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The Preferences dialog box allows you to change a number of settings that apply to VMware Workstation itself, no matter what virtual machine you are running. The settings under Preferences apply to the user currently logged on to the host computer. They do not affect settings made by any other user on the computer.
To make changes to these settings, choose Edit > Preferences.
The Input tab lets you adjust the way that the virtual machine captures control of keyboard and mouse.
Note: The Grab when cursor enters window option allows you to move the mouse pointer back into the virtual machine window easily if you have been working in the virtual machine, then temporarily moved the mouse pointer outside the virtual machine window. The mouse pointer is grabbed only when VMware Workstation has focus (is the active application). Also, if you release the mouse pointer by pressing a hot-key combination - Ctrl-Alt by default - you must click inside the virtual machine window to make VMware Workstation grab the mouse pointer again.
The Hot Key tab lets you change the key combination that determines whether certain combinations of keys are passed to the guest operating system or intercepted by VMware Workstation.
For example, you may want to change hot-key combinations from Ctrl-Alt-<key> to Ctrl-Shift-Alt-<key> to prevent Ctrl-Alt-Delete from being intercepted by VMware Workstation instead of being sent to the guest operating system.
Note: Because Ctrl-Alt is the key combination used to tell VMware Workstation to release (ungrab) mouse and keyboard input, combinations that include Ctrl-Alt are not passed to the guest operating system. If you need to use such a combination - for example, use Ctrl-Alt-<Fkey> to switch between Linux workspaces in a virtual machine - press Ctrl-Alt-Space, release Space without releasing Ctrl and Alt, then press the third key of the key combination you want to send to the guest.
Using this dialog box, you can also construct your own custom hot-key combination.
The Workspace tab lets you change the directory in which newly created virtual machines are stored. The directory Workstation uses by default is displayed under Default location for virtual machines. To set a different directory, type in the path or click Browse to navigate to the directory you want to use. Workstation creates a directory for each new virtual machine under the directory you specify here.
If you select Remember opened virtual machines between sessions checkbox, you see a tab for each opened virtual machine in the virtual machine window the next time you start Workstation. A virtual machine is considered opened if both of the following conditions are true: