You use a sequence of key strokes, called the hot-key sequence, to release the mouse-cursor from a VM so that you can use the cursor in the host operating system or another VM.

By default the hot-key sequence is Control-Alt-key. For example, you would use Control-Alt-Esc (or Control-Alt-F7) to move to the host OS and Control-Alt-F8 to move to the first VM you started.

The hot-key sequence can be set to one of two sequences. Use the VM configuration editor to select the alternate hot-key sequence, which adds the shift key. For example, you would use Control-Shift-Alt-Esc to return to the host OS, and Control-Shift-Alt-F8 to show the first VM in full screen mode.

By selecting the two VMware Toolbox options called AutoRelease and AutoGrab, you do not need to use the hot-key sequence, although it will still work. These options allow you to move the mouse freely between VM windows and the host OS, and the mouse-focus automatically changes to each window the mouse-cursor enters. For more information see "Auto Grab and Auto Release" .

Whether or not you enable Auto Grab or Auto Release, the hot-key sequence always works to switch mouse-cursor focus.

VMware always logs important events in a log file, so that if the program crashes, or other critical event occurs, some information is available to help VMware Technical Support understand the problem and fix it in a later product release.

In many cases, however, the logged information is not sufficient. An error message may ask you to set the logging level to DEBUG and try to repeat the problem. This enables additional logging that can make it easier, or possible, to fix the problem.

The DEBUG logging level makes the log file grow faster, and also turns on a large number of internal consistency checks that can slow down execution. For this reason, unless you are trying to reproduce a problem, it is best to run with the logging level set to NORMAL.