September 2012

n
Is one of the processes that sends a heartbeat to the VMware product to indicate that the guest operating
system is running. When the virtual machine runs under vSphere or VMware Server, a gauge for this
heartbeat appears in the management interface.
n
Provides support for guest operating system-bound calls created with the VMware VIX API, except in
Mac OS X guest operating systems.
VMware Tools Device Drivers
Device drivers smooth mouse operations, make VMware features such as folder sharing available, and improve
sound, graphics, and networking performance. If you do a custom VMware Tools installation or reinstallation,
you can choose which drivers to install.
Which drivers are installed when you install VMware Tools also depends on the guest operating system and
the VMware product. The following device drivers can be included with VMware Tools:
SVGA driver
This virtual driver enables 32-bit displays, high display resolution, and
significantly faster graphics performance. When you install VMware Tools, a
virtual SVGA driver replaces the default VGA driver, which allows for only
640 X 480 resolution and 16-color graphics.
On Windows guest operating systems whose operating system is Windows
Vista or later, the VMware SVGA 3D (Microsoft - WDDM) driver is installed.
This driver provides the same base functionality as the SVGA driver, and it
adds Windows Aero support.
SCSI driver
Included with VMware Tools is the VMware Paravirtual SCSI driver for use
with paravirtual SCSI devices. Drivers for other storage adapters are either
bundled with the operating system, or they are available from third-party
vendors.
For example, Windows Server 2008 defaults to LSI Logic SAS, which provides
the best performance for that operating system. In this case, the LSI Logic SAS
driver provided by the operating system is used.
Paravirtual SCSI driver
This driver is for VMware Paravirtual SCSI adapters, which enhance the
performance of some virtualized applications.
VMXNet NIC drivers
The vmxnet and vmxnet3 networking drivers improve network performance.
Which driver is used depends on how you configure device settings for the
virtual machine. Search the VMware Knowledge Base for information on which
guest operating systems support these drivers.
When you install VMware Tools, a VMXNet NIC driver replaces the default
vlance driver.
Mouse driver
The virtual mouse driver improves mouse performance. This driver is required
if you use some third-party tools such as Microsoft Terminal Services.
Audio driver
This sound driver is required for all 64-bit Windows guest operating systems
and 32-bit Windows Server 2003, Windows Server 2008, and Windows Vista
guest operating systems if you use the virtual machine with VMware Server,
Workstation, or Fusion.
Kernel module for
sharing folders
The host-guest file system module, called hgfs.sys on Windows guest
operating systems and vmhgfs on Linux and Solaris, is required to use the
virtual machine with Workstation or Fusion and share folders between hosts
and guests.
Installing and Configuring VMware Tools
8 VMware, Inc.