows7 required re-activation with a phone call after upgrading from Fusion 3 to 4?

I got the 30-day to re-activate notice, and the online activation apparently failed and requires the phone call 64-number activation drill again.

-howard

I've upgraded my Win 7 64bit VM to Fusion 4. Windows did not ask for re-activation.

----------

Quote:

Originally Posted by shyam09

quick question. did you install the VMWare tools?

Yes, you have to re-install VMWare Tools for Fusion 4.

----------

Quote:

Originally Posted by wpotere

Had video issues with version 4, so I am heading back to 3. I did uninstall the driver and reinstall it but it was still flickering. Guess I'll stick with 3.x...

I had the same at the beginning. You have to redistill VMWare tools, but it did not help in my case either. Restarted VM - no help. Screen still flickering and I also had random mouse pointer moves (like crazy). What I had to do is to restart the host OS (Lion in my case) and everything is OK. It seems there is a restart of the host system after upgrading the VM to Fusion 4 necessary for some reason. Had happened with all the VMs I've upgraded.

maflynn · Sep 15, 2011, 06:13 AM

How's the performance, do you folks think windows is faster or slower under Fusion 4 and how do you think it stacks up against Parallels 7

Honbe · Sep 15, 2011, 07:07 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by maflynn

How's the performance, do you folks think windows is faster or slower under Fusion 4 and how do you think it stacks up against Parallels 7

For what I am doing under Win 7 64/bit it seems very similar so far as I am unable to push the system to the edge. The only visible improvement is graphics (gaming).
I have Parallels 7 license, however I use Fusion almost exclusively. Will take time over the weekend to further discover Fusion 4 against Parallels 7. I will get back with the results.

----------

The thing I was hoping for - being able to allocate more than 8 GB RAM - i still not there

----------

oh, and the Windows under Fusion 4 is definitely not slower than Fusion 3 here. really seems the same so far.

maflynn · Sep 15, 2011, 07:30 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Honbe

oh, and the Windows under Fusion 4 is definitely not slower than Fusion 3 here. really seems the same so far.

The reason why I asked is because after upgrading my windows vm under fusion 4 and rerunning the windows experience index, it came back with a lower value. In fact the Graphic performance went down to 1 so aero was disabled, before it was in the 3.7 to 4.5 range.

Overall the performance was ok from my limited usage. Still it may be cheaper for me to switch to parallels given the competitive upgrade offer they're offering.

Honbe · Sep 15, 2011, 08:35 AM

Win 7 - 64bit under Fusion 3:
epx. index 5.8 (graphics)

Win 7 - 64bit under Fusion 4:
exp. index 6.0 (graphics)

There is a slight improvement...

wpotere · Sep 15, 2011, 08:59 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Honbe

I had the same at the beginning. You have to redistill VMWare tools, but it did not help in my case either. Restarted VM - no help. Screen still flickering and I also had random mouse pointer moves (like crazy). What I had to do is to restart the host OS (Lion in my case) and everything is OK. It seems there is a restart of the host system after upgrading the VM to Fusion 4 necessary for some reason. Had happened with all the VMs I've upgraded.

Thanks for that, I will give it a shot!

maflynn · Sep 15, 2011, 09:42 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Honbe

Win 7 - 64bit under Fusion 3:
epx. index 5.8 (graphics)

Win 7 - 64bit under Fusion 4:
exp. index 6.0 (graphics)

There is a slight improvement...

I wonder why mine went down to 1 after upgrading the VM. I may restore the back up and see how it is.

Honbe · 09:57 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by maflynn

I wonder why mine went down to 1 after upgrading the VM. I may restore the back up and see how it is.

Did you re-install the Tools?

maflynn · Sep 15, 2011, 10:18 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Honbe

Did you re-install the Tools?

Yes and it was then after rerunning the experience index did it plummet

Honbe · 10:42 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by maflynn

Yes and it was then after rerunning the experience index did it plummet

Was the 1 for graphics? Are you running this on the Mini? How much RAM allocated to the VM? 3D accel. on?
Just couple of thoughts...

hfg · Sep 15, 2011, 11:07 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by hfg

Did anyone else find that their Windows7 required re-activation with a phone call after upgrading from Fusion 3 to 4?

I got the 30-day to re-activate notice, and the online activation apparently failed and requires the phone call 64-number activation drill again.

-howard

Quote:

Originally Posted by shyam09

quick question. did you install the VMWare tools?

I thought it installed the tools in the background at first launch, since it required a reboot shortly afterwards. But I just did the menu "Install Tools" and it gave me the normal prompt dialog boxes, then did the install and reboot.

This did not fix the Windows "activation" issue, however it may have been too late once it is triggered. I will try the phone activation today and my experience has been that that always has worked (although it is really annoying to sit through).

-howard

hfg · Sep 15, 2011, 11:25 AM

When you run the installation for Fusion 4, you are given 2 choices for the upgrade.

The top on is to drag the VMware Fusion icon and drop it on your Application Folder.

The other is to "Double-click to upgrade from VMware Fusion 3".

Which one did the people who had no activation problems use?

aristobrat · Sep 15, 2011, 12:11 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by hfg

When you run the installation for Fusion 4, you are given 2 choices for the upgrade.

The top on is to drag the VMware Fusion icon and drop it on your Application Folder.

The other is to "Double-click to upgrade from VMware Fusion 3".

Which one did the people who had no activation problems use?

I double-clicked and didn't have any problems with my guest Windows OSs needing to re-activate.

maflynn · Sep 15, 2011, 12:25 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Honbe

Was the 1 for graphics? Are you running this on the Mini? How much RAM allocated to the VM? 3D accel. on?
Just couple of thoughts...

I have a 2010 13" MBP with 8gb of ram. It had a faster value prior to the upgrade. I'll have to play with the settings when I get home.

Sep 14, 2011, 04:40 AM	#1
bobnugget macrumors regular Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: Kent, England	VMWare Fusion 4 is out Looks like Fusion 4.0 is finally out! Release Notes Download ---------- Pricing info is here - annoyingly I can't find any details on upgrade pricing at all, as I have two 3.0 licenses. If you took part in the Beta, check the community as there is a discount coupon there, too.
	2

Sep 14, 2011, 07:48 AM	#3
Kebabselector macrumors 68000 Join Date: May 2007 Location: Birmingham, UK	I couldn't find any upgrade info either - but I guess as it's cheaper for a limited time it's probably not going to be available as an upgrade. __________________ Mac Mini 1.66Ghz/2gb - 2.4ghz/C2D/8gb - 2.3/i5/8gb - MacBook 2.0Ghz/2gb iPhone 4 S⃣ 32gb - iPad Mini 16gb wifi Others: Canon Eos Stuff - Passat - Smeg - Firewire devices - Prefers Matte
	0

Sep 15, 2011, 06:13 AM	#13
maflynn Demi-God (Moderator) Join Date: May 2009 Location: Boston	How's the performance, do you folks think windows is faster or slower under Fusion 4 and how do you think it stacks up against Parallels 7 __________________ I know that I know nothing ~ Socrates
	0

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Sep 14, 2011, 07:10 AM	#2
bobnugget Thread Starter macrumors regular Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: Kent, England	Windows 8 appears to be working nicely - just installing now (x64 / Fusion 4.0.1 on Lion 10.7.1)
	1

Sep 14, 2011, 08:31 AM	#5
aristobrat macrumors Demi-God Join Date: Oct 2005	IMO, they shouldn't use Lion's full-screen icon in their toolbar if clicking it doesn't give you the same Lion full-screen experience (i.e. app moves to its own space, pointing at the top of the screen gives you the OS X menu bar back, etc).
	1

Sep 14, 2011, 08:37 AM	#6
bobnugget Thread Starter macrumors regular Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: Kent, England	So far my experience of the full screen interface is not quite the Lion one. I hit the full screen button and it took my system out, keyboard and mouse froze and it dropped off the network. Nice...
	0

Sep 14, 2011, 09:41 AM	#7
aristobrat macrumors Demi-God Join Date: Oct 2005	I'm sure this is documented somewhere, but for those like me that don't read documentation, you can go into the Settings of your existing VMs and change the compatibility level up to get more of the version 4 features.
	0

Sep 14, 2011, 08:02 PM	#9
wpotere Guest Join Date: Oct 2010	Had video issues with version 4, so I am heading back to 3. I did uninstall the driver and reinstall it but it was still flickering. Guess I'll stick with 3.x...
	0

Sep 14, 2011, 11:23 PM	#10
hfg macrumors 68000 Join Date: Dec 2006 Location: Cedar Rapids, IA.	Did anyone else find that their Windows7 required re-activation with a phone call after upgrading from Fusion 3 to 4? I got the 30-day to re-activate notice, and the online activation apparently failed and requires the phone call 64-number activation drill again. -howard
	0

Sep 15, 2011, 12:57 AM	#11
shyam09 macrumors 65816 Join Date: Nov 2010	quick question. did you install the VMWare tools?
	0

Sep 15, 2011, 08:35 AM	#16
Honbe macrumors regular Join Date: Aug 2011	Win 7 - 64bit under Fusion 3: epx. index 5.8 (graphics) Win 7 - 64bit under Fusion 4: exp. index 6.0 (graphics) There is a slight improvement...
	0

Sep 15, 2011, 11:25 AM	#23
hfg macrumors 68000 Join Date: Dec 2006 Location: Cedar Rapids, IA.	When you run the installation for Fusion 4, you are given 2 choices for the upgrade. The top on is to drag the VMware Fusion icon and drop it on your Application Folder. The other is to "Double-click to upgrade from VMware Fusion 3". Which one did the people who had no activation problems use?
	0