{"id":8965,"date":"2024-01-23T13:05:21","date_gmt":"2024-01-23T13:05:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cheapwindowsvps.com\/blog\/step-by-step-guide-enabling-copy-and-paste-on-a-vmware-virtual-machine\/"},"modified":"2025-02-04T09:22:27","modified_gmt":"2025-02-04T09:22:27","slug":"step-by-step-guide-enabling-copy-and-paste-on-a-vmware-virtual-machine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cheapwindowsvps.com\/blog\/step-by-step-guide-enabling-copy-and-paste-on-a-vmware-virtual-machine\/","title":{"rendered":"Step-by-Step Guide: Enabling Copy and Paste on a VMware Virtual Machine"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><p>For security reasons, the clipboard is disabled by default in the VMware vSphere Client. This means that you cannot use copy\/paste operations between the OS and your computer when you are connected to the VMware virtual machine console. This article explains how to enable clipboard copy and paste for a VMware VM.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p><h2>Copy, Paste, Drag-and-Drop Features Not Working in VMware Workstation<\/h2>\n<\/p>\n<p><p>By default, VMware Workstation allows you to use the clipboard for copy\/paste operations through the Virtual Machine Management Console.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p><p>Check the following if the clipboard does not work for any reason:<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Ensure VMware Tools are installed in the virtual machine and update them if needed.<\/li>\n<li>Ensure that both clipboard and drag-and-drop features are active in the virtual machine settings.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ol>\n<li>Open VMware Workstation &#8211;&gt; VM &#8211;&gt; <strong>Settings<\/strong> &#8211;&gt; <strong>Options<\/strong> tab.<\/li>\n<li>Select <strong>Guest Isolation<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<li>Here, you&#8217;ll find two options:<\/p>\n<p><pre>Enable drag and drop<\/pre>\n<\/p>\n<p><pre>Enable copy and paste<\/pre>\n<\/p>\n<p>    Enable both and save the VM settings.<\/li>\n<\/p>\n<li>Initiate your Virtual Machine.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p><p>You can now make use of the clipboard to transfer files and text between your host and guest OS within a VMware Workstation virtual machine.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p><p>Alternatively, you can enable these options manually in the virtual machine\u2019s VMX file.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p><p>isolation.tools.copy.disable = &#8220;FALSE&#8221;<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p><p>isolation.tools.dnd.disable = &#8220;FALSE&#8221;<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p><p>isolation.tools.paste.disable = &#8220;FALSE&#8221;<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p><p>isolation.tools.hgfs.disable= &#8220;FALSE&#8221;<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p><h2>Enabling Clipboard Copy and Paste in VMware ESXi<\/h2>\n<\/p>\n<p><p>Now let\u2019s look at enabling the clipboard in the VMware vSphere Web Client or VMware ESXi Host Client (HTML5-based).<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>\n<p>\t\tFor the clipboard to work in an ESXi virtual machine, VMTools must be installed in the guest OS; Linux VMs require open-vm-toolbox or open-vm-tools to be installed. Check they are installed (for Ubuntu):<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<p>\t<code>$ sudo service vmware-tools status<\/code><\/p>\n<li>\n<p>\t\tPower off your virtual machine;<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<p>\t\tOpen the VM settings. Go to the <strong>VM Options<\/strong> -&gt; <strong>Advanced<\/strong> -&gt; <strong>Edit Configuration<\/strong>;<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<p>\t\tClick <strong>Add Configuration Params<\/strong> and add three options:<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<p><pre><\/p><p>\tisolation.tools.copy.disable = FALSE<\/p><p>\tisolation.tools.paste.disable = FALSE<\/p><p>\tisolation.tools.setGUIOptions.enable\u00a0 = TRUE<\/p><p>\t<\/pre>\n<\/p>\n<li>\n<p>\t\tSave the changes and power on the VM;<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<p>\t\tEnsure that the clipboard now works for this VM so that you can copy and paste content via VMRC.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p><p>The VMX configuration file of the virtual machine on the datastore can also be used to enable these parameters.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>\n<p>\t\tConnect to the ESXi host using SSH;<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<p>\t\tEdit the virtual machine VMX file using vi:<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<p>\t<code># vi \/vmfs\/volumes\/volume_id\/mun-srv01\/mun-srv01.vmx<\/code><\/p>\n<li>\n<p>\t\tAdd the lines:<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<p><pre><\/p><p>\tisolation.tools.copy.disable=\"FALSE\"<\/p><p>\tisolation.tools.paste.disable=\"FALSE\"<\/p><p>\tisolation.tools.SetGUIOptions.enable=\"TRUE\"<\/p><p>\t<\/pre>\n<\/p>\n<li>\n<p>\t\tSave the changes and run the VM.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p><p>You can enable the clipboard for all VMs on an ESXi host at once.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>First, backup the \/etc\/vmware\/config file:<br \/><code># cp \/etc\/vmware\/config \/etc\/vmware\/config_bak<\/code><\/li>\n<li>Edit the file:<br \/> <code># vi \/etc\/vmware\/config<\/code><\/li>\n<li>Add the lines:\n<pre>vmx.fullpath = \"\/bin\/vmx\"<\/p><p>isolation.tools.copy.disable=\"FALSE\"<\/p><p>isolation.tools.paste.disable=\"FALSE\"<\/p><p>isolation.tools.SetGUIOptions.enable=\"TRUE\"<\/p><p><\/pre>\n<\/li>\n<li>Reboot the ESXi host.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p><p>You can also enable clipboard options using PowerShell.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/woshub.com\/vmware-powercli-install-manage-vsphere-esxi\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Install the VMware PowerCLI module<\/a> on your computer;<\/li>\n<li>Connect to vCenter or ESXi:<br \/><code>Connect-VIServer &lt;FQDN_of_vCenter_or_ESXi_host&gt;<\/code><\/li>\n<li>Enable the following options for your VM:<br \/> <code>$VM = Get-VM -Name mun-srv01<br \/> New-AdvancedSetting -Entity $VM.name -Name isolation.tools.copy.disable -Value False -Confirm:$false -Force:$true<br \/> New-AdvancedSetting -Entity $VM.name -Name isolation.tools.paste.disable -Value False -Confirm:$false -Force:$true<br \/> New-AdvancedSetting -Entity $VM.name -Name isolation.tools.setGUIOptions.enable -Value True -Confirm:$false -Force:$true<\/code><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p><p>If the clipboard doesn\u2019t work in the HTML version of your VMware client, try to install VMRC on your computer and use it to connect to the VM.<\/p>\n<div> <\/div>\n<div><\/div><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>For security reasons, the clipboard is disabled by default in the VMware vSphere Client. This means that you cannot use copy\/paste operations between the OS and your computer when you are connected to the VMware virtual machine console. This article explains how to enable clipboard copy and paste for a VMware VM. Copy, Paste, Drag-and-Drop [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8966,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[141],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8965","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-vmware"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cheapwindowsvps.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8965","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cheapwindowsvps.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cheapwindowsvps.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cheapwindowsvps.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cheapwindowsvps.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8965"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cheapwindowsvps.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8965\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10432,"href":"https:\/\/cheapwindowsvps.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8965\/revisions\/10432"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cheapwindowsvps.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8966"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cheapwindowsvps.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8965"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cheapwindowsvps.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8965"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cheapwindowsvps.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8965"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}