VMware Workstation tips and tricks?

Does anyone know if there's a way to multitask effectively between two environments? Specifically, I'm looking to browse the web within a Windows Guest while simultaneously handling some heavy lifting in Excel or Dreamweaver on my main host machine.

How could you not? You just fire up a browser on a virtual machine while handling the other stuff on your host. I don't see what the issue is.

Jacob Foster11 said:How could I not? It’s pretty straightforward—you just fire up a browser in a virtual machine while handling your other tasks on the host OS. I don't see where the bottleneck is.

I can't quite recall which thread I mentioned this in, but I was saying that my wife can surf the web on one screen while I handle something else entirely on the other; I've got a dual-monitor setup and all the hardware necessary to make that kind of workflow seamless.

mellowraven26 said:I can't remember if I wrote on one thread that my wife is just surfing the web while I'm doing something else entirely, but I have two monitors and all the gear needed for that setup.

Well, that’s a whole different issue. I don't think that's going to work, at least not with just one PC. If you have another machine, someone could connect via Remote Desktop (or something similar) to do their own thing. But this way? Not happening.

To start with, you can only have one mouse and one keyboard connected at the same time. Sure, you could plug in more, but you won't be able to separate them to act independently.

Jacob Foster11 said:Well, that’s a whole different beast. I don't think that's going to fly, at least not if you're looking at more than just one machine. If you have other devices on the network, someone could easily hop on via Remote Desktop or something similar and start doing their own thing. But as it stands, I don't see it working like that.

To start with, you're generally limited to a single mouse and keyboard setup being active at once. You might be able to plug in more, but they won't function as independent inputs. It's a bit like trying to drive two cars with one steering wheel; you can have the extra hardware there, but you aren't actually getting two separate streams of control.

got it, thanks

I actually just managed to pull off exactly what you were talking about (even though Jacob Foster11 claims it's impossible). Aside from getting a game to run across two monitors—which you'll have to figure out on your own—it shouldn't be much of a headache.

Here’s the quick rundown:

Host: Linux
Software: VMware
Guest: Windows XP

First, you need to enable USB support in VMware (that part was a bit of a struggle for me)

After that, I plugged in a second mouse via USB, and naturally, both worked fine on the host immediately. Then, I passed the mouse over to the virtual machine (you just select the specific device from the USB menu), which caused VMware to take control of it, making it stop working on the host. Once I waited for the guest (Windows XP) to finish installing the mouse drivers, voilà—the mouse works perfectly there, but only there. Even if I use the mouse to exit the window frame via mouse integration, the host mouse keeps working independently.
The next step was simply disabling mouse integration. Now, one mouse operates on the host (Linux) and the other stays with the guest (Windows).
I'm fairly certain you can do the exact same thing with a keyboard.

On top of this, you'll need to decide who gets control of which device, or if you want to spin up two separate guests to give everyone their own.

Hope this helps. If you need more specifics, just let me know.