• Use your VMs in KVM mode
• Share Bluetooth devices

Virtualization solutions allow you to do many things, as well as run old programs in a virtualized OS.
One of the disadvantages is that you must, by default, use them in a window (which represents the virtual machine).

Nevertheless, VMware has thought of you and allows you to seamlessly integrate programs running in the virtual machine directly into the host OS.
To do this, all you need to do is use the Unity mode of VMware Workstation.

Warning : the affected programs will continue to run in the virtual machine, but their display will be transferred to the host PC.

As you can see in the image below, we use the web browser on the Windows 7 host PC and the new Microsoft "Edge" web browser in a Windows 10 virtual machine.

If VMware Tools are installed and started, you can enable Unity mode by clicking the icon marked in red on the image below.

Once the Unity mode is enabled :

• the virtual machine display will be disabled
• the VMware Workstation window will be automatically reduced in the taskbar
• the programs currently open in the virtual machine will appear in the host OS

As you can see, the web browser launched from the virtual machine now appears as a program installed on the host PC.
It's even possible to pin virtualized programs to the host PC's taskbar using the native Windows option.
Indeed, this creates a special shortcut to launch the virtual machine concerned, then the desired virtualized program automatically after starting it.

Small difference compared to the seamless mode of VirtualBox, the taskbar of the virtualized OS doesn't appear in the host OS.
This allows for better integration, but no panic, the start menu remains accessible by hovering over the start button of the host OS (as you can see below)

If you are an observer, you have probably noticed that the programs actually running in a virtual machine have a colored border and an icon (also called a "badge").

If you want to configure this Unity mode, go to the settings of the desired virtual machine, then in the "Options" tab.
Then, select the "Unity" option and configure the following options :

• Show borders : to enable or not the colored border around the programs "imported" in the host OS from the virtual machine by using this Unity mode
• Show badges : to display or not the icon at the top right of these programs indicating that this program is virtualized (and not installed on the host PC)
• Use a custom color in window borders : to use a specific color rather than a color randomly assigned by VMware
• Enable applications menu : to enable or disable the start menu (VMware version) for the guest OS of virtual machines where Unity mode is enabled