Your Ubuntu VM opens in a tiny window, the mouse feels trapped inside it, and dragging a file from Windows does nothing. One package fixes all three - and the right way to install it today is not the old CD image method from old tutorials. It is a single command from Ubuntu's own repository, exactly as shown in the video.
A fresh Ubuntu virtual machine without guest tools is usable but miserable: a fixed small resolution, no copy and paste, no drag and drop, and a mouse you have to release manually. VMware Tools is the small agent that connects the guest to VMware - and for Ubuntu, VMware's own recommendation is the open source version, open-vm-tools, installed with apt. That is the route this video takes, and it is the route this guide follows, step by step.
Open a terminal inside the Ubuntu VM (Ctrl + Alt + T) and run the exact command from the video:
sudo apt update && sudo apt install open-vm-tools-desktop -yThe first half, sudo apt update, refreshes Ubuntu's package list so apt installs the current build instead of failing on a stale index - skipping it is the most common reason this command errors out on a fresh VM.
There are two packages and the difference matters. The base open-vm-tools runs the background service that talks to VMware - shutdown commands, time sync, host reporting. The -desktop package adds the part you actually see: automatic screen resize, shared clipboard, and drag and drop between the Windows host and the Ubuntu desktop. A desktop VM needs the desktop package; installing it automatically pulls in the base package too, so this one command is the complete job. On a headless Ubuntu Server the base package alone is enough - a separate guide in this series covers choosing between them.
Here is the honest detail the short video format rushes past. In the video the display fills the window as soon as the screen refreshes, and on many systems the resize does kick in that fast. But the clipboard agent and drag and drop run inside your login session, and the clean way to load everything - service, session agent, display driver - is one reboot. If you test immediately and copy-paste does nothing, do not declare the install broken. Restart the virtual machine once, log in, and test again. Nine out of ten "it did not work" reports end at this step.
Do not trust the terminal's success message - trust behaviour. After the reboot, check these three:
All three passing means VMware Tools is fully installed and running. If one fails, the verification guide in this series shows how to check the service itself.
Older tutorials mount a virtual CD from the VMware menu and run a Perl installer from a tarball. VMware's own documentation has recommended open-vm-tools over that bundled installer for Linux guests for years, for a practical reason: the apt version is tested against your Ubuntu release and updates itself with normal system updates, while the CD version sits frozen until you reinstall it by hand. The CD route still has real uses - a VM with no network access is the main one - and this series has a full guide for it. But when apt works, apt is the correct first choice, not the shortcut.
open-vm-tools on a desktop VM. The tools will show as "running" yet drag and drop, copy-paste and auto resize will all stay dead - those features live in the -desktop package. If that sounds like your VM, add the desktop package and reboot before trying anything else.The video shows the complete installation live on a real Ubuntu VM - the command, the install, and drag and drop plus full screen working at the end.
▶️ Watch Full VideoYes, but only the base open-vm-tools package. A server gets no benefit from the desktop extras - there is no screen to resize and no clipboard to share - but the base service still gives you clean shutdown and restart from the VMware menu, time synchronisation with the host, and proper status and IP reporting. Install open-vm-tools without the -desktop part on servers.
Work through three checks in order. First, reboot the VM - the session agent only starts properly after a fresh login. Second, confirm the desktop package is really installed, not just the base package. Third, check the host side setting: in VMware Workstation, open VM Settings, Options, Guest Isolation, and make sure Enable drag and drop and Enable copy and paste are ticked - the guest cannot override a host that has them switched off.
Yes. The guest does not know or care which host product is running it - open-vm-tools talks to the VMware virtual hardware, which is the same in Player and Workstation. The same command works for Ubuntu running on ESXi too, where the tools additionally report the VM's IP address and status to the host.