As for Windows 8, Fusion 5 supports the Standard, Pro, and Enterprise versions of the new operating-system. (In the last version, you could install Windows 8 as if it were a Windows 7 environment.) Along with running Windows 8 VMs, Fusion 5 can also run office 2013 standard from the Bootcamp partition. Unity mode -- which displays Windows and OS X apps side by side in separate Finder windows -- assumes a brand new twist with Windows 8: The Metro Start screen fills the whole Mac display, just as it does in Windows.

VMware Fusion 5 Professional includes all the features in the standard edition, along with capabilities targeted at helping IT professionals get a better handle on heterogeneous and BYOD desktop environments. By configuring restricted virtual machines, admins can prevent users from changing microsoft office 2010 settings, copying data between the VM and host environments, or attaching USB devices to the Windows VM.

Separately, VMware also took the wraps off VMware Workstation 9, adding support for buy windows 7 home premium , restricted VM features, and a new Web interface that enables remote, browser-based access towards the virtual machine catalog and running VMs. Like Fusion 5, Workstation 9 brings USB 3.0 support to Windows 8 VMs, compatibility with Intel's new Ivy Bridge CPUs, virtual performance counters, and support for 3D graphics based on OpenGL 2.1.