VMware Fusion Pro 26H1 — Mac version

You've got a Mac but you need to run a piece of Windows software, or perhaps you want to test a Linux distro without wiping your main machine. VMware Fusion Pro lets you do that by creating a virtual computer right on your desktop.

Can my Mac handle it?

The short answer is probably yes. It runs on Intel 64-bit and Apple Silicon Macs, and plays nice with eGPU devices if you use one. You'll need macOS 13 or later.

What can I run inside it?

Windows virtual machines are the big draw, but the latest release added guest support for Ubuntu 26.04 LTS, Fedora 44, openSUSE 16.0, and FreeBSD 15.0. USB 3.1 devices pass through to your VM without fuss.

Connecting to remote hosts on your network

Option-click full screen for a distraction-free view

Fusion Pro packs in shortcuts that aren't shouted about. Hold the Option key while clicking the full-screen button, and the VM fills the space without the top-of-screen toolbar sliding in — handy when you want zero distractions. Control-Command-F toggles full screen from anywhere, no mouse needed.

There's a Unity mode that blends Windows apps into your Mac desktop so they sit alongside Finder and Safari. Find it under View > Enter Unity. It's not new, but people forget it's there. When you're done, swipe to another Space or hit the Fusion menu bar icon to hop out.

The Snapshots button on the toolbar is your safety net. Take one before installing a dodgy driver or testing a registry edit. If things go sideways, roll back in seconds. I've saved more VMs than I can count with that single habit.

If you drag a file from Finder and drop it onto a Windows VM window, it copies straight across. No shared folder setup needed. It works the other way too — drag a file out of the VM onto your Mac desktop.

Parallels costs more but polishes Windows integration

Parallels Desktop is probably the name most people hear first. It pushes tight Windows integration — Coherence mode feels slicker than Unity, and it handles gaming graphics with less tinkering. The trade-off is that it pushes you towards a subscription model and tends to drop support for older macOS versions faster. Fusion Pro suits you if you want something that doesn't keep nudging you to upgrade every year.

UTM is the open-source neighbour. It's lightweight and free, built on QEMU, and it's surprisingly capable on Apple Silicon for running ARM versions of Windows and Linux. Where Fusion Pro pulls ahead is with Intel-based guest support, DirectX 11 acceleration in Windows 10, and proper enterprise features like ESX host connections and Kubernetes clusters. UTM is brilliant for quick experiments; Fusion Pro is the tool when you need reliability and performance for daily work.

VirtualBox still works on Intel Macs, but Apple Silicon support has been patchy at best. If your Mac is newer than 2020, VirtualBox isn't a realistic option. Fusion Pro handles both architectures without making you think about it.

Suspend the VM on close so it resumes right where you left off

Open Preferences > General and set "When closing a virtual machine" to Suspend rather than "Power Off." It writes the VM's current state to disk and picks up exactly where you left off next time — like closing a laptop lid. Much quicker than a full boot cycle.

Head to Virtual Machine > Settings > Processors & Memory. Fusion is cautious with default RAM allocation, often giving a Windows VM 2 GB or 4 GB. If your Mac has 16 GB or more, bump it to at least 6 GB for a Windows 10 VM. You'll feel the difference in everyday responsiveness.

Turn off adaptive sync in the Display settings if you notice screen tearing in Windows. Some Intel Macs with certain GPU combos don't play well with it. The fix takes three clicks.

If you use VMware Fusion Pro for development, enable the vctl command-line tool. It's the gateway to running OCI containers and local Kubernetes clusters directly from Terminal. The checkbox lives under Preferences, and you'll need to restart Fusion after toggling it.

Skipping VMware Tools leaves you with a sluggish mouse and no drag-and-drop

Skipping VMware Tools installation. After you install Windows or Linux, you need to install VMware Tools inside the guest. Without it, you get a sluggish mouse cursor, no drag-and-drop file sharing, and display resolutions that refuse to stretch to your Mac's screen size. The menu option is under Virtual Machine > Install VMware Tools. Do it straight after the OS setup.

Assigning too many CPU cores. It's tempting to give a VM eight cores because your Mac has ten. Don't. The host macOS needs breathing room. Giving half or more of your cores to a VM can make both systems stutter. Start with two cores and only add more if you genuinely see a bottleneck.

Storing VMs on an external drive formatted as ExFAT. ExFAT doesn't handle the large virtual disk files well over time — corruption risk goes up. Use APFS or Mac OS Extended instead. I've seen too many people lose a VM that way, and the fix is just reformatting the drive before you start.

Snapshots aren't backups. A snapshot keeps track of changes from a point in time, but it lives inside the same virtual disk file. If that file gets corrupted, your snapshots are gone too. Copy the whole VM bundle to another drive now and then. It's boring advice, but it's the one that saves you when everything else fails.

No. The 26H1 update brought in remote connections to ARM-based ESX hosts, so you can manage VMs elsewhere from your Mac.

• Guest OS support added for Ubuntu 26.04 LTS, Fedora 43, Fedora 44, SUSE Linux Enterprise 16, openSUSE 16.0, and FreeBSD 15.0.
• Remote connections to ARM-based ESX hosts are now supported.
• Timestamps for VM creation and last power-on time are now shown.

• macOS 13 or later
• Intel 64-bit or Apple Silicon Mac
• eGPU support