[VMware Fusion] Windows shortcuts on my Mac?

[macmee]

I want to make shortcuts on OSX that link to programs on my Windows XP in VMware Fusion. For example I want to be able to make a shortcut to paint on my OSX desktop, and it opens it up in Windows XP on VMware Fusion. Is this possible?

Thanks,
Dave

[mogzieee]

This is easy when you know how to do it.

1. Go to the "Virtual Machine Library" in VMware. Right click on the selected virtual machine and select "view in Finder"



2. Right click on the selected file (It will be something like "Windows XP Professional") in the Finder window, and select "Show Package Contents".



3. Double click on the Applications folder inside the "Windows XP" file you just opened.

4. Within this folder, look for the appropriate application (take Paint for example). Right click on the application and choose "Create Alias".



5. Rename the new 'alias' with the program name, eg. "MS Paint on Windows". Then, drag this out to either the desktop, the dock or the Mac's Applications folder.





Done. Just click on the alais and it works. It's even better if you set VMware Fusion to "Unity" view mode. Go to View > Enter Unity.

The final result (in Unity mode):



Good Luck

Moggy

[elgrecomac]

Great post, very clear and much appreciated.

Too bad England lost to Argentina(?)(!) in the Sevens tournament here in San Diego this past weekend!
http://www.usasevens.com/news-manager.aspx?ArticleId=30

[cuestakid]

I hate to revive a semi old thread but I do have a similar question to this-

is there any way to get files when the image is not running ?

[steveza]

I think this might be possible with Macfuse but I haven't tried it myself.

[macmee]

Thanks for that tutorial, helped me a lot.

[cuestakid]

Originally Posted by steveza

I think this might be possible with Macfuse but I haven't tried it myself.

any ideas of how to do it?

[ssn637]

Wow, what a great tutorial! You don't find tips like that on the VMware Fusion support site...fantastic!
Can we also use a similar procedure to run Mac applications as the default app when inside the Windows VM? For example, I'd like to open a Word document in the VM using Office for Mac 2008, which is installed on the Mac partition. This would prevent me from having to install the Windows version of MS Office 2007 parallel to the Mac suite. By the way, I'm running Windows 7 in a Boot Camp partition as the Virtual Machine, and Unity view doesn't seem to be an option.
Thanks

[birdtron]

I wanted to set my virtual XP machine's Excel as the default program to open my spreadsheets from OSX and couldn't work out how to do it, and this thread explained it clearly and easily.

It is an excellent tip and great response. It's actually rather intuitive, but I initially decided the answer had to be something much more complex and didn't figure it out myself, or by searching through the VMWare Fusion official support forums and knowlegebase. Thanks again!

[quadgnim]

I'm missing an application that I'm trying to make a shortcut to. It's installed and runs fine manually, but when I look in finder/package contents/appliations its not there. Is there a trick or work around to this?

[helicos]

I know this is an old thread but I found the answer to the last guy's question. I had the same question and someone else reading this thread might as well.

If your application is missing in the /package contents/applications location, follow these steps:

1. Run vmware
2. Start the application(s) that you are interested in creating a mac shortcut for
3. Now view in 'Unity' mode. The windows apps you are running will now show up in the Mac dock

4a. If you want to create a shortcut in the dock, right click on the windows app icon in the mac dock and then Options>Keep in Dock.

4b. If you want to create a shortcut elsewhere, right click on the windows app icon in the mac dock and then Options>Show in Finder. Now follow the steps in the instructions above starting with step 4.