You installed the guest OS, and the VM works - badly. The window will not resize, copy and paste between your PC and the VM does nothing, and files cannot be dragged across. Nothing is broken: you are missing VMware Tools, the guest-side half of the product. Install it once and the VM transforms.
Workstation Pro is only half of the system. The other half, VMware Tools, is a driver and service pack that lives inside the guest. It is not optional polish - it is the difference between a VM that fights you and a VM that feels like a second PC. This page covers what it actually provides, how to install it on Windows and Linux guests, and the update habit that keeps it working after Workstation upgrades.
VMware Tools is a set of guest drivers and services: a proper display driver that follows the Workstation window size, mouse integration so the pointer glides in and out without a grab key, the shared clipboard, drag and drop, shared folders, time synchronisation with the host, and graceful power operations from the Workstation menu. Windows, Linux and other guests each have their build - you always install the one that matches the guest, never the host.
With the VM running and Windows at the desktop:
The restart is not a suggestion - the display driver only takes over after it. Your first sign of success is the VM window resizing smoothly as you drag its corner.
On Linux, skip the CD image. Every major distribution packages open-vm-tools, the open-source build maintained with VMware's involvement, and it integrates with your normal updates. On Debian and Ubuntu family systems the package is open-vm-tools, with open-vm-tools-desktop added for desktop guests. Install it from your distribution's repository, reboot the VM, and you are done - updates then arrive with your regular system updates, which is honestly the best arrangement of all.
Tools and Workstation are a matched pair. After a Workstation upgrade - for example moving to 25H2 - check each important VM: Workstation notes when a guest's Tools is out of date, and the VM menu's Tools entry changes to an update option. Run it, restart the guest, and the pairing is healthy again. The common mystery of clipboard worked last month, dead today is very often an old Tools meeting a new Workstation. On Linux with open-vm-tools, this handles itself through system updates.
Two usual causes. First, the VM has no virtual CD drive or the drive is already connected to an ISO - disconnect the image and try again. Second, a previous Tools mount is still attached - the menu item then reads as an update or reinstall instead. And if the guest is a fresh OS install still mid-setup, simply wait for the desktop; Tools installs into a running OS, not into an installer.
The video installs Workstation and walks a VM to a finished desktop - watch where the Tools step fits into the flow.
Watch Full VideoYes - Tools is VMware's own guest component, delivered through Workstation itself on Windows guests and through your Linux distribution's official repositories as open-vm-tools. Never download a Tools installer from a random website; the VM menu and your distro's packages are the only sources you need.
Run it - it means Tools is present but older than your Workstation build expects. The update mounts the newer Tools installer in the guest; run setup, restart the VM, and the versions are matched again.
Servers benefit too: Tools gives the host accurate guest information, clean shutdowns from the console, and time sync that keeps logs and authentication sane. A headless Linux server wants open-vm-tools just as much as a desktop does - only the desktop add-on package is optional there.