Way to grab keyboard mouse?

[Joz3d]

Hello,

Is there a way to grab the keyboard/mouse in the VM besides clicking? I don't want to have to reach over to the mouse and click it just to activate a virtual machine when I'm alttabbing. I found that ctrlg is supposed to do this, but it doesn't seem to work in vSphere 4.0. The most intuitive thing would be if ctrl+alt went both in and out of the VM. Anyway, does anyone know how to do this with the keyboard?

[mcowger]

If you install vmware tools it will do it on mouseover.

--Matt

VCP, vExpert, Unix Geek

[Joz3d]

So, no keyboard shortcut without VMware tools? 😕

[ChrisJ615]

This question is more out of curiosity than anything: Bug any reason why you wouldn't want to use the VMWare tools? :smileyblush:

[Rumple]

Without the vmware tools you are losing transparent page sharing and optimized drivers in the VM. You really should have the drivers installed into the MV for best performance.

[Joz3d]

Let me clarify here. I do have VMware tools installed on many of my VMs. The first answer (mcowger) was not valid, because it requires the use of the mouse, and it's actually not even true. For example:

1. I pull a VM (with tools installed) over this space where I'm typing this response, with the mouse in it, and we don't want to use the mouse anymore.

2. I hit ctrl+alt to get out of the VM.

3. I alt+tab to this VMware Communities browser window.

4. I alt+tab back to my VM.

5. I can't get back into it.

Actually, even if I move the mouse around after alttabbing back into it (not clicking), it doesn't go into the VM. Alttabbing again goes back to this browser window outside of the VM, so the mouse-over comment isn't correct (but we are trying to do this without a mouse anyway).