Knowledge Base

This issue occurs when the virtual machine reboots and the user logs in with a period of 60 seconds.

To avoid this issue, either shutdown rather than restarting and wait 60 seconds before powering on, or disable the auto-login. Otherwise, when the VMware Tools process does not start automatically, you need to launch it manually.

To manually launch the VMware Tools service/process:

Fusion 3.x and 2.x and all Linux guests

In Fusion 2.x and 3.x, the VMware Tools service is called VMwareUser.exe in Windows and the VMware Tools process is called vmware-user in Linux.

Windows guests

1. Go to Start > Run.
2. Enter this text:
   
   C:\Program Files\VMware\VMware Tools\VMwareUser.exe
   
   
3. Click OK.

Linux guests

1. Open a command prompt. For more information, see Opening a command or shell prompt (1003892).
2. Run these commands:
   
   pkill vmware-user
vmware-user

Fusion 4.x Windows guests

In Fusion 4, the VMware Tools service is called vmtoolsd.exe.

There should be two vmtoolsd.exe services running, one under the SYSTEM username and the other under your own username. If the user account vmtoolsd.exe is not running, then Unity, drag and drop, and copy and paste do not work.

To manually launch the VMware Tools service for your own user account:

1. Go to Start > Run.
2. Enter this text:
   
   C:\Program Files\VMware\VMware Tools\vmtoolsd.exe" –n vmusr
   
   
3. Click OK.

If the service does not start automatically, ensure that the correct registry keys exist.

To confirm the registry keys:

1. Go to Start > Run.
2. Enter this text:
   
   regedit
   
   
3. Click OK.
4. Navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run
5. There should be two entries there. If these entries do not exist, create them:
   
   
   • VMware Tools REG_SZ "C:\Program Files\VMware\VMware Tools\VMwareTray.exe"
   • VMware User Process REG_SZ "C:\Program Files\VMware\VMware Tools\vmtoolsd.exe" -n vmusr