The time is now! After a long wait, we’re proud to announce the general availability of the VMware Fusion 13 product line: Fusion 13 Pro and Fusion 13 Player, for both Intel as well as the latest Apple Silicon Macs.
After years of ongoing development and several Tech Previews, we’re ready to bring Windows 11 and more to both Intel and Apple Silicon Macs with the latest major version of VMware Fusion. Let’s take a quick look at what’s new in Fusion 13
On both Intel and Apple Silicon, Fusion 13 brings support for Windows 11 virtual machines. In order to achieve support for Windows 11 System Requirements while still providing performant virtual machines, we had to innovate. We’ve delivered a new Virtual Trusted Platform Module (2.0) device that is recognized as a valid TPM, and new encryption method to support that TPM.
On Intel Macs you’ll notice full support for Windows 11 with VMware Tools allowing for host-guest interactions like Drag & Drop, or Copy & Paste, as well as shared folders and USB and Camera device passthrough.
On Apple Silicon, we’ve introduced our first round of features for Windows 11 on Arm. In this release VMware Tools provides virtual graphics and networking, and more is still to come. With certified and signed drivers Windows 11 looks fantastic, and adjust the resolution to 4K and beyond!
Note that Fusion on Apple Silicon must run the Arm variant of Windows 11, and it does not support the x86/Intel version of Windows.
However, for users who want to run more traditional win32 and x64 apps, Windows 11 on Arm has built-in emulation to run those applications compiled for Intel/AMD, and as a user-level process our testing has shown us that this works ‘out of the box’.
Fusion 13 ships with a single binary, one DMG, that installs on both Apple Silicon and Intel Macs, making mass deployment simple, and removing any confusion about which is the right version to run on any Mac.
Fusion 13 introduces a TPM 2.0 virtual device. While designed with Windows 11 in mind, the device can be added to any VM for use. It stores contents in an encrypted section of the virtual machine files, securing the ‘secure enclave’ and providing hardware-tpm functionality parity.
To support the new vTPM 2.0 device while remaining performant, Fusion has introduced a new ‘fast’ encryption type. Using the same strength as Full encryption, Fast encryption only encrypts the parts of the VM necessary to support the TPM device, making it performant while maintaining security. The encryption password is also stored in the Mac’s Keychain so that you don’t need to type it in every time you boot the VM. The VM can also auto-generate a password, or you can specify your own instead.
For Graphics, Fusion 13 sports OpenGL 4.3 in Windows and Linux VMs on Intel, and in Linux VMs on Apple Silicon.
On Intel, Windows continues to enjoy DirectX 11 graphics, and Fusion continues to support eGPU devices for incredible performance using some of the fastest GPU’s available.
On Apple Silicon, Fusion can deliver OpenGL 4.3 with blazing fast 3D hardware acceleration to arm-based Linux virtual machines with Linux kernel 5.19 or greater.
Good news! We’re continuing to offer free “personal use” licenses for Fusion Player, and have updated our license delivery tool to provide v13 keys. If you have a v12 key, you can register for a new v13 key here: vmware.com/go/get-fusionplayer-key
Download the Trial by visiting: vmware.com/go/tryfusion
Ready to buy? Head over to the VMware Online Store where we’re running a 30% off new licenses launch sale!
Michael Roy is the Product Line Manager for Desktop Hypervisor products such as VMware Fusion and Workstation.
