taken from here
Don't Forget VMware Tools
It is very important that you install VMware Tools in the guest operating system.
With the VMware Tools SVGA driver installed, Workstation supports significantly faster graphics performance.
The VMware Tools package provides support required for shared folders and for drag and drop operations.
Other tools in the package support time synchronization between host and guest, automatic grabbing and releasing of the mouse cursor, copying and pasting between guest and host, and improved mouse performance in some guest operating systems.
The installers for VMware Tools for Windows, Linux and FreeBSD guest operating systems are built into VMware Workstation as ISO image files. (An ISO image file looks like a CD-ROM to your guest operating system and even appears as a CD-ROM in Windows Explorer. You do not use an actual CD-ROM to install VMware Tools, nor do you need to download the CD-ROM image or burn a physical CD-ROM of this image file.)
VMware Tools for Windows supports Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows Me, Windows NT 4.0, Windows 2000, Windows XP and Windows Server 2003 guest operating systems.
When you choose File > Install VMware Tools from the VMware Workstation menu, VMware Workstation temporarily connects the virtual machine's first virtual CD-ROM drive to the ISO image file that contains the VMware Tools installer for your guest operating system and begins the installation process.
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VMware Tools for Linux Guests
1. Power on the virtual machine.
2. After the guest operating system has started, prepare your virtual machine to install VMware Tools.
Choose File > Install VMware Tools.
The remaining steps take place inside the virtual machine.
3. Be sure the guest operating system is running in text mode. You cannot install VMware Tools while X is running.
4. As root (su -), mount the VMware Tools virtual CD-ROM image, change to a working directory (for example, /tmp), uncompress the installer, then unmount the CD-ROM image.
Note: You do not use an actual CD-ROM to install VMware Tools, nor do you need to download the CD-ROM image or burn a physical CD-ROM of this image file. The VMware Workstation software contains an ISO image that looks like a CD-ROM to your guest operating system. This image contains all the files needed to install VMware Tools in your guest operating system.
Note: Some Linux distributions use different device names or organize the /dev directory differently. If your CD-ROM drive is not /dev/cdrom, modify the following commands to reflect the conventions used by your distribution.
mount -t iso9660 /dev/cdrom /mnt
cd /tmp
tar zxf /mnt/vmware-linux-tools.tar.gz
umount /mnt
5. Run the VMware Tools installer.
cd vmware-tools-distrib
./vmware-install.pl
6. Log out of the root account.
exit
7. Start X and your graphical environment.
8. In an X terminal, launch the VMware Tools background application.
vmware-toolbox &
Note: You may run VMware Tools as root or as a normal user. To shrink virtual disks, you must run VMware Tools as root (su -).