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Enabling a USB device from a virtual machine

You can use up to two USB devices in your virtual machine if both your host operating system and your guest operating system support USB. Only one operating system -- host or guest -- can have control of a USB device at any one time. When you connect a device to a virtual machine, it is unplugged from the host operating system or from the virtual machine that previously had control of the device. When you disconnect a device from a virtual machine, it is plugged in to the host operating system.

To take advantage of the USB support, you must create your virtual machine using the Workstation 3.0 Configuration Wizard . You can disable USB devices using the Configuration Editor. The virtual machine's USB ports are enabled by default.

To enable USB devices:

  1. Select File > Open and open the virtual machine configuration file (.cfg) you want to modify.
  2. Select Settings > Configuration Editor from Workstation.
  3. Click the USB device.
  4. Select the Enable USB option.
  5. Click OK.
By default, Workstation automatically connects any newly plugged-in USB device to the guest operating system rather than the host operating system when a virtual machine is powered on and its window is the active window.

This autoconnect feature can be disabled in the USB Controller panel of the Configuration Editor. If, during automatic connection, all of the virtual machine"s USB ports are already occupied, a dialog box lets users choose between disconnecting one of the existing USB devices to free its port, or ignoring the new device, allowing it to connect to the host operating system.

To turn off Workstation's autoconnect feature:

  1. Select Settings > Configuration Editor from Workstation.
  2. Select the USB controller from the list.
  3. On the far right, deselect the "Automatically connect new USB devices to this virtual machine when it has focus" option.
  4. Click OK.

Connecting to USB Devices

While the virtual machine is powered on, use the "Devices" menu to connect specific USB devices to your virtual machine. You can connect up to two USB devices at a time.

There is a menu item for each of the USB ports. Move the mouse over one of these items to see a list of devices that are plugged into your host computer and available for use. To connect a device to the virtual machine, click its name. If a device is already connected to that port, you can release the connected device by selecting None from the submenu corresponding to the device's USB port.

Unplugging USB Devices

To disconnect a USB device from a virtual machine, select None from the submenu corresponding to the device's USB port.

If you physically unplug a USB device that is connected to a virtual machine, the virtual machine will behave just as a physical computer would. The device will no longer be seen as an available device inside the virtual machine and its name will disappear from the "Devices" menu.

Caution: You should always wait until a USB device is idle before unplugging it. This is true whether you are physically unplugging it or moving it from host to virtual machine, between virtual machines or from virtual machine to host. This is particularly important with data storage devices (such as Iomega Zip drives). If you move a data storage device too soon after saving a file and the operating system has not actually written the data to the disk, you can lose data.

Note: If you will not be using USB devices in a virtual machine, you can remove its USB controller using the Configuration Editor.

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