Intel Extensible USB 3.0 controllers and VMWare Workstation 9.0

All,

This article was conclusive in solving one of my customers issues with USB 2.0 devices being in use on the host system and not being able to connect to the VM.

The crucial point being installing Intel xHECI USB 3.0 drivers manually and not use the setup routine. This prevents iusb3mon.exe from being installed/loaded. This service turns out being the one preventing USB pass-though to the VM client.

http://virtualizationmaximus.com/2013/01/08/intel-xhci-usb-3-0-controller-usb-passthrough-with-vmware-workstation-9-in-windows-7/

I tested this on a Thinkpad T430s and X1 Carbon, and it the mentioned process worked. It did however require setting USB 3.0 support to Automatic in the Thinkpad BIOS