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Configuring the Virtual Machine to Grab Keyboard and Mouse Input

To direct input to the virtual machine, VMware Workstation grabs input from the keyboard and the mouse so all keystrokes, mouse moves and button clicks go to the virtual machine.

By default:

• Ctrl-Alt-Enter sends input to the virtual machine and places it in full screen mode.
• Ctrl-Alt releases input from the virtual machine and returns it to window mode.

You can change the following using the preferences editor:

• How Workstation Starts Grabbing Input
• How Workstation Releases Input Back to the Host and How Your Cursor Behaves
• Enabling Copy and Paste To and From the Virtual Machine

If you encounter problems with grabbing and ungrabbing input, see Issues When Grabbing and Ungrabbing Input.

How Workstation Starts Grabbing Input

To change the way Workstation starts grabbing input:

• Check Grab keyboard and mouse input on mouse click if you want Workstation to grab input the first time you click your mouse cursor in the virtual machine window. The first click in the display is not sent to the virtual machine.
• Check Grab keyboard and mouse input on key press if you want Workstation to grab the keyboard and mouse input on the first keystroke in the virtual machine display. The first keystroke is sent to the virtual machine.

  Note: If you select Grab keyboard and mouse input on key press, you cannot use the normal application and system accelerator key sequences when the virtual machine display is active.

• Check Grab when cursor enters window if you want Workstation to grab the keyboard and mouse input whenever your cursor enters the virtual machine window. The first keystroke and mouse click are sent to the virtual machine. The mouse pointer is grabbed only when Workstation has focus (is the active application).

  Note: This takes effect only when VMware Tools is running in the guest operating system.

  Note: If you release the mouse pointer by pressing a hot-key combination, you must click inside the virutal machine window for Workstation to start grabbing input again.

How Workstation Releases Input Back to the Host and How Your Cursor Behaves

Note: The following settings can take effect only when VMware Tools is running in the guest operating system.

To change the way Workstation releases input back to the host and change the way your cursor behaves:

• Check Ungrab when cursor leaves window if you want to return input to the host whenever your mouse cursor leaves the virtual machine display.
• Check Hide cursor on ungrab so that the cursor is no longer visible in the virtual machine display after input is transferred back to the host. This option makes it easier to keep track of your active cursor if you have multiple virtual machines open at the same time.

Enabling Copy and Paste To and From the Virtual Machine

Note: VMware Tools must be running in the guest operating system before you can copy and paste between the host and guest.

Check Enable copy and paste to and from virtual machine to enable copying and pasting text between applications on the host and guest. Use the standard methods of copying and pasting in the host and in the guest applications (for example, Ctrl-C and Ctrl-V).

Issues When Grabbing and Ungrabbing Input

When working with grab and ungrab, you may encounter the situations described in the following table.

Situation	Explanation
Pressing Ctrl-Alt to release the mouse and keyboard causes a laptop to go into suspend mode.	VMware Workstation uses Ctrl-Alt to release the mouse and keyboard. Some laptops use this same key combination to suspend the host machine.  In these cases, try using Ctrl and Alt on the right- hand side of the keyboard. Workstation recognizes both sets of Ctrl and Alt keys, while laptops usually recognize only left-hand keys for the suspend function.
After you press Ctrl-Alt to release the mouse and keyboard, the keyboard does not function properly within the host operating system.	Sometimes VMware Workstation causes the host operating system to lose keyboard events. This causes the host operating system to think that keys are being pressed when they are not.  If you notice strange keyboard behavior in the host operating system after leaving VMware Workstation, press and release each of the modifier keys individually, including Ctrl, Shift and Alt. This should release the keys that are stuck in the host operating system.  If this does not work, then try other special keys including the Windows, Esc and Caps Lock keys.

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