Setting up Fusion as a disposable environment for browsing

[VMware Community Member]

Hi,

I want to use Fusion as a disposable sandboxed environment for internet browsing. The VM would be completely wiped on app/VM instance shutdown. I'm on a Mac M2.

Is there a guide to set up this type of env, or is it so simple that no guide is needed?

Does support anything like Parallel's coherence mode where virtualised apps can show up in the Dock?

Finally, any advice on the best OS images for this? I'm thinking probably Linux Lite or MX Linux.

Thanks!

[Technogeezer]

There's no guide and it's not simple to do.

Some thoughts.

The least of your problems is that there is no equivalent of Parallels' Coherence mode with Fusion on Apple Silicon Macs. It only exists on Windows VMs running on Intel Macs. 

Fusion does have the ability to take and restore snapshots, but the process is manually initiated. If I remember correctly, VMware Workstation has the ability for non-persistent disks, which essentially revert the VM's disk at power-off. You may be able to accomplish the same thing by manually editing the .vmx file for the VM, but I'm not sure if the feature will work on Fusion.

Another option you might want to consider is to use a live Linux installation such as provided by Ubuntu. Those do not persist information to a virtual disk when they are shut down.

 

[RDPetruska]

Long ago, when VMware introduced virtual appliances, there was exactly this - a virtual appliance just for browsing, for this exact reason.  Not sure it still exists - they've undergone numerous changes over the years - but wanted to chime in that this HAS been done in the past.

[ColoradoMarmot]

If you want it isolated and disposable, then unity/coherence is the wrong way to go.  Run a live cd, and turn off all the os integration.