Disabling the suspend feature for a virtual machine in VMware Fusion and VMware Workstation

Products

• VMware Desktop Hypervisor

Issue/Introduction

This article provides steps to disable and enable the suspend function for a virtual machine in VMware Fusion and VMware Workstation.

Environment

VMware Workstation Pro 15.x (Linux)
VMware Workstation Player 14.x (Windows)
VMware Workstation 11.x (for Linux)
VMware Workstation 8.x (Windows)
VMware Workstation 11.x (for Windows)
VMware Fusion Pro 10.x
VMware Workstation 9.x (Windows)
VMware Fusion 5.x
VMware Fusion Pro 8.x
VMware Fusion 4.x
VMware Fusion 7.x
VMware Workstation 9.x (Linux)
VMware Workstation Pro 15.x (Windows)
VMware Workstation 10.x (Windows)
VMware Workstation 8.x (Linux)
VMware Fusion 10.x
VMware Workstation 10.x (Linux)
VMware Fusion 8.x
VMware Workstation Pro 14.x (for Linux)
VMware Fusion 6.x
VMware Fusion 3.x

Resolution

To disable the suspend feature for a virtual machine in VMware Fusion:

1. Shutdown the virtual machine.
2. Locate the virtual machine bundle. For more information, see Locating the virtual machine bundle in VMware Fusion (1007599).
3. Press Ctrl and click the virtual machine bundle, then click Show Package Contents.
4. Open the .vmx file for editing in a text editor. For more information, see Editing the .vmx file for your VMware Fusion virtual machine (1014782).
5. Add this line to the .vmx file:
   
   suspend.disabled = "TRUE"
    
6. Save and close the .vmx file.
7. Restart the virtual machine.

To disable the suspend feature for a virtual machine in VMware Workstation:

1. Shutdown the virtual machine.
2. Locate the virtual machine folder. For more information, see Locating a hosted virtual machine's files (1003880).
3. Open the .vmx file for editing in a text editor. For more information, see Editing the .vmx file of a VMware Workstation and VMware Player virtual machine (2057902).
4. Add this line to the .vmx file:
   
   suspend.disabled = "TRUE"
    
5. Save and close the .vmx file.

6. Restart the virtual machine.

To enable the suspend feature, remove this line from the .vmx file:

suspend.disabled = "TRUE"

Additional Information

When a virtual machine is shared between multiple users in a host machine, you can suspend the virtual machine and log out. A new user who logs in can continue the same session from the previous user's account. In this case, you can disable the suspend feature to prevent users from suspending a virtual machine when logging out.Locating a hosted virtual machine's files
Locating the virtual machine bundle in VMware Fusion
Editing the .vmx file for your VMware Fusion virtual machine
Tips for editing a .vmx file
Editing the .vmx file of a VMware Workstation and VMware Player virtual machine