How can I exclude USB devices from being connected to VM?

[WhiteKnight]

In general, I want VMware Workstation to present me with a dialog for choosing whether to assign a newly connected USB device to the host or one of the VMs.

However, this is not true for certain USB devices, like the Microsoft Surface keyboard that I can detach/attach to my Microsoft Surface Pro 3 host device. I want this particular device (and probably others, like USB mice) to exclusively be connected to the host, immediately.

How can I exclude certain USB devices from arbitration?

[bonnie201110141]

For HID_BOOTABLE devices, a dialog would not pop up for user 'c choice. You can add below line to %ProgramData%\VMware\VMware USB Arbitration Service\config.ini to make the USB device always connect to host:

usb.quirks.device0=”0xVID:0xPID never-allow”

VID & PID can be obtained from vmware.log from your VM folder.

[WhiteKnight]

Thanks für that tipp! I'll try tonight and check your answer as Correct Answer then when I fiddled what to do.

[WhiteKnight]

May I suggest to add an option to the New USB Device Found dialog, doing the exact same thing (see suggested new checkbox below):

[bonnie201110141]

Please check "Show all USB input devices" from vm settings > USB Controller. Then add below option in %ProgramData%\VMware\VMware USB Arbitration Service\config.ini

usb.quirks.deviceX=”0xVID:0xPID allow”

Then the HID device will be asked when inserting.  “X” is a integer number starting from 0, different device setting must use different numbers.