How to send Ctrl+Alt+Delete to Windows in VMWare Player

hotkeysvmware-player

I run VMWare player 2.5.0-118166 from Ubuntu 8.10 using Gnome 2.24.1.

I can find no menu options to send the combination to the welcome screen.
Ctrl+Alt is being picked up by VMWare Player and releases input, so Ctrl+Alt+Del/Ctrl+Alt+Ins can't be typed in directly.
Ctrl+Alt+Space should suppress VMWare Player from picking up the next keyboard input, but following this with Ctrl+Alt+Del or Ctrl+Alt+Ins does not seem to work.

So I'm stuck, not able to log in to my Windows image.. How can I send a Ctrl+Alt+Del to Windows within VMWare Player?

Best Answer

Ctrl+Alt+Insert. In my experience with VMware products (Workstation and Server; I must say I have not tried Player, but I can't see any reason why it differs), Ctrl+Alt only has special effects if you press and release them on their own, without an accompanying key.

Oh yes, I remember. It only works when the input is grabbed, or not (I can't remember which). Try grabbing/ungrabbing the input and doing that keystroke again.

Edit (gleaned from other answers; thanks!): If Ctrl+Alt+Ins doesn't work, try:

Crtl+Alt+PrtSc
Ctrl+Alt+End

VMware has some really funky keyboard mapping issues (at least on some versions, and at least on some platforms).

Related Solutions

How to change or disable hotkey for VMware Player

I was having the same problem, and a little research led me to the “Modifying the hot key setting in VMware Server (1008036)” article on the VMware Knowledge Base site (archived here).

It shows how to modify the preferences.ini file to make the hotkey Ctrl+Alt+Shift, and indicates that other key combinations can also be set. Ctrl+Alt+Shift was fine for me, so I tried that and it works:

Purpose

This article provides steps to customize the hot key preferences in VMware Server 2.0.

Resolution

The Remote Console does not provide an interface control to set the hot key settings. You must configure hot keys in the user preferences files.

To configure hot keys in the user preferences file:

Note: If you have other VMware products installed, these changes affect the preferences of those products as well.
Open the preferences file in a text editor.

The file is located in one of the following locations:

Windows XP and Windows Server 2000 –
C:\Documents and Settings\[username]\Application Data\VMware\preferences.ini

Windows Vista, Windows 7, Windows Server 2008, Windows 8, and Windows Server 2012 – %USERPROFILE%\AppData\Roaming\VMware\preferences.ini

(%AppData%\VMware\preferences.ini may work for either of the above.)

Unix/Linux – ~/.vmware/preferences
Add the following lines to the file:
pref.hotkey.gui = "false"
pref.hotkey.shift = "true"
pref.hotkey.control = "true"
pref.hotkey.alt = "true"
This combination sets the hot keys to Ctrl+Alt+Shift. Other settings yield different combinations.
Save the file and restart the Remote Console.

Reportedly, the pref.hotkey.gui line refers to the Windows key.

Making VMware player fullscreen in windows

You can use the maximize button on the top right hand side of the window:

enter image description here

You'll also need VMWare Tools installed on the guest in order to have the VM resize the desktop accordingly.

Best Answer

Related Solutions

How to change or disable hotkey for VMware Player

Purpose

Resolution

Making VMware player fullscreen in windows

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