What's in the Release Notes

The release notes cover the following topics:

About VMware Fusion
What's New
Prior Releases
Known Issues
Resolved Issues

About VMware Fusion

VMware Fusion 8.1 is the easiest, fastest, and most reliable way to run Windows and other x86 based operating systems on a Mac without rebooting.

For more information, see the broader VMware Fusion documentation or specifically the VMware Fusion 8.0 Documentation Center.

What's New

VMware Fusion 8.1 is a maintenance release that resolves some known issues. It is a free upgrade for all VMware Fusion 8 users.

Prior Releases

Features and Known Issues from prior releases of VMware Fusion are described in the release notes for each release. To view the release notes for prior releases of VMware Fusion 8, click the following links:

VMware Fusion 8.0.2
VMware Fusion 8.0.1
VMware Fusion 8.0

Known Issues

The following issues might occur in this version of VMware Fusion.

Upgrading the guest to Windows 10 version 1511 might prevent VMware Tools related features from working
When you upgrade major Windows versions, such as Windows 7, Windows 8 and Windows 8.1, to Windows 10 version 1511, VMware Tools related features, such as shared folders and Unity mode or view, do not work.
Workaround: The following workarounds consist of the same steps, but performed at different points in relationship to the upgrade.
- To prevent this issue from occurring, perform the following steps.
  1. Uninstall VMware Tools before you upgrade a Windows guest to Windows 10 version 1511.
  2. Reboot the virtual machine.
  3. After the upgrade, install VMware Tools again.
- If this issue occurs after you upgrade to Windows 10 version 1511, perform the following steps to enable all VMware Tools related features to function.
  1. Uninstall VMware Tools from the guest operating system.
  2. Reboot the virtual machine.
  3. Reinstall VMware Tools.

The Easy Install option does not complete the installation for Windows 10 Version 1511 guests
When you use the Easy Install option to install the Windows 10 version 1511 guest operating system, the installation process stops
at the "Select the operating system you want to install” screen.
Workaround: Complete the installation process manually by selecting an operating system and clicking Next.

In Unity view, VMware Fusion might not display the Windows 10 taskbar
Sometimes, in Unity View, even after you select "Show Taskbar in Unity" from the View drop-down menu, the Windows 10 taskbar does not appear.
Workaround: Press the Command key to bring up the Start Menu of the guest operating system, which might cause the taskbar to appear again, or use the application menu on the Apple menu bar to access the applications in the guest.

Resolved Issues

The following issues were resolved in this version of VMware Fusion.

During the Easy Install process, VMware Fusion misinterprets Windows 10 Version 1511 ISO images as Windows server 2012 R2 images
When creating a new virtual machine, if you select a Windows 10 version 1511 ISO file in the New Virtual Machine Wizard, the wizard says "Windows 10 detected. The operating system will use Easy Install". But in the next step, the "Version of Windows to install" dialog box only displays options for Windows Server 2012 R2.

This issue is resolved.

When you run Fusion in Full Screen view with multiple monitors, unplugging a monitor causes Fusion to crash

This issue is resolved.

The Microsoft Excel application responds to input with a one-second delay
When you run Microsoft Excel 2013 on a Windows 10 virtual machine, the application responds to your input with a one-second delay.

This issue is resolved.

Using USB devices with a virtual machine on an OS X 10.11 host might cause the virtual machine to crash

This issue is resolved.

The non-English language keyboard layout of the host and guest differ when the virtual machine is accessed remotely using VNC
When you access a non-English language virtual machine using Virtual Network Computing (VNC), the keyboard layout of the guest operating system differs from the keyboard layout of the host, and the documented fix for this in VMware KB 1004815 does not work.

This issue is resolved.

A UAS device connected to a USB 3.0 port on a Mac OS X 10.9 or later host might fail to successfully connect to the guest
When a UAS device that is connected to a USB 3.0 port on a Mac OS X 10.9 or later host is connected to the guest, the device might fail to successfully connect to the guest. The device might appear as connected in the removable devices list, viewable by selecting VM > Removable Devices, but the guest operating system might fail to recognize the device.

This issue is resolved.

Reverse DNS lookup does not work in a virtual machine when a dnsmasq server is installed and configured on the Mac host

This issue is resolved.

Copying a large file between a USB storage device and an OS X virtual machine might stall and fail

This issue is resolved.