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+--- Thread: Strange behaviour Vimarun ? (/showthread.php?tid=249)
Strange behaviour Vimarun ? - Sontec - 2026-06-15
I installed Vimarun on a host that was initially running VMware Workstation Pro 15.5.6. Later, I replaced Workstation Pro with version 26H1.
In both installations, the option “Keep VMs running after Workstation closes” was enabled.
I added my VMware guest to Vimarun and tested both the foreground and background options.
When using the “foreground” option:
- The guest VM starts automatically when the host is restarted.
- After logging in to the host, VMware Workstation starts automatically and appears within about one minute.
- According to VMware Workstation, the guest VM is running.
- After logging off from the host user account, I lose the connection to the guest VM after about one minute.
- When I log back in to the host, Vimarun shows the guest as stopped with a blue rectangle.
- VMware Workstation also shows the VM status as Powered off.
When using the “background” option:
- The guest VM starts automatically when the host is restarted.
- After logging in to the host, both Vimarun and VMware Workstation show the guest VM as running.
- However, the VM cannot be accessed through VMware Workstation itself; the VM tab remains black.
- After logging off from the host user account, the guest VM continues running.
- The guest VM can still be accessed remotely, for example via TeamViewer.
However, if the guest VM is powered off whenever I sign out of the host user account, this does not seem to match what I expected from Vimarun.
Using the “background” option feels almost the same as starting the guest with vmrun using the nogui option through a scheduled task.
Am I doing something wrong, or is this expected behavior?
RE: Strange behaviour Vimarun ? - wila - 2026-06-16
Hi,
Thank you for your report.
I just ran the foreground test down here with Vimarun disabled and Workstation's "keep the VM running" checkbox checked.
Can confirm that having a VM running in the foreground and subsequently logging off does stop the VM. In my case it suspended the VM, not shut it down.
Is this expected behavior? I guess so as Vimarun does not currently handle log off situations, it only acts on shut down.
That does not mean this use case can't be added, but I do need some time before I can look into that.
It is VMware Workstation here that is initiating the suspend/shutdown and it would be nice if the VM would continue to run in the background. Note that vimarun would not be able to stop the suspend/shutdown, but it could check for the suspend/shut down status after the log off and resume/start up the VM in the background.
This also means that vimarun should then bring the VM from the background back to the foreground on logging in.
--
Wil