This past week I had to install Microsoft Office in Windows XP SP3 that runs in a VMware Fusion virtual environment on my MacBook Pro. And, of course, this caused a storm of new Windows Updates being installed when Windows XP shutsdown.
So it has been a few months now with my MacBook Pro and Windows XP is running flawlessly in VMware Fusion. Windows XP boots fine, shutsdown fine and has not crashed once. But, of course, the Windows Updates are not always reliable, and the other evening XP would not complete its shutdown. It was stuck on one of the updates for about an hour with no end in sight. It was at this moment I was in unchartered territory. I basically wanted to power off or reset the virtual session as if turning off the PC, but I didn't know how to do it. The documentation for VMware Fusion on this matter had me unsure for awhile and then I finally found it in the documentation.
By default, the Virtual Machine Menu Option lists the “Soft” Power Commands and you need to hold down the Alt/Option Key to display the “Hard” Power Commands that will let you power off or reset the VMware Fusion Session:
It turned out that all I needed to do was Reset the session to re-boot Windows XP and the Windows Updates finally got themselves installed over the course of the next couple of shutdowns.
VMware Fusion is still working flawlessly and now I have a few “Hard” Power Commands at my disposal when the Windows Updates hang Windows XP.
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