VMWare and Xojo flavors

Targets Windows
1

For a long time I have built Windows apps on a VM using Fusion.
Like everything I was forced to change a lot of software due to dang Catalina, so VMWare Fusion is now version 12.
2 weeks ago I built my main Windows app using Xojo 2018 instead of my more usual 2015
And instantly the bug reports rolled in - crashes and incorrect behaviors

For no reason I can fathom, under 2018, window events fire in a different order. Activate was happening before open , for example, and Xojo was reaaaallly slow
I did my best to mitigate but without success.
In attempts to stabilise things, I added more memor and disc space. Nothing
The I updated the VM ‘hardware’ to version 18

Now: Xojo 2015 works and builds my app for distribution as normal, which resolved the panic run of bug reports.
But now, Xojo 2018 causes an instant blue screen of death in my VM.
Anyone else seeing similar?

2

Did you test your app with Xojo 2018 or did you just build the app? The latter never is a good idea.

What does “The I updated the VM ‘hardware’ to version 18” mean?

Can you describe “But now, Xojo 2018 causes an instant blue screen of death in my VM.” in more detail? Do you remote debug or do you run Xojo in the VM? Do BSODs have crash logs like macOS does?

3

When you upgraded the vm version did you remember to reinstall vmware tools on Windows?

4

did you remember to reinstall vmware tools on Windows?

Yes

What does “The I updated the VM ‘hardware’ to version 18” mean?

VMWare fusion has in the settings a variety of ‘hardware’ that it emulates.
Version 18 is one of them. Its like choosing between a 2010 laptop and a 2018 desktop.

Did you test your app with Xojo 2018

I do test in Xojo, although I think I usually use the 2015 edition.
Even though I write the code in Xojo 2018 on the Mac.
On the bad weekend I will have opened the code in 2018 after a small update and ‘just hit build’

do you run Xojo in the VM?

Yes. Its normally pretty close to using a real PC

Do BSODs have crash logs like macOS does?

I dont know

5

Was the vm upgraded and/or have you tried a fresh os install on a new vm? If so does it do the same bsod? Does 2020r whatever is latest also crash?

6

see this Thread: Windows 10 on Fusion 12 gets BSOD running a Xojo app

2 Likes
7

Thanks Jürg
I’ll look into that.

8

God knows where my VM file has gone in Catalina
I can open it fine but no sign of the vmx file on disc.

Anyway, reverting back to hardware version 16 allows me to launch Xojo 2018 again for now. Probably significant: no support for DirectX 11

9

If you have enough disk, you can also use Fusion to run Bootcamp -Windows that would be closer to native installation and drivers. I haven’t had problems with Xojo apps on Fusion vm’s, but have noticed some strange things related to events: as an example, running a CAD program in Fusion became impossible since it didn’t handle the mouse scrollwheel events properly which made it really hard to do any work with drawings. It is also known that with VMware downgrade is a valid option since they ship stuff with major issues.