That worked. It's like an old VMS library file.

I've made the change you suggested and I'll try Unity again.

Thanks,
Tom

Synopsis:

VmwareUser.exe shows constant 100% busy using Vmware Fusion 2.02 (147997). Copy/paste between host/guest continues to operate correctly, however.
This appears to be a reoccurrence of earlier issues identified in this thread.
I have a 26MB dump of running 98% busy vmwareuser.exe I can upload if desired; please provide instructions if so.

Details:

Apple Macbook Pro 2.5GHz Core 2 Duo with 2GB RAM, running 10.5.6 with all updates installed as of 2009-03-29.
Guest Instance: Windows XP Pro 2002 SP3 with all critical updates, derived from a previous native XP installation on an HP laptop.
Unity was not enabled and had not been used since last boot. System had been switched between networks, laptop lid closed/opened successfully numerous times.
There may be something network related but I'm not sure, it may be coincidental. If so, sorry for the network-related info in this post.

Just prior to the observation I had canceled/closed a timed-out Juniper VPN client app from within the Windows guest (see previous Fusion community post "vmnet-natd constant 100% busy" for other details). Windows apps (eg. Outlook) complained about lost/disconnected network connections and I closed them to install a Windows Update previously downloaded by Windows. FYI Fusion is set for "NAT" mode.

The 100% busy vmwareuser.exe problem was observed immediately after allowing Windows Update to install Malicious Software Removal Tool (2009-03-29), with no other programs running. The Windows Update would not complete installation (but claimed it had completed its download; probably much earlier) and eventually needed to be canceled. There seemed to be something hung up in the updater because the cancellation hung indefinitely, until after switching windows/contexts (alt-tab, command-tab, starting/closing other apps, etc??) numerous times. Finally clicking the updater window again, appeared to break the cancellation loose, allowing it to immediately finish and close the updater window. Huh.

All subsequent attempts to access the network from within the guest failed, tho the network was accessible from OSX.

VmwareUser.exe continued to run at 100% busy thereafter.

Via the host OS I downloaded the Windows userdump.exe utility from Microsoft, copied it onto the running guest via a shared folder, and installed it. Ran "userdump.exe <PID>" on the 98% busy VmwareUser.exe PID. I have the dump file, which apparently can be analyzed with windbg.exe or other similar tools, and am glad to upload it if desired; it is 26.6MB after compression with "gzip -9" .

I then successfully used Task Manager to end the VMWareUser.exe process. CPU usage went to near zero.

I attempted to reestablish network connection within the guest, first by disabling/reenabling the network in the Fusion tray, then disabling in fusion AND Windows. Both succeeded but neither helped. Windows showed the network cable disconnected/reconnected each time. Then I disabled the network only within Windows with Fusion's network still active; things got sideways. Windows icons showed the network enabled/connected while menus showed it disabled. All subsequent attempts to disable/enable the network connection failed in Windows. Network Connection>Properties looked fine; saving the dialog caused the Network Connex icon to show "disabled" and the menus had "enable" grayed out. Couldn't find any way around this.

Rebooted the guest OS. VMWareUser.exe was fine, tho the network was still inaccessible from within the guest (network connex look fine tho). Rebooted the guest OS and also restarted Fusion. DNS seems to resolve but data transfers fail. Disabling/enabing Windows networks appears successful but still cannot access the network. Disabling/enabling Network in Fusion Tray works and is acknowledged by Windows, but no love. Will boot host OSX next.

Thanks for any help you can provide.

The problem is still not solved in 2.0.5.

Shut down my XP virtual machine, upgraded to 2.0.5 (173382), removed the previously suggested line (isolation.tools.dnd.disable = "TRUE") from my vmx file, and restarted my VM. Dragged some files into/out of VM windows in Unity mode and almost immediately had vmwareuser.exe at 100% just like every release since the betas of 2.0.

MacBook Pro 15" running 10.5.7 (2.6GHz Core 2 Duo, 4GB RAM). Using an external monitor (30" 2560x1600) in addition to the MacBook screen. VM using 2 virtual processors, 1536MB, not accelerating 3D graphics, no mirrored folders, sharing one folder from my Mac to the VM, not allowing Mac to open VM apps, allowing VM to open Mac apps, network bridged.

Back to disabling drag-and-drop again...

I checked on tools and the version and build matched (2.0.5, 173382). Just to be safe, however, I decided to do (attempt?) a clean reinstall of VMWare Tools. Now I'm really in need of help as it appears that the VM is now in a completely unusable state.

First, I did an uninstall of tools using Modify/Remove Programs in XP and then restarted the VM. XP starts back up and presents me with my login prompt. After login, I get what appears to be a small part of my blank XP desktop in the VM window. In other words, I cannot see or access the Windows task bar or any of the icons on my XP desktop. Right-clicking (or control-clicking) in the VM gives me no XP contextual menus. Sending Ctrl-Alt-Delete appears to do nothing. Selecting Install VMWare Tools appears to do nothing. The only thing that has any effect is sending Shut Down Guest or Restart Guest from the Virtual Machine menu, which gets me back this same state. This is the case regardless of whether I'm in full screen or single window view.

It seems that VMWare thinks I'm running 640x480 while my Windows XP VM, however, seems to think it's a much higher resolution and everything I need is off the visible screen area. I can restart the VM in Safe Mode and access my desktop/task bar/etc, but then I of course cannot install tools. I've changed the display settings in safe mode to 800x600 (and made them actually happen by using the Advanced mode button), but the changed settings apparently don't stick on a non safe mode restart; I just end up back with a screen where I can't see/access anything. Any ideas/suggestion?

Thanks for the suggestions. What I finally did (before your response and after many failed regedit hacks) was resort to using the Windows system restore, which happily was ready to restore to just before I removed VMWare tools. That was the first time in all the years I've been using Windows that I've ever used system restore. Despite what I originally thought was oddness with the display resolutions, it's my suspicion that Kaspersky (7.0.1.325) was the source of the conflict after removing VMWare Tools. I, however, am not going to verify that - I've had quite enough downtime already.

Until I added back the line to the *.vmx file that disables drag-and-drop, yes I had the 100% CPU problem.