Installing VMware Tools in a Mac OS Guest

Products

VMware Desktop Hypervisor

Issue/Introduction

This article details the procedure to install VMware Tools in a guest running macOS.

Note: macOS guests are only supported in VMware Fusion virtual machines.

For an overview of installing VMware Tools, see Overview of VMware Tools (340)
For general VMware Tools installation information, see Install VMware Tools (1014294)
For more information about VMware Tools for VMware Fusion see Overview of VMware Tools for VMware Fusion (1022048)

Environment

VMware Fusion 2.x
VMware Fusion 3.x
VMware Fusion 4.x
VMware Fusion 5.x
VMware Fusion 6.x
VMware Fusion 7.x
VMware Fusion 8.x
VMware Fusion 10.x
VMware Fusion 11.x
VMware Fusion Pro 8.x
VMware Fusion Pro 10.x
VMware Fusion Pro 11.x

Resolution

To install VMware Tools in a macOS guest:

Note: You do not need a CD to install VMware Tools. The VMware Tools installer is embedded in the VMware Fusion application itself.

Power on the virtual machine and log in.
From the Apple menu, go to Virtual Machine > Install VMware Tools.
Click Install when prompted.
The VMware Tools volume mounts and opens automatically. Double-click Install VMware Tools.
Click Continue to initiate the installation process.
Click Install to agree to install VMware Tools on the boot volume.
Click Continue Installation to agree to install now.
Enter your administrator password to allow the installation, then click Install Software.
Click Restart.

If the version of macOS guest is macOS High Sierra 10.13 or above, after reboot, the guest shows below message:

System Extension Blocked
A program tried to load new system extension(s) signed by "VMware, Inc.". If you want to enable these extensions, open Security & Privacy System Preferences

Click OK to dismiss the message, follow the instruction to open Security & Privacy System Preferences. There is a message near the bottom of the page: System software from developer "VMware, Inc." was blocked from loading. Click Allow button next to the message.

If you have issues with installing VMware Tools, you may need to uninstall and then reinstall. For more information, see Manually uninstalling VMware Tools in a Mac OS guest (2005390).

Additional Information

Running VMware Tools in macOS guests has these limitations:

SVGA only. No accelerated 2D or 3D graphics.
Support text drag-and-drop/copy-and-paste between macOS host and macOS guest.
Support file drag-and-drop between macOS host and macOS guest.
No support for file copy-and-paste between macOS host and macOS guest.
No support for Unity.
No multimonitor support in full screen.
Mac OS X Server guests do not support sound.

To install VMware Tools in guests running other operating systems, see:

For more information, see: