I tried to get Blackberry Desktop and Blackberry Device Manager to work under VMware.  I found the VID and the PID in the host, and set up an autoconnect in the .VMX file, but the BB device mananger was unable to locate the BB.  I went through some drastic troubleshooting, suggested by VMware, including deleting all the USB devices (all of them -- not just BB) and rebooting.

Eventually, what got it recognized was when I did two things (one might be enough, but which?):

1. Open the back cover and push a paperclip into the reset hole in the BB.

2. Disable USB autoconnect in the VMX, and manually attach the BB via the "Devices/Research in Motion USB Device" menu.

I suspect that it was number 2 that did it.

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UPDATE: No, that didn't work.  Resetting the BB does let USB get started, but it won't finish.  I also tried:

• usb.generic.skipSetConfig = "TRUE"
• uhci.syncWriteback = "TRUE"
• ehci.syncWriteback = "TRUE"
• and also turning off ehci device in VMX

They didn't help USB synch, but they did get my bluetooth dongle working in the VM!

Then I discovered that there was an old security policy on the BB.  (I bought it used.)  Google for "adding desktop connectivity wireless bypass services.