VMware Player 12 option "guest isolation" missing

Question

I have a host (Windows 10) running VMware Player 12.5.4. I created a VM Guest (Windows 7) and also installed the VMware Tools on that. However the option "guest isolation" is not showing up in the VM preferences. Drag and Drop works but I want to disable that feature. Reinstalling the VMware Tools didn't help.

Could it be that "guest isolation" is a Pro feature only? Or did it get removed completely out of the product?

Answer 1

I add these to my *.vmx files to get to the bios and enable copy-paste:

isolation.tools.copy.disable = "FALSE"
isolation.tools.paste.disable = "FALSE"
bios.bootDelay = "2000"

You can try changing FALSE to TRUE and see if that disables copy-paste.

Answer 2

To disable drag and drop you should add this line to the .vmx file of your VM when it's powered off (ie not just suspended or paused but shut down properly)

isolation.tools.dnd.disable = "TRUE"

To completely isolate the VM make sure you disable the Shared Folders option in the options dialogue window of your VM, then add all of these lines to your .vmx file:

isolation.tools.copy.disable = "TRUE"
isolation.tools.paste.disable = "TRUE"
isolation.tools.dnd.disable = "TRUE"

Source: Missing Guest Isolation Options on Windows XP Guest

To even prevent USB sticks from being connected to the VM make sure this is also in there:

usb.restrictions.defaultAllow = "FALSE"

Source: All USB Devices are Greyed Out

IMPORTANT: Make sure there are no duplicate (and contradictory) lines in your config file!