VMware Tools is an optional, free set of drivers and utilities that enhances both the performance of a virtual machine’s guest operating system and interaction between the guest and the host.
The VMware Tools Control Panel, which is organized in a set of tabs, provides a graphical environment in which VMware Tools settings can be configured. VMware Tools is comprised of the following components:
VMware Device Drivers - replaces many of the guest operating system drivers for physical hardware to ensure network connectivity and prevent drive compatibility issues. VMware Device Drivers smooth mouse operations, make folder sharing available and improve sound, graphics and networking performance.
VMware Services - handles communication between the guest and host operating systems. This program, which runs in the background, is called vmtoolsd.exe in Windows guest operating systems, vmware-tools-daemon in Mac OS X guest operating systems, and vmtoolsd in Linux, FreeBSD and Solaris guest operating systems.
VMware User Process - provides the administrator with the ability to cut and paste text between the VMware Remote Console and the host operating system. Also improves mouse pointer and screen resolution functionality. The program file for VMware User Process is called vmtoolsd.exe on Windows guest operating systems and vmware-user on Linux, Solaris, and FreeBSD guest operating systems.
