On Tuesday, virtualization softare maker VMWare released version 1.1.62573 of its Fusion software for the Mac.

Similar to other virtualization software packages, VMWare allows users to run alternate operating systems such as Windows and Linux distributions on Intel-based Macs at native speeds. Other features, such as Unity, allow users to run and minimize Windows applications from the Mac OS X Dock.

The new version, a 172 megabyte download, adds the following features and bug fixes:
-VMware Fusion now transparently remaps keyboard shortcuts when the user goes back and forth between applications in the guest and in the host. For example, VMware Fusion remaps -X to Ctrl-X in the guest. The same remapping happens for -Z/-C/-V/-P/-A/-F.
-The number pad Enter key on European keyboards is always treated as AltGr. NumLock no longer disables this feature.
-This release fixes host and guest connectivity problems that could arise when using wireless networking.
-VMware Fusion 1.1 contained a fix so that suspending a virtual machine located in a FileVault folder no longer makes the system unresponsive. The problem reappeared with Mac OS X 10.5.x (Leopard), and this release fixes it in this version of the OS as well.
-Print jobs sent from the guest to a Kodak AiO 5100 series printer are now successful.
-When the user starts up a Boot Camp virtual machine, the password prompt now has focus, so that the user can type in the password without first having to move the mouse over the dialog box to select it.
-A problem causing the application to hang at launch, and for which the workaround was to delete the plist, has been fixed in this release.
-In some instances users with Mac OS X 10.5.0 and 10.5.1 could get a soreceive corrupted . . . kernel panic. Version 1.1.1 fixes this problem.
-Version 1.1.1 corrects a problem in which VMware Fusion was producing an error message when a user attempted to enable promiscuous mode for an Ethernet adapter in Mac OS X 10.5.
-The SRS iWOW plugin no longer breaks the sound in VMware Fusion.
-This release fixes a problem with the internal microphone when VMware Fusion runs on Mac OS X 10.5.
-Version 1.1.1 corrects a caps lock LED synchronization problem that could lead to a kernel panic in vmioplug.
-This release fixes problems with using the mouse after installing VMware Tools on a Ubuntu 7.10 guest.
-This release fixes a problem that resulted in a hang when certain volumes were accessed from an HGFS share.
-Having a Digidesign CoreAudio plugin no longer causes a bouncing vmx icon to appear in the Dock with a "Not Responding" label in Activity Monitor.
-In some cases, a VMware virtual machine would not recognize a hardware breakpoint set in an application and would not stop the code execution. This problem has been fixed.
-As a workaround for Apple bug 5679432 (Mac OS X hang under heavy disk load when unbuffered I/O is in use), VMware Fusion 1.1.1 disables unbuffered disk I/O on Mac OS X 10.5 hosts, even when the user selects Optimize for Mac OS application performance in VMware Fusion preferences.
-A bug in the operating system would, in some cases, result in all applications running with root privileges following a upgrade to Mac OS X 10.5.1, instead of how the user originally set them. This would prevent VMware Fusion from reading its own files. This has been reported to Apple to be addressed in a future release.

VMWare Fusion for Mac retails for US$79.99 and requires Mac OS X 10.4 or later to run.

If you've tried the new version of VMWare Fusion or have any thoughts on the new build, let us know in the comments or forums.