Prior to VMWare Pro 15.5, stretch for all OSes was finally working correctly. If you set a machine to use only stretch, the UI would respect it and would always show up stretch (either aspect or free), regardless of "Autofit Guest" setting, which is grayed out when a VM is set to stretch.
However, since 15.5, the VMs randomly auto-fit on resizing the main window, instead of stretching, even if the VM is set to stretch-only.
This causes a huge inconvenience on HDPI displays where the base resolution of the VMs is intentionally set to lower so that the machine can stretch. As mentioned at the top, this appeared to be working correctly prior to 15.5, as you can see...
This:
Vs. now:
I do have the latest VMWare Tools on all affected guests.
Easy way to reproduce.
On an HDPI display, do the following:
1. Set the base resolution of the host to a lower than native resolution.
2. While in that lower resolution, change the VM settings to not allow stretching.
3. This will cause the VM resolution to automatically adjusted to fit (if Auto-fit Guest is set at the VMWorkstation level on the View Menu).
4. Go into the VM Settings and select Stretch Mode (either mode is fine).
5. Change the resolution of the host back up to native.
6. The VM should "stretch" and still look well-sized.
7. At this point, because the VM is set to "Stretch Mode", the View -> AutoSize is disabled and can no longer be changed.
8. Press this button on the toolbar (toggle stretch mode at the VMWare level).
The VM's resolution will be immediately auto-sized, and the items will again be incredibly small, with the need of having to go through the whole process I have just described.
My take on this is that if Stretch Mode is selected at the VM level, no Autofit involving a guest resolution change should be taking place, precisely because, while in Stretch Mode, the View -> AutoSize options are disabled.
NOTE: Again, be mindful that this is not only happening with pressing this button. It just happens to reproduce it easily. For me, the issue is that it happens randomly, like for example, when a VMWare alert pops at the bottom panel of the Workstation window, the VM resolution is autosized, hence my issue (getting tired of setting things back up so often).