I was able to do this with VMWare Workstation Pro 14 without issue, and I know the copy-paste feature works by taking strings in the clipboard and turning them into keypresses on an emulated keyboard, and I have heard that you should be able to copy and paste short strings without vmware-tools specifically for the purpose of copying and pasting product keys during installation.

I would be very upset if I had to downgrade just to regain functionality. I upgraded to 16 specifically on the expectation that I would *gain* functionality.

I would be very appreciative if anyone has any advice for me on how I can enable this feature.