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Ctrl-Alt-F1 In Vmware

Posted on May 22 2009

As anyone that uses Linux on a regular basis will know it is quite handy being able to change to a different console using the Ctrl, Alt and Function keys. In VMWare however this is a problem as the Ctrl-Alt combination releases control of the input devices to the host operating system.

Looking through the menus and there is no option immediately visible to allow this keystroke combination to be input. There is just the standard menu item to send Ctrl-Alt_Del. After a quick google it appears there is a relatively simple solution however.

By using the combination Ctrl-Alt-Spacebar, then releasing the space bar whilst keeping the other two buttons depressed you can then use Ctrl-Alt as normal. So in this case the key combination is Ctrl-Alt-Spacebar, release the space bar and hit the F1 key and voila.