Go ahead and search Google using the keywords Ctrl-z vmware and you’ll get back a few pages of similar complaints regarding this awful choice of a keyboard shortcut.

Vmware has many useful shortcuts that allow one to quickly switch context between the host OS and the guest OS running in the VM. Ctrl-G and Ctrl-alt are the most important combos, as they change the keyboard context into the guest OS and return it back to the Host OS in the order listed. However, another one of VMware’s keyboard combos is Ctrl-Z, which is the suspend function that immediately causes the guest operating to, uh…, suspend immediately and shut down.

The Problem with Ctrl-Z

Accidentally hitting Ctrl-z

Ctrl-Z is, unfortunately, also a significant shortcut in both Windows and Linux. In Windows and Linux Guis, Ctrl-z is mapped to the undo function. Even worse, under the Linux console, Ctrl-Z is mapped to the actual suspend foreground app function. Personally, I run Windows XP on my laptop, with a VMware provided Linux console as an application. I’ll often Alt-tab between apps, and stop on the VMware Linux app. Of course, many times I forget to forward the keyboard context into Linux (using the previously mentioned Ctrl-g shortcut). If I then hit a Ctrl-z, attempting to suspend the current process running in the Linux terminal, I instead suspend the whole damn Virtual Machine, which can take anywhere from 10-15 seconds. I then get to restart the whole Linux guest, which takes me another 30 seconds or so.

From the Google results mentioned previously, or more exactly, a question posed on Stackoverflow.com, it seems the only way to fix this is via a significantly complicated hack:

You could use a resource editor on vmware.exe to remove the keybinding for ctrl-z. Obviously not for the faint of heart.

Anyway, if you’re listening Vmware execs and developers: Change this shortcut or at least provide an easy way to disable it!