Unable to enter "exclusive mode" in vmware workstation 8

[ydntlk]

I've installed VMware Workstation 8, but when I click "View -> Exclusive mode" in Fullscreen mode nothing happened. Anyone else encountered this problem or there are somewhat workarounds to solve it?

[ydntlk]

Btw, my host environment is Windows Server 2008 R2, with a guest Windows XP Professional.

[admin]

When you say that "nothing happened", do you mean that the full screen bar remained visible?  Was the mouse not constrained to the VM (it would be hard to tell if you don't have a multiple monitors, though)?  Does pressing Ctrl+Alt+PrintScreen do a screen capture?

[kdshapiro]

I was able to enter exclusive mode, meaning the mouse was unable to move outstide the window. However, the  toolbar remained, which is a different behavior than in the beta. In the beta the toolbar disappeared.

[admin · Accepted solution]

Okay, I think I'm able to reproduce your problem.  Thanks for reporting this.  As a workaround, you can go to Edit > Preferences > Display and uncheck "Show toolbar edge when unpinned in full screen".  That should prevent the full screen toolbar from reappearing in exclusive mode when you move the mouse to the top of the screen.  I think the toolbar also will become properly hidden if you pin the toolbar before entering full screen mode.

[kdshapiro]

LOL I was just about to say this.

[ydntlk]

I'd got a try to enter exclusive mode again, and yes, I really found that mouse was constrained to the VM, just toolbar keeping visible.

[ydntlk]

Thank you for your help.

[ydntlk]

There is another problem besides the toolbar. Unlike VMware Workstation 7, in exclusive mode, screen resolution will keep an aspect ratio of 1:1 other than fill the whole screen beyond the settings of monitor and display adaptor.

[admin]

ydntlk wrote:

There is another problem besides the toolbar. Unlike VMware Workstation 7, in exclusive mode, screen resolution will keep an aspect ratio of 1:1 other than fill the whole screen beyond the settings of monitor and display adaptor.

That's intentional.  In Workstation 8, we've changed exclusive mode so that it is the same as normal full screen mode but with changes to the input behavior (more key combinations will go directly to the guest, and we constrain the mouse cursor).  We no longer change the host resolution.  If you want the guest screen to fill up the entirety of your host monitor, you'll need to choose the "Stretch guest" full screen mode.

[ydntlk]

I've got it. Thank you.

[ydntlk]

I've changed the option to "strech guest" and use that for a while and find, in fact, the behavior of resolution in exclusive mode isn't consistent at all. If I power on the guest first then enter exclusive mode, the startup screen keeps original size and doesn't fill the whole monitor until I login in the guest. But when I restart it, the startup screen occupies the whole monitor this time. Of course, it doesn't make any effects to me, just making me feel so strange.