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Table Of Contents
VMware, Inc. 149
Chapter 6 Setting and Using Policies and Customizing VMware Player
TheenhancedkeyboardfilterprovidesanalternatemethodforthewayaWindows
hostsystemordinarilyprocesseskeyboardinput.Thefilterprovidesasolutiontothese
problems:
CertainkeycombinationsarereservedbyWindowsoperatingsystemsandare
processedataverylowlevel.Forexample,ifyoupressCtrl+Alt+Deletewhilethe
runningACEinstancehaskeyboardfocus,thehostsystem,aswellastheguest
system,actsontheenteredcommand.
Keyboardinputispassedquicklythroughtheoperatingsystemdriverstackand
possiblythroughotherlowlevelkeyboardhandlers,providingopportunitiesfor
malwaretologkeystrokesintendedforanACEinstance.
Internationalkeyboardsorkeyboardswithextrakeysmightnotbehandledwell.
TheenhancedkeyboardfilterprovidesanewkeyboardinputpathforWindowshost
systems.Itprocessesrawkeyboardinputassoonaspossible,bypassingWindows
keystrokeprocessingandanymalwarethatʹsnotalreadyatalowerlayer.
Forexample,withtheenhancedkeyboardfilter,Ctrl+Alt+Deleteworksintheguest
system
onlyiftheinstancehaskeyboardfocus.
Thevirtualmachinesettingseditorhastheenhancedkeyboardfilteroptionsetting
enabledbydefault.Withthatsetting,thevirtualmachineorACEinstancerunsin
VMwarePlayerwiththeenhancedoptionaslongastheneededkeyboardfilterdriver
hasbeenincludedin
thevirtualmachine/instance’sfiles.
Ifyouenablethisruntimepreferencepolicy,thenanACEinstancecreatedwiththis
settingmustusetheenhancedkeyboardfilteroption.Ifthedriverisnotavailabletothe
instanceatpoweron,theinstancewillnotrun.
Keyboardfilterinstallationrequiresahostsystemrestart.