VM Workstation 11, Windows 7 SP1 and USB 3.0

[gibsomj]

I am fairly new to VM but am currently trying to connect a USB 3.0 32 GB thumb drive on a Windows 7 SP1 OS(both physical and virtual) using VM Workstation 11.1.2 build-2780323 and whenever I plug in the thumb drive I get a USB device not recognized.  I have found an entry online where someone stated that USB 3.0 is not supported for virtual windows 7.  is this true and if so does anyone know when this support will be added?  I have got to figure that I'm not the only one wanting this.  Any help anyone can provide would be greatly appreciated.

[newbie93]

Welcome to the forums.

A couple of things:

1) Verify that the USB controller for that VM is set to USB3 (I think by default it's USB2). If USB2 isn't an option in the pulldown list, see next item

2) If the VM wasn't newly created with Workstation 11, try upgrading the Hardware version (maybe make a backup of the VM first before doing so)

2a) if USB3 still isn't an option, try removing the controller and adding a new one once the hardware for the VM has been upgraded.

3) This is dumb, but make sure you're using  a USB3 port (it's been known to happen).

4) Not applicable in your particular case, but USB3 in guests requires kernel 3.x for linux systems. (Linux mint 17.2 seems to work okay with USB3 thumb drives).

5) Sometimes USB3 on add-in cards don't work as well (or not at all) as USB3 on the motherboard. I've seen it both ways.

6) I haven't tried USB3 in a Win 7 guest yet, maybe someone else can respond.

I have Win 7 x64 as a host.

USB and Workstation 11 have a Dr Jekyll/Mr. Hyde: some stuff works well and some stuff is just plain broken.. I've been putting up with 11.1.2 with one major annoyance right now.

[wila · Accepted solution]

Hello gibsomj‌,

Welcome at the VMware Community forums.

Your research is correct.

Windows 7 does not come with USB3 drivers from Microsoft (sometimes also called inbox drivers) and as a result there is no native usb3 support for Windows 7 guests. It's not exactly expected as at the time windows 7 was being sold usb3 was available on the hardware and of course it worked, but the drivers supplied were all 3rd party drivers.

Unfortunately none of those 3rd party drivers will work with the virtual usb3 hardware in your virtual machine, so even if you enable it, there are no drivers that can use it.

Windows 8 (and up) does have inbox usb3 drivers and it works down there.

What can you do besides upgrading? If your hardware is usb2 compatible you might be able to force it to use the usb2 interface by either usng a usb2 cable or usb2 hub between your usb3 device and host.

As for the question on when will it be supported. Basically only VMware knows and unfortunately VMware has a policy not to comment on features that might be supported in the future.

Having said that, there's a rumor that the new Tech Preview on VMware Fusion (comparable version to the tech preview on Workstation) had "usb3 support for windows 7" guests on its feature list. That comment is no longer there, so we won't know if it was a typo or an actual feature.

--

Wil