VMware Fusion 5 and Windows only devices

[RAMtheSSD]

The Problem: Love HP 6MP and want to use it with my MP and while there are more than a few solutions out there, there does not seem to be any sort of certainty; it might work or it might not so...

VMware Fusion 5 promised that one would be able to use windows only devices natively. OK, so happy enough with Fusion 4 so get Fusion 5 and the 6MP (which suposedly is suported by ML but I simply can not get it to do anything with any sort of consistency -and I have tried all sorts of things to no avail) will work. I just can not seem to find any instructions on how to do it and the VMware community is a mess of users of all sorts and at all sorts of different levels with all sorts of different products; naturally, Mac knowledge is lacking.

Does anybody here know how to do it or something like it? Any ideas? I can do it with a program by using the unity mode but that method does not work for drivers.

 

[dyn]

This only applies to usb devices. You need to hookup the printer via usb to your Mac and pass it through to the Windows vm. Windows will see it no differently than when you were to run it on the hardware directly and plug the usb connector in: it will try to search for drivers and install it. This may require you to run the installer from the printer manufacturer. This also implies that they need to support the Windows version you are running in the vm. If you are running Windows 7 than the printer (and thus its drivers) will have to support Windows 7.

The Mac knowledge on the VMware Fusion forums is very high. As you've already noticed there are different sorts of people on that forum just like here on MacRumors. Some of very in-depth knowledge, others have not. Most of the VMware devs actually run Macs. Fusion is a product that came from them, they wanted something for the Mac.

Also, unity mode has nothing to do with usb, devices, drivers, etc. Unity is merely the ability to run apps in the vm as if they were installed on your host OS (in this case OS X). It seems that you are the one needing to up the knowledge a bit. Fusion has a great help function that covers all of its features. You can find how to pass through usb devices in the help.