VMware Fusion Melds Apple OS X with Windows - ' Windows' (
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While Fusion will host a variety of operating systems, the product sports a handful of features devoted just to Windows, starting with a handy VM creation tool called Windows Easy Install. Rather than click through Microsofts installer program, I was able to supply Fusion with a Windows XP SP2 disk image and a product ID number, hit go, and allow Fusion to do the driving. After about 20 minutes, Fusion had built me a new Windows VM, complete with VMwares set of VM-optimized drivers.
Also on the Windows-friendliness front, Fusion ships with a feature, called Unity, that enabled me to open Windows applications that ran from my Windows XP VM but that appeared on the desktop of my test OS X machine as if they were native Mac applications—save for their telltale XP window decorations. Combined with Fusions support for dragging and dropping files between ones OS X host and Windows guests, and with the products support for copying and pasting items between host and guest, Unity made running Windows applications atop OS X about as seamless as it could be.
Click here to read about Microsofts Virtual PC 2007.
The biggest issue I experienced while using Windows applications in Fusions Unity mode was OS Xs knack for intercepting the middle-button mouse clicks Im accustomed to issuing to open Web pages in new tabs. On Apples OS, these clicks bring forward the systems Dashboard Widgets feature, and I couldnt figure out a way to work around this behavior.
In addition to installing Windows to run from a virtual disk file, Fusion enables users to run Windows from their Boot Camp partition. Apples Boot Camp utility makes it easy to convert ones Mac into an OS X/Windows dual-boot machine. With Fusion, its possible to access the files and applications stored on a Boot Camp installation without having to leave OS X behind.
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