You can connect and disconnect removable devices in a virtual machine. You can also print from a virtual machine to any printer available to the host computer without having to install additional drivers in the virtual machine.
Use a Removable Device in a Virtual Machine You can connect and disconnect removable devices in a virtual machine. You can also change the settings for a removable device by modifying virtual machine settings.
Connecting USB Devices to Virtual Machines When a virtual machine is running, its window is the active window. If you plug a USB device into the host system, the device connects to the virtual machine instead of the host by default. If a USB device connected to the host system does not connect to a virtual machine at power on, you must manually connect the device to the virtual machine.
Enabling a Virtual Machine to Print to Host Printers VMware Virtual Printer is a technology that allows you to print from a virtual machine to any printer available to the host machine without having to install additional drivers in the virtual machine. When you enable VMware Virtual Printer, Workstation Player configures a virtual serial port to communicate with the host printers.
Using Smart Cards in Virtual Machines Virtual machines can connect to smart card readers that interface to serial ports, parallel ports, USB ports, PCMCIA slots, and PCI slots. A virtual machine considers a smart card reader to be a type of USB device.