How to create a non-shared device

[SgVmGuy]

I am having an issue with a smart card and, after trial and error, realized that the issue is with my VMWare Workstation 15 not having exclusive control of the smart card reader.  I finally figured this out as after I updated my VMWare Tools, my entries for my non-shared Smart Card reader drivers no longer showed up.  Before, I had both shared and "static" entries that I would use and the cards worked fine.  I verified that the cards in question are working as I have ActiveClient on my host as well as on a separate machine and both show the correct information when querying the card. 

I didn't really think about it being a VMWare issue until I realized that it was common in both my Win 10 Pro and Centos 7 VM's.

SO...  What do I need to do to get this non-shared status back on one of my readers in my Workstation 15 setup?  I have the drivers for the readers and have installed them on both the host and the VM's, but I still don't see them as it was before.

Thanks in advance!

-Sam

[SgVmGuy · Accepted solution]

So,  apparently when you have 2 readers on the same hub and update your VMWare or VMWare tools, you will get the sharing device by default on a Windows 10 host, especially if they are the same branding.  After about 100 searches that focus on shared VM's, I finally found the article Configure USB Device Connection Behavior​ which led to my answer.  I had to unplug the 2nd reader and connect it to another port directly on my machine instead of my monitor's built in Hub (as it was originally set up and working) and it and it came up with the non-shared option so that I could read the card with no issue (at this point).

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