Device drivers improve audio, graphics, networking, and storage performance. You lot can select the drivers to be installed while performing a custom VMware Tools installation or reinstallation.

The set of drivers that are installed when y'all install VMware Tools depends on the guest operating system and the VMware product. For detailed information near the features or functionality of these drivers, including configuration requirements, all-time practices, and operation, see the documentation for your VMware product. The following device drivers can be included with VMware Tools.

VMCI Commuter
The Virtual Car Communication Interface driver supports fast and efficient advice between virtual machines and the hosts they run on. Developers can write client-server applications to the VMCI Sock (vsock) interface to make apply of the VMCI virtual device.
VMCI driver is installed by default as part of VMware Tools installation. If the user had disabled this VMCI driver in the setup settings during a previous installation, VMware Tools automatically re-installs VMCI driver during the upgrade.

Note: VMCI driver cannot be disabled as the VMware Tools System service functionality is dependent on this commuter.​

Appdefense

VMware Tools installation include the VMware AppDefense, a security management and monitoring solution. AppDefense agent can be installed on the guest virtual machine using the VMware Tools installer. However, VMware Tools cannot install the AppDefense component automatically. Y'all need to install the component manually.

Invitee Introspection Driver
The two Invitee Introspection drivers are the File Introspection driver and the Network Introspection driver. You lot tin install the ii drivers separately. When yous install VMware Tools, by default, the Guest Introspection drivers are non installed.
  • NSX File Introspection Driver: The File Introspection driver uses the hypervisor to perform antivirus scans without a bulky agent. This strategy avoids resource bottlenecks and optimizes memory use.
  • NSX Network Introspection Driver: The Network Introspection driver supports NSX for vSphere Activity Monitoring.
SVGA Commuter
This virtual driver enables 32-bit displays, high brandish resolution, and faster graphics functioning. When y'all install VMware Tools, a virtual SVGA commuter replaces the default VGA commuter, which allows for just 640 Ten 480 resolution and 16-color graphics.

On Windows guest operating systems whose operating system is Windows Vista or after, the VMware SVGA 3D (Microsoft - WDDM) driver is installed. This driver provides the aforementioned base of operations functionality equally the SVGA commuter, and it adds Windows Aero support.

VMXNet NIC Driver
The VMXNET and VMXNET3 networking drivers ameliorate network performance. The set of drivers that are used depends on how you configure device settings for the virtual machine. Search the VMware Cognition Base of operations for information on which guest operating systems support these drivers.

When you install VMware Tools, a VMXNET NIC commuter replaces the default vlance driver.

Paravirtual SCSI Driver
When you create a virtual machine, if you specify that you lot desire the virtual machine to use a BusLogic adapter, the guest operating system uses the SCSI commuter that VMware Tools provides. A VMware Paravirtual SCSI driver is included for use with Paravirtual SCSI devices. This driver for VMware Paravirtual SCSI adapters enhances the performance of some virtualized applications. Drivers for other storage adapters are either bundled with the operating organisation, or they are available from third-party vendors.

For instance, Windows Server 2008 defaults to LSI Logic SAS, which provides the all-time performance for that operating system. In this case, the LSI Logic SAS commuter provided past the operating system is used.

VMware supplies a special SCSI driver for virtual machines that are configured to utilize the BusLogic virtual SCSI adapter. Virtual machines exercise not need this driver if they do non need to access whatever SCSI devices or if they are configured to use the LSI Logic virtual SCSI adapter.

The driver is included as part of the VMware Tools package or comes bundled with VMware ESX/ ESXi. It is bachelor on the host equally a floppy paradigm at /vmimages/floppies/vmscsi.flp. The driver can be used in Windows XP, Windows Server 2003, or Windows 2000.

Mouse Driver
The virtual mouse commuter improves mouse operation. This driver is required if you lot use tertiary-party tools such as Microsoft Terminal Services.
Audio Commuter
This sound driver is required for 64-bit Windows XP, 32-bit Windows Server 2003, 64-bit Windows Server 2003, Windows Server 2008, Windows seven, and Windows Vista invitee operating systems.
Memory controller driver
This driver is required for memory ballooning and is recommended if you use VMware vSphere. Excluding this driver hinders the retention direction capabilities of the virtual motorcar in a vSphere deployment.
Modules and drivers that support making automated backups of virtual machines
If the guest operating system is Windows Vista, Windows Server 2003, or other newer Windows operating systems, a Volume Shadow Re-create Services (VSS) module is installed. For other, before Windows operating systems, the Filesystem Sync commuter is installed. These modules allow external third-party support software that is integrated with vSphere to create application-consistent snapshots. During the snapshot process, certain processes are paused and virtual machine disks are quiesced. The modules too back up quiescing snapshot on Linux OS
VMware drivers for Linux
The drivers for Linux are automatically installed during your operating system installation, eliminating the need to separately install drivers later OS installation. VMware actively maintains the source code for VMware Paravirtual drivers, VMXNET, VMXNET3 and kernel modules, and any Linux distributions creating new OS releases automatically include the latest VMware drivers.

Do not delete or supplant existing inbox drivers for Linux that are distributed by your OS vendors. Deleting or replacing these drivers might cause conflict with future updates to the drivers. Contact your OS vendor or OS community for availability of specific updates to drivers.

Encounter http://kb.vmware.com/kb/2073804 for information about availability, maintenance, and support policy for inbox drivers for Linux.

VMHGFS driver

If you apply Workstation or Fusion, you tin can install the Shared Folders component. With Shared Folders, you tin can hands share files amidst virtual machines and the host figurer. The VMHGFS commuter is a file organization redirector that allows file system redirection from the guest operating system to the host file system. This commuter is the client component of the Shared Folders feature and provides an easy to use alternative to NFS and CIFS file sharing that does not rely on the network. For Linux distributions with kernel version 3.10 and later on, a new FUSE based Shared Folders customer is used as a replacement for the kernel style customer.