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wulf_21
Contributor
Contributor
‎10-15-2023 02:12 AM

Autotype from Keepass 2 to VMWare Workstation 17 not working

Hello,

Keepass 2 has a handy option to send passwords as keystrokes intead of clipboard. Basically, what it does is that is automatically set the window focus back to the previous window that was selected before keepass and then simulates keypresses on the keyboard. It works fine with other applications, but I cannot get it to type into a vmware window that runs a guest OS.

What I do:

  • Boot up the virtual machine to the login mask of the guest OS
  • Click into the place there to type the password
  • switch to keepass 2 window and select the password
  • hover the mouse cursor over the VMware window running the guest OS (This is because I noted the behaviour that the VMWare workstation will only accept keepresses from physical keyboard if it is in focus AND the mouse cursor is within the constraints of the window)
  • press the autotype keyboard shortcut (Ctrl+V)

Expected outcome

  • Focus switches back to the VMWare window and the password is typed in

Actual outcome

  • Focus switches to VMWare Window, then nothing happens

Software involved:

  • Host OS: Windows 11 Pro Version 22H2 Build 22621.2428
  • VMware® Workstation 17 Pro Version 17.0.2 build-21581411
  • Keepass 2.54 (64-bit)

This has been asked before, but the workarounds in the previous answer do not work or are not longer applicable:

https://communities.vmware.com/t5/VMware-Workstation-Pro/Keypass-2-with-VM-Workstation-14-Autoperfor...

(1) Converting the VMs to shared -> This feature was removed from VMWare
(2) Launching Workstation or the 3rd party app as Administrator: No matter which of the 4 combinations the applications are run in (non as Administrator, VMWare+Keepass as Administrator, only VMWare as Administrator, only Keepass as Administrator) - none works
(3) Disabling System Integrity protection - I am not sure if the name of the option might have been changed in Windows 11. But the Windows Option in Settings -> Windows Security -> Core Isolation -> Memory Integrity already was off before
(4) Upgrading the to the latest version of Win10/Workstation - To my knowledge, I have the latest versions

Any other suggestions, how I might get this to work?

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louyo
Virtuoso
Virtuoso
‎10-15-2023 12:42 PM

Well, this isn't any help, but:

I am running keepassxc on a Linux host. If I select an entry and do Ctrl-V, it does nothing, either in the host or the guest. If, however, I click the keyboard thingie and select paste into last active window, that does the paste.

Alas, in the guest, it pasted everything lower case. I tested in both Linux and Windows guests.

I don't use Keepassxc for that.  I have a macro keypad and assign the passwords to keys. I find that easier. 

 

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