Can I completely hide toolbar in VMware Workstation?

Question

I have been experimenting with VMware workstation. When I autohide the toolbar at the top, it leaves a 1 pixel sliver. While this is functional, my OCD is bugging me. Is there a way to totally hide the toolbar?

You really should consider changing the accepted answer..... — You'reAGitForNotUsingGit, Aug 01 '17 at 11:34

score 104 · Answer 1 · answered Oct 18 '12 at 15:54

104

Took me a little searching to find the answer to this because I didn't want to change the position of my screens. If you go to Edit > Preferences > Display > Uncheck "Show toolbar edge when unpinned in full screen" you'll be all set!

answered Oct 18 '12 at 15:54

am17torres

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This should be accepted as the real solution. "Shifting your LCD monitor one pixel up" is just hideous. – Ray Mar 22 '14 at 19:48
yes this should be accepted – Xin Meng Nov 10 '17 at 16:22
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It's only a *half solution*: when you let the mouse for a long time on top of the screen (that's often needed to make a menu appear in the guest OS), the VMware top bar **appears again** (even with "Show toolbar edge when unpinned in full screen" unchecked), that is annoyting when in fact you want to make the guest OS menu appear. Real solution: `View > Exclusive mode`, then the top bar won't appear again, until you press CTRL + ALT. I don't know if it's possible to have *Exclusive mode* by default for a VM. – Basj Apr 24 '18 at 14:00
@Basj You could run VMs though `vmware-kvm` if you want to run them in be in fullscreen all the time with no UI. – jamesdlin Jun 14 '18 at 05:15

score 48 · Answer 2 · edited Jun 14 '18 at 09:08

48

For VMWare Player users, you can edit the preferences file at

%APPDATA%\VMware\preferences.ini

and add:

pref.vmplayer.fullscreen.nobar = "TRUE"

edited Jun 14 '18 at 09:08

jamesdlin

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answered Mar 01 '13 at 05:52

Eddie Groves

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This worked for me. Of note: The specified path includes some hidden elements, so you cant simply browse to it (although *search for VMware* worked). Also of note: To get out of full screen, you need to `Ctrl+Alt` followed by `Ctrl+Alt+Enter`. – Brent Bradburn Jun 27 '15 at 05:29
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This worked great, note do the change while VMWare Player is not running. – Dean Meehan Nov 10 '15 at 11:19
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This should be the accepted answer. FYI, it works with the latest VMware Workstation Player (v12). – dr_ Jun 09 '17 at 18:44
"TRUE" vs. "1" shouldn't make any difference. – jamesdlin Oct 16 '17 at 21:55
This solution does not work with the latest version VMWare Workstation Player 14. There is no preferences.ini file any longer nor if one adds one with this setting does this work. – modethree3 Jun 14 '18 at 11:44
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This solution works for me with Player 14 version 14.1.2 build-8497320 The only problem is to leave a full screen mode without a top bar. Simple ctrl+alt+enter does not work. It is needed to hit ctrl+alt first and then ctrl+alt+enter. – Alex Jul 02 '18 at 20:29
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Any shortcut to display the bar temporarily? – donkey Jun 26 '19 at 18:21
Instead of ctrl+alt, ctrl+alt+enter, you can ctrl+alt, win+d, which I find faster because VMWare doesn't resizes the guest: https://superuser.com/questions/435117/can-i-minimize-vmware-workstation-from-exclusive-mode – Karsten May 01 '20 at 11:03

score 20 · Answer 3 · answered Jun 11 '12 at 04:07

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Go fullscreen, then select View -> Exclusive Mode from the menu.

You can press the host key (default Ctrl+Alt) to get out of it.

answered Jun 11 '12 at 04:07

Blorgbeard

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Sweet! This is exactly what I needed for Xubuntu which has it's task bar on top. Thank you! – Alexander Rechsteiner Dec 25 '13 at 15:06
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this should be the accepted answer; vmware workworkstation 10 does not have the other options – nimsson Sep 08 '14 at 13:03
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Any way to make this setting permanent?. – Jaime Hablutzel Nov 11 '16 at 15:36

jamesdlin · Answer 4 · 2019-02-10T17:16:20.083

I am going to try to give a definitive (and somewhat authoritative) answer for Windows hosts.

VMware Workstation (Pro) for Windows hosts

The full screen toolbar can be completely hidden directly via the UI. On Windows, go to Edit > Preferences > Display and uncheck "Show toolbar edge when unpinned in full screen". (Doing so will write pref.fullscreen.toolbarPixels = "0" to your %APPDATA%\VMware\preferences.ini file.)

Entering "Exclusive Mode" also will completely hide the full screen toolbar. (Exclusive Mode additionally will force most keyboard shortcuts to go to the guest instead of allowing them to be intercepted by the host.)

VMware (Workstation) Player (and VMware Remote Console) for Windows hosts

Unfortunately, there is no UI to directly hide the full screen toolbar completely. You will need to:

Quit all running instances of Player.
Modify your preferences file directly and add the line:
```
pref.vmplayer.fullscreen.nobar = "TRUE"
```
The preferences file is located at %APPDATA%\VMware\preferences.ini. (%APPDATA% is an environment variable that typically expands to something like C:\Users\YOUR_USERNAME\AppData\Roaming.)
Restart Player.

Some other answers have suggested that using "1" is necessary instead of "TRUE", but they are completely equivalent. Any claims otherwise are likely from experimental error.

Alternatively...

For people who want to run VMs in full screen mode all the time with no UI at all, I would recommend running them in vmware-kvm.exe, which allows switching among running VMs and the host via a configurable hotkey. See the product documentation for usage instructions. vmware-kvm.exe is included with VMware Workstation (Pro), VMware (Workstation) Player, and VMware Remote Console.

(Disclosure: I worked on the VMware Workstation, Player, and VMware Remote Console code for many years and wrote vmware-kvm.exe.)

None of the options aside from "Show toolbar edge when unpinned in full screen" (which doesn't remove the toolbar) support multiple monitors. So if you are like me and you are looking for a way to completely remove the toolbar in full screen on multiple monitors, it seems that you are out of luck. — Marco van Hilst, Nov 08 '20 at 05:59
write new line with pref.fullscreen.toolbarPixels = "0" to your %APPDATA%\VMware\preferences.ini works perfectly, thanks man — Josep Escobar, Apr 06 '22 at 22:12

score 1 · Answer 5 · answered Jan 06 '17 at 15:01

1

Finally found out the answer Go fullscreen the go to view ad select exclusive mode note: "ctrl+alt+enter" to exit fullscreen mode hope this helps :)

answered Jan 06 '17 at 15:01

Stephen damilola

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thanks, this is what I need!)) – Dr. Mc My Aug 29 '21 at 07:21

Ch4zm · Answer 6 · 2019-10-10T03:50:25.173

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The answer eddiegrove gave was almost correct; however, there needs to be double quotations around the number 1

So just write:

pref.vmplayer.fullscreen.nobar = "1"

Then it should work.

edited Oct 10 '19 at 03:50

answered Jan 07 '18 at 20:21

Ch4zm

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score 0 · Answer 7 · answered Sep 14 '20 at 23:48

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As a matter of a fact, VMWare has installed a feature on the newest version to hide the toolbar. There is a "thumbtack icon" on the left side of the toolbar. This allows you to have the toolbar be permanently or temporarily shown.

answered Sep 14 '20 at 23:48

Polydynamical

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Pinning the toolbar will show it permanently, but unpinning it will still show a sliver of the toolbar edge (unless the toolbar edge is explicitly disabled). – jamesdlin Nov 28 '20 at 21:12
Yeah, tbh its kind of irritating to see that sliver but it's better than a ful bar. – Polydynamical Nov 30 '20 at 05:13

score 0 · Answer 8 · edited Mar 17 '21 at 15:27

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Exclusive mode brings the bar back when I press Ctrl+Alt

I found this little icon next to the toolbar auto hides it.

edited Mar 17 '21 at 15:27

Mr Fooz

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answered Mar 07 '21 at 07:14

Hash Borgir

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score 0 · Answer 9 · answered Sep 01 '22 at 23:59

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The easiest way to hide the toolbar is by clicking the thumbtack icon on the left had side once you are in full screen mode.

answered Sep 01 '22 at 23:59

Iker Perez Del Palomar

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score 0 · Answer 10 · edited Feb 09 '15 at 09:52

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Press Ctrl+P, select Display, in Menu & toolbar uncheck Show toolbar edge when unpinned in full screen. Now go to full screen by pressing Alt+Ctrl+Enter. Bar is removed.

edited Feb 09 '15 at 09:52

Jawa

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answered Feb 09 '15 at 08:47

Max11

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score -6 · Accepted Answer · edited Jun 13 '13 at 21:57

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If this is a desktop machine, you can try adjusting the positioning of your LCD monitor to shift one pixel up.

The only other way I know of is to go to "Quick Switch" mode, then go to the menu bar and select View and deselect tabs.

This will give you a screen with no borders at all, but you can still get to a menu at the top of the screen. However, you lose the quick switch ability - but it should do what you want!

edited Jun 13 '13 at 21:57

Canadian Luke

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answered Feb 16 '11 at 18:30

William Hilsum

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Perfect!! , this works very well :D – SkinnyGeek1010 Feb 17 '11 at 00:19
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This answer applies only to very old versions of VMware Workstation. "Quick Switch mode" hasn't existed in a long time. – jamesdlin Oct 18 '17 at 19:26
"Quick Switch" isn't available in the latest version of VMWare Workstation as @jamesdlin said, and *moving a layer of pixels is, no offence, a terrible solution :/* – TheAwesome98 Mar 17 '21 at 15:35

Can I completely hide toolbar in VMware Workstation?

11 Answers11

VMware Workstation (Pro) for Windows hosts

VMware (Workstation) Player (and VMware Remote Console) for Windows hosts

Alternatively...

Linked