Early Tuesday, virtualization softare maker VMWare released version 2.0 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 248 megabyte download, offers the following new features and fixes:

Multiple Snapshots and AutoProtect:
Save your virtual machine in any number of states, and return to those states at any time.
New Snapshot UI to help you manage all the snapshots you have saved.
Automatically take snapshots at regular intervals with AutoProtect.

Shared Folders Improvement and Mirrored Folders.
Shared Folders are easier to discover. New Shared Folders option in Status bar and Virtual Machine menu. Can open all Shared Folders or just a specific Shared Folder in the virtual machine.
Greatly improved reliability of shared folders—now compatible with Microsoft Office, Visual Studio, and QuickBooks.
Improved compatibility running Java applications from a Shared Folder.
Map key folders in Windows Vista and Windows XP (Desktop, My Documents, My Music, My Pictures) to their corresponding Mac folders (Desktop, Documents, Music, and Pictures).

URL Handling:
Click on a URL in a virtual machine and open it in your favorite Mac browser, or configure your Mac to open its links in a virtual machine.
VMware Fusion supports opening URLs of the following types: Web pages (http, https), Remote Sessions (telnet, ssh), Mail (mailto), Newsgroups (news), File transfers (ftp, sftp), and RSS feeds (feed).

Application Sharing:
Allow your Mac to open applications in the virtual machine—Finder can now open your Mac's files directly in Windows applications like Microsoft Word and Windows Media Player.
Allow the virtual machine to open applications on your Mac—VMware Fusion can configure virtual machines to open their files in Mac applications like Preview and iTunes.
VMware Fusion can directly open Windows programs (.exe) and installers (.msi) in a virtual machine just by double-clicking on them in Finder.

True Multiple Display Support:
VMware Fusion automatically detects multiple displays by default.
Your virtual machines will recognize each display you connect to your Mac as a separate virtual display.
Handles changes to resolution and display orientation automatically.
Option to use one or all screens in Full Screen mode.
Unity windows can be dragged between displays, and will maximize correctly to just the display they're on.
Correctly handles plugging and unplugging displays.
3D supported on primary display when using multiple displays.

Unity Improvements:
Virtual machines resume and start directly in Unity view.
Run Linux applications directly on your Mac's desktop under Unity view (experimental)
Switching between Spaces desktops while in Unity view no longer causes Mac OS X to jump back and forth between Spaces.
Quit Windows applications from the Dock icon.
Unity windows now respect the Dock location and won't maximize underneath the Dock.
Exposé now filters out non-application windows.
Drag and Drop to overlapped Unity windows now works.
Cursor not hidden while typing in Unity view.
Handle Unity windows without titles better.

Graphics Improvement:
Greatly improved 3D performance and compatibility with DirectX 9.0c and Shader Model 2 software and games. (VMware Fusion runs best with the latest graphics hardware, like the NVIDIA 8800 GT, ATI Radeon HD 2600, and ATI Radeon HD 3870.)
When playing high-definition video (720p, 1080i, 1080p) in a Windows XP or Windows Vista virtual machine, VMware Fusion now uses hardware acceleration for smooth video playback.
Freely resize your virtual machine's window and enter and exit Full Screen view while playing games.

Experimental Support for Mac OS X Server Virtual Machines:
You can create Mac OS X Server 10.5 virtual machines (experimental support). Due to Apple licensing restrictions, the standard edition of Mac OS X 10.5 is not supported in a virtual machine.

Virus Protection and Firewall Included for Windows XP and Vista Virtual Machines:
To keep your Windows-on-Mac experience as safe as possible, VMware Fusion includes a complimentary 12-month subscription to McAfee VirusScan Plus to protect your Windows investment.

UI Enhancements:
Fully localized in six languages: French, German, Japanese, Simplified Chinese, Italian, and Spanish.
Install Linux painlessly and automatically with Linux Easy Install in the New Virtual Machine Assistant (Note: Not all Linux distributions currently support Linux Easy Install).
Cut and paste text and styled text up to 4 MB.
Status icons glow when there is activity.
A screen shot of the last suspended state of a virtual machine is displayed in Quick Look and Cover Flow.
You can remap keyboard and mouse input.
VMware Fusion's keyboard support is now compatible with Quicken, Google Earth, last.fm, and other software that previously could cause a "beep" each time a key was pressed.
The vmrun command line interface is available for scripting.

New Virtual Machine Library:
Provides greatly improved management of virtual machines.
Shows screen shot of last or active states.
Option to set a virtual machine to be started automatically when VMware Fusion is launched.
Easily find your virtual machines on your hard drive with the Show in Finder option.
Menus now act on whichever virtual machine is selected in the Library window.
You can move old and unused virtual machines to the Trash directly from the Library.

New Settings Editor:
Provides quick overview of all virtual machine settings.
Works just like System Preferences.
Works in Unity, Full Screen, and Single Window views.
Add existing virtual hard drives to virtual machines and even optionally copy them into the virtual machine bundle.

Integrated VMware Importer:
Just choose File > Import to import your Parallels Desktop and Virtual PC for Mac virtual machines.
Outputs a completely new VMware virtual machine based on the input virtual machine.
Importation process is nondestructive, so you can continue to use the original source virtual machine with the product used to create the source virtual machine.
Import your Boot Camp partition to a true virtual machine and take advantage of suspend/resume and snapshots.

Driver-less Printing:
Virtual machines automatically pick up your default Mac printer and all configured Mac printers. No need to install drivers in the virtual machine.

Broader Hardware and Software Support:
Support for over ninety operating systems.
VMware Fusion supports 64-bit Vista Boot Camp; handles activation for Microsoft Office 2003 and Office 2007.
Experimental support for 4-way SMP (note: Windows Vista and Windows XP limit themselves to two CPUs).

USB Improvements:
Allow USB mice/tablets in a virtual machine without custom configuration.
Faster USB Storage performance.
USB devices are recognized by type in the Status bar.

Improved USB robustness including:
Canon DR-2580c no longer hangs after scanning documents.
Now able to sync BlackBerry Pearl devices.
Able to print from Kodak AiO 5100 in Windows virtual machines.

Networking Improvements:
Virtual machines in Bridged networking mode know when your Mac's network connection is available or become unavailable, and will refresh their network address automatically.
DNS and WINS server pass-through with NAT networking.
Browse for Bonjour printers with NAT networking.
Improved performance when using NAT networking.
Manual option to override the MAC address to any MAC address in VMX settings file, previously limited to VMware-specific MAC addresses.
Automatically obtain a new DHCP lease when switching between NAT/Bridged networking.
Windows guests now able to join Active Directory domain with NAT networking if WINS is enabled on Mac OS X.
Improved compatibility with wireless bridged networking and certain DHCP/routers.

Full Screen Improvements:
Virtual machines resume and start directly in Full Screen view.
Full Screen can use one or all displays on the Mac.
Supports super large displays that are over 2048 (MacBook and MacBook Air) or 4096 (iMac, MacBook Pro, Mac Pro) pixels wide.

Support for Virtual Hard Disks:
You can mount the virtual disk of a powered-off Windows virtual machine using VMDKMounter (Mac OS X 10.5 or higher).
You now have the ability to resize virtual disks.
Fusion 2.0 requires any Intel-based Mac with a 1.5 GHz or faster processor, one gigabyte of RAM, 400 megabytes of free disk space for VMware Fusion and at least five gigabytes for each virtual machine and Mac OS X 10.4.11 or later to install and run.