VMware Fusion 3.1, Workstation 7.1 Advance Desktop Virtualization on Mac, Windows

by Cameron Sturdevant

VMware Fusion 3.1 beta increases from four to eight the maximum number of processor cores that can be assigned to a virtual machine.

Fusion 3.1 can now remember user preferences for specific USB devices. Here I’m being asked what to do with a Kingston Store N Go USB drive. I’ll attach it to my Windows VM (see screen, lower right.)

What you didn’t see here is me attaching the Kingston Store N Go to my Mac. What you do see is that Fusion 3.1 automatically connected it to my Windows VM and that Windows now presents a familiar AutoPlay choice screen.

Fusion 3.1 improves physical-to-virtual migration by showing migration progress.

Here is what migration progress looks like on the physical Windows system that is in the process of being migrated to a VM running under Fusion 3.1.

OpenGL 2.1 support for Windows 7 and Vista guest systems means better support for graphics-oriented applications.

OVF 1.0 support makes it easier to support VM import and export.

Although it’s listed in the release highlights, I wasn’t able to find explicit support for Fedora 12 when using the new VM wizard.