Focus inadvertently changed to host - please register sound event

[WhiteKnight]

I'm working rather keyboard centered, i.e. I'm using keyboard shortcuts whenever I can. Moreover, I'm working in Fullscreen mode most of the time.

Sometimes, by accident, a VM loses focus and focus is given to the host inadvertently. This probably happens when the mouse pointer moves near the VMware Workstation toolbar when I release the mouse and put my hand on the keyboard.

When this happens, I, for instance, inadvertently open File Explorer on the host instead of the guest or shut down the host instead of the VM. I tend to believe this is a serious issue, because sometimes unsaved work is lost.

VMware: Can you please register two sound events with Windows on the host OS for accessibility reasons:

1. One that's triggered by VMware Workstation when focus switches from guest OS to host OS.
2. One that's triggered by VMware Workstation when focus switches from host OS to guest OS.

There's no need to preset these sound events with a sound. Me and other interested users can assign some appropriate sounds ourselves.

Here's how it's done:

Creating Your Own Sound Alerts

[scott28tt · Accepted solution]

I guess this would need coding into VMware Tools for Windows.

You could submit it here: Feature Request - VMware Support

[WhiteKnight]

Thanks, Scott, for pointing me to the right direction.

I submitted a feedback item there now.

[WhiteKnight]

Today, again, I inadertendly shut down my host OS instead of my guest OS by hitting Windows + X, R, R^* while, apparently, focus was yielded to the host OS by VMware Workstation.

This is very annoying.

After having submitted this issue as a feature suggestion, are there plans for implementing and solving this issue?

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^* On a German Windows 10 installation this keyboard combination triggers Windows System Menu, Shut down options, Shut down.

[WhiteKnight]

I cannot add to my feature request, so I'd like to add a second feature implementation proposal here:

In addition to the audible cue I described above, I'd like to propose an additional visual cue. Here's my proposal:

Please add an option to overlay the guest OS display
with a semi-transparent dark layer while in fullscreen
and focus is yielded to host.

I envision the following Preferences panel for both, the audible and visual options:

When user sets transparency to 100 %, overlay code may be skipped for optimization.

The suggested Boolean option "Enable focus cues" is supposed to enable/disable all, visual and aural, focus cues in one single step. This overal enable/disable option might be handy when recording screen captures, so focus cues may temporarily be disabled for conducting a VM screen recording session. As a visual cue, all input fields below this option (i.e. Overlay Transparency and Play a Sound) should be disabled in the Preferences panel when this option is disabled.

Here's a simulation of the overlay effect I propose to happen (Windowed mode is depicted here for illustration purposes):

[WhiteKnight]

Today, I inadvertently installed Hyper-V in my host instead of my VM as I can't tell host from VM when the VM is in Fullscreen mode.

Not to mention the many times I'm inadvertently shutting down my host instead of my VM, just because the mouse pointer was moved to the upper corner of the screen.

Please, PLEASE, VMware … Add this very neccessarry usability feature!