how to get up vmware fusion running

[Moya Ndiaye]

Hi, Im trying to make a new virtual machine but I'm getting this come up and I've never had it before, i also cannot open my old virtual machine from fuson 12 to this new one

[a_p_]

Regarding the screenshot. Can you confirm that you've already installed the guest OS, and/or have attached a valid installation image (ISO image) to the VM's virtual CD-ROM drive?

For the old VM that does not start, pleas provide some details.

André

[Technogeezer]

What kind of Mac are you using with Fusion? And what is the installation media (with the name of the ISO file, please) that you're using?

If you're using an M-series (M1/2/3/4) Mac:

• Virtual machines that were made with Fusion on an Intel Mac can't run on the M-series Mac.
• Operating system installation media for Fusion on an M-series Mac must be for the ARM (aarch64 or arm64) architecture. Installers for Intel (x64, x86_64, amd64) won't work. 

Both of these are because Apple's M-series chip is not an Intel chip and Fusion doesn't emulate Intel chips on M-series Macs.  While Rosetta works for applications compiled on Intel Macs, it doesn't work for virtualization software like Fusion - that's an Apple limitation. 

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- Paul (technogeezer)
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[Technogeezer]

One other thought. First, check that:

• you have the correct architecture Windows installation ISO for the CPU that you/re running (more specifically you must have WIndows 11 x86_64 for Intel Macs, or Windows 11 ARM for M-series Macs), and
• you have the installation ISO configured to the virtual CD/DVD drive, and
• that you have the virtual CD/DVD drive connected to the VM in the VM's settings

If one of those is not true, correct it so that all 3 items are satisfied.

If all checks out, then at VM power-on you should see a prompt that says "Press any key to boot from CD or DVD". You have to click the mouse in the VM's window and then press any key on the keyboard. This prompt times out in about 5 seconds after the message is displayed. If you don't press the key before the prompt times out:

1. the Windows installer won't boot
2. the VM will try to boot from other available devices (usually the network). When that fails
3. the boot process will fall back to the EFI firmware display you see here.

You recover from this situation by powering off VM then powering it back on. Repeat (and make sure you ger the key press done before the prompt times out) until you get the Windows installer. 

Not having the correct architecture installation ISO will cause this error because the firmware can't find an bootable OS for your VM.

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- Paul (technogeezer)
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[Moya Ndiaye]

Hi figured it out using one of the other previous threads 

[Technogeezer]

Could you give us an idea of what the problem was and how you fixed it? (and mark your post as the answer). It might help out others in the community in the future.

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- Paul (technogeezer)
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