Is there anyway of getting usb pass through on a windows 2008 r2 vm?
Take a look: VMware KB: USB support in ESXi/ESX 4.1 and ESXi 5.x
thanks, from what i can gather i need EXi 5.5 Patch 3 & then a xHCI controller on the 2008 VM?
is that right?
Yes, but only if you need USB 3.0, for USB 1.1 and 2.0 you don't need it.
