Specifications

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Mapping a Virtual Disk to the Host System on page 51
Instead of using shared folders or copying data between a virtual machine and the host system, you
can map a virtual disk to the host system. In this case, you map a virtual disk in the host file system as
a separate mapped drive. Using a mapped drive lets you connect to the virtual disk without going into
a virtual machine.
Using the Drag-and-Drop Feature
You can use the drag-and-drop feature to move files and directories, email attachments, plain text,
formatted text, and images between the host system and virtual machines. Dragging email attachments is
especially useful in Unity mode.
You can drag files or directories between the following locations.
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File managers, such as Windows Explorer, on the host system and virtual machines.
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A file manager to an application that supports drag-and-drop.
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Applications, such as zip file managers, which support drag-and-drop extraction of individual files.
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Different virtual machines.
When you drag a file or folder between the host and a virtual machine, Player copies the file or folder to the
location where you drop it. For example, if you drop a file on the desktop icon of a word processor, the
word processor opens a copy of the original file. The original file does not include changes that you make to
the copy.
Initially, the application opens a copy of the file that is stored in the temp directory. On Windows, the temp
directory is specified in the %TEMP% environment variable. On Linux and Solaris, the temp directory
is /tmp/VMwareDnD. Save the file in a different directory to protect changes that you make.
Drag-and-Drop Requirements and Restrictions
The drag-and-drop feature has certain requirements and restrictions.
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You must install VMware Tools in a virtual machine to use the drag-and-drop feature.
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The drag-and-drop feature requires Linux hosts and guests to run X Windows and Solaris 10 guests to
run an Xorg X server and JDS/Gnome.
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You can drag images between applications on Windows hosts and applications on Windows guests
only. Dragging images is not supported for Linux hosts or guests.
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You can drag files and directories, email attachments, plain text, and formatted text between Linux and
Windows hosts and Linux, Windows, and Solaris 10 guests only.
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Dragging email attachments is restricted to images or files smaller than 4MB.
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Dragging plain text and formatted text (including the formatting) is restricted to amounts less than
4MB.
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Dragging text is restricted to text in languages that can be represented by Unicode characters.
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Player uses the PNG format to encode images that are dragged. Dragging images is restricted to images
smaller than 4MB after conversion to PNG format.
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On Windows 95 and Windows 98 guests, the drag-and-drop feature is supported only for files and
directories.
Chapter 4 Using Virtual Machines
VMware, Inc. 45