Shared VM - Copy/Paste and Cloning

[Netsmage]

Hello everyone,

I have two questions which I have been trying to figure out but running into issues. This is currently running VMWare Workstation 15.5.1 inside Windows 10 Pro x64.

1.) I need to Clone a Shared Virtual Machine

I have the original "what the Shared VM was 'cloned' from", but it has now become outdated. I am looking at how to create a Clone of this Shared VM.

2.) Enable Copy/Paste within Shared Virtual Machines

I have looked at the .VMX files and found a few line items that I thought adding would make it work, however it does not.

isolation.tools.copy.disable = "FALSE"

isolation.tools.dnd.disable = "FALSE"

isolation.tools.paste.disable = "FALSE"

isolation.tools.hgfs.disable = "FALSE"

Its very counter-productive in not being able to copy and paste files/text from one Virtual Machine to another. So I am trying to figure out a way to be able to do this. I also cannot map them to network drives either for some reason. I do not want these Shared Virtual Machines to be able to "reach UP" into the Host Operating System or file structure for security reasons.

Thank you all in advance for taking the time to respond!

[Netsmage]

Hello everyone,

I am just following up on this thread because this is still a very big problem to the people trying to use these Shared VM's on the network.

I found a workaround which is essentially Sharing a folder on the machine that needs to do the copy/paste back and forth but this is not the correct approach.

To clarify, the problem I am having this issue with is "Shared Virtual Machines". I am able to copy and paste just fine from my Host to Guest operating system for "NON-SHARED VM's".

I have tried Uninstalling VMWare Tools inside the Guest Operating System VM, rebooting, and then reinstalling but nothing has seemed to work.

I have also tried manually editing the .vmx file which also has not worked.

[wila · Accepted solution]

Hi,

Shared VMs do not have the clipboard sharing feature!

http://kb.vmware.com/kb/2005585

When you share a virtual machine, you lose these features:

 Unity
 Shared Folders
 AutoProtect
 drag and drop
 copy and paste
 Thin Print
 Ability to connect/redirect USB devices from the host to the virtual machine 
 3D Acceleration 

--

Wil

[Netsmage]

Thank you!

Not sure if there is a better way then to handle users remoting into the VM and controlling Permissions still.

That's nice about a Shared VM is the integrated Permissions and Roles. If I enable VNC the remoted in user can do anything they want to it.

I don't want users to be able to do anything with the Shared VM other than remote in and use it.