Does Player have a USB filter feature?

[raywood]

In VirtualBox, I have been able to set a USB filter that captures the USB WiFi adapter. This means that the host is prevented from going online when the guest is running; only the guest has Internet access. Is there a similar tool or technique in VMware Player 15?

[sjesse]

You can do it in linux, I'm not sure about windows or mac.

[raywood]

I should have mentioned: I'm starting with a Windows 10 host and Windows 10 guest. I will probably add a Linux guest. There may be other variations (e.g., Windows 7 host) later.

[wila]

Hi,

You can do it in linux, I'm not sure about windows or mac.

You can pass-through the USB to the guest on Linux, Windows and macOS.

So no problem on a windows 10 host with a Windows 10 guest.

--

Wil

[sjesse]

I mean where you can blacklist a usb device, I know in some cases you needed to do that in Linux to get the device to go through to the guest os.

[wila]

Hi,

OK, the TS question is not about blacklisting though, it is about automatically capturing.

This is a feature on all the hosted platforms, but in rare cases it might need a manual .vmx edit.

Blacklisting a driver, via device ID, is a host/guest OS feature and is needed in Linux to choose between either conflicting drivers or to not allow a driver to claim the device.

There's blacklisting on other OS's (can't remember about Windows), but it is rarely needed there.

Problematic drivers also also the ones that first present itself as a CD so that Windows can load a driver and then afterwards can change into a modem device.

This is mostly common with 3G devices, less common in WiFi devices IIRC.

A manual .vmx edit might be needed for these devices to get them passed correctly to the guest OS.

--

Wil

[raywood · Accepted solution]

I figured out the answer. Here's the writeup. Thanks all for giving me hope that it would work.