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Uninstalling, reinstalling, and upgrading VMware Fusion (1014529)

Purpose

This article provides steps for uninstalling, reinstalling, and upgrading VMware Fusion.

Note: Uninstalling Fusion does not affect the contents of a virtual machine. 

Resolution

Caution: Before uninstalling, installing or, upgrading Fusion, ensure that all virtual machines are shut down (that is, the status says Powered off in the Virtual Machine Library) and that they are not suspended. Failure to do so can result in data loss or virtual machine corruption.

Uninstalling Fusion

Note: Before performing these steps, ensure that all virtual machines are shut down.

For information on uninstalling Fusion, see Manually uninstalling VMware Fusion (1017838).

Installing Fusion

For information on installing Fusion, see Downloading and installing VMware Fusion (2014097).

Upgrading Fusion

Note: There is no upgrade path between versions of Fusion. In Fusion 5.x, installing it automatically removes any older versions of Fusion on the Mac. If you download Fusion 4.x, use the application Double-click to upgrade from VMware Fusion 3 included in the VMware Fusion installation image. This automates the removal of Fusion 3 and the installation of Fusion 4.

To upgrade Fusion:

  1. Ensure that all virtual machines are shut down.
  2. Quit Fusion
  3. If necessary, uninstall Fusion and then restart the Mac. This step is not required in Fusion 5.x.

    Note: In most cases, uninstalling the existing version of Fusion is not required in order to upgrade. If the upgrade fails, try uninstalling Fusion before installing the upgrade. For more information, see Manually uninstalling VMware Fusion (1017838).

  4. Install the new version of Fusion. For more information, see Downloading and installing VMware Fusion (2014097).

Any previous virtual machines are automatically detected and appear in the Virtual Machine Library. If they are not detected, follow these steps:

  1. From Fusion's menu bar, go to File > Open.
  2. Navigate to and select the virtual machine.
  3. Click Open.
  4. Repeat as needed for each virtual machine.

Upgrading VMware Tools

When upgrading Fusion, the new version may come with an updated version of VMware Tools that requires separate installation.

Follow these steps if the VMware Tools installer does not launch automatically after booting Windows:

  1. From the Fusion menu, click Virtual Machine > Update VMware Tools.
  2. Follow the on-screen prompts to complete the installation.
  3. Restart Windows when prompted.

To troubleshoot issues with the installation or upgrade of VMware Tools, see Uninstalling and manually installing VMware Tools in VMware Fusion (1014522).

Additional Information

If you want to delete the virtual machines also since uninstalling Fusion doesn't delete them, see Deleting a virtual machine in Fusion (1003420).

The information above assumes that you're upgrading from a version of Fusion 2 or 3; if you're upgrading from Fusion 1 to Fusion 2 (or higher), see our guide: Updating an Older Virtual Machine to VMware Fusion 2. This guide details some of the new features in Fusion 2, but there's also one important point in the upgrade process that's not covered above.
 
After installing Fusion 2, and opening Fusion, you need to upgrade the hardware version of your virtual machine. To do so:
  1. Select your virtual machine in the Virtual Machine Library.
  2. Go to Virtual Machine >  Upgrade Virtual Machine.

This change is necessary to take advantage of some of the more advanced features of Fusion, and improves the way in which Fusion virtualizes your hardware.

Tags


install-fusion  install-fusion-application  install-tools  install-upgrade-vmware-tools-simultaneously  tools-install  upgrade-vmware-tools

See Also

Update History

05/10/2010 - Added "Additional Information" section about upgrading from Fusion 1.x to 2.x. 04/14/2010 - Re-ordered steps to match title and stated purpose of article. 08/13/2010 - Added local path for uninstaller. 08/23/2012 - Added Fusion 5.x information

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