This might be an issue with VMware Tools on your WinXP VM. To find out, uninstall Tools from your VM, reboot, and see if you still see the problem. Reinstalling Tools might help.
To be clear you have two ways to connect to the VM:
- Web Console (vSphere Web Client, VM Summary, Gear Icon, Launch Web Console)
- Standalone VMRC 10.0.2 (as above but Launch Remote Console)
Let me make sure I'm clear on these points:
- When you resize the window and the desktop goes black, you're connected to the VM via the Web Console.
- When you refresh to restore the background you're refreshing the browser window.
- If you connect with the Web Console and standalone VMRC at the same time the VM crashes.
If you connect with just standalone VMRC how does the session work?
Also
- What version of vSphere/vCenter/ESXi are you running?
- What are the details of the blue-screen exception on the VM?
- Do you see this problem in the Web Console when using a different browser like Chrome?
- What is the operating system on the computer you're connecting from?