===== Installing VMWare Fusion For All Users =====

Installing VMWare Fusion so that it can be easily used by all users on a Mac is a little tricky. Here are the steps.

**Install Fusion**

Log in to the machine as an administrator. Install Fusion and create/borrow/copy an image. The default location for the Fusion image is <User home>/Documents/Virtual Machines so move that folder to /Users/Shared. Make sure that any images you want for all users are in the Fusion dialog list when you run the application. Run each one and Fusion will detect that the image has been moved and ask if you have moved or copied it. Tell Fusion the image has been moved. once you have done this quit from Fusion.

**Fix Permissions**

The next step is to fix permissions on the folder and its contents so that all users can read and write to it. Control Click on the "Virtual Machines" folder and select 'Get Info'. Go to the bottom of the dialog and change the permissions to "Read & Write" for both the group (probably 'staff') and 'everyone'. You may have to click on the little lock and enter your password before you can change the permissions. Now click on the little gear wheel and select "Apply to enclosed items". A dialog will pop up asking if you are sure and warning that you cannot undo this action. Click "OK".

**Copy Fusion Preferences**

Add the Fusion icon to the Dock if it is not already there.

Open the folder Library/Preferences in the home folder of the current user. Hold down the option key and click and drag "com.apple.dock.plist" and "com.vmware.fusion.plist" to the Desktop.

Open the "Terminal"
type ''sudo -s<return>''  
You will be prompted for a password. Enter the administrator password you used to login.  Now enter the lines below.
<code>
cd "/System/Library/User Template/English.lproj/Library/Preferences"  
mv ~/Desktop/*.plist .<return>
</code> 

**Fix logout script**

The big problem with installing Fusion so the images can be used by all users is that if one user leaves the virtual machine in a suspended state, rather than shutting down the virtual machine, it creates a suspend file that can only be used by that user, locking your image and causing all sorts of headaches. Fortunately deleting the suspend file is easily done if you have a logout script installed.

First cd to /usr/local/scripts (or wherever you store your login script, that's the location I recommend) and edit your login script with your favourite text editor.

Go to the end of the file and add the following lines

<code>
## added by ARW 17/04/2008
## Delete any VMWare Fusion suspend files
rm -f /Users/Shared/VirtualMachines/*/*.vmss
</code>
(thats an 'r' followed by an 'm' at the beginning of that line)

If you don't have any login scripts then create a text file in a handy location with an obvious name (I use 'login.sh') and then run the following at a command prompt, replacing the path and name as required.

<code>
defaults write com.apple.loginwindow LoginHook /usr/local/scripts/login.sh
</code

You are now done. Check and then breathe a sigh of relief.