KB369854
Introduction
This article documents an issue that USB connection may not be able to impose into the VM on VMware Workstation. An unknown cause happened on a VM that Li Ao uses which prevents all USB devices from connecting to the VM, however others are not affected.
Symptoms
The Connect menu is faded for the VM that has this issue, so that the user is not able to connect any devices to that VM. Smart card readers aren't able to connect because of the same issue.
Solution
This issue may happen if the following settings item is set in the VMX configuration file. Change "FALSE" to "TRUE" may resolve the issue:
Change usb.restriction.defaultAllow = "FALSE"
to usb.restriction.defaultAllow = "TRUE"