Back / Forward mouse buttons do not work in VMWare Workstation 6.5 Guest OS

After adding usb.generic.allowHID = TRUE to the vmx file, just enable USB for that VM and then go to the Hardware Manager (guest system) and "scan for hardware changes". New USB Devices will then be recognized by the VM and after that your back/forward buttons should work without deactivating the mouse in the host system.

Edit the .VMX file (while VM powered off) using notepad and add the following lines:

usb.generic.allowHID = "TRUE"
mouse.vusb.enable = "TRUE"

Save file and exit notepad.

For workstation 10 you need another line in you .vmx than the previous suggestions. Now it's:

usb.generic.allowHID = "TRUE"
mouse.vusb.enable = "TRUE"
mouse.vusb.useBasicMouse = "FALSE"

https://communities.vmware.com/message/2328267#2328267

Enable all mouse buttons globally for all VMs on your machine:

Windows Host:

Add

mouse.vusb.enable = "TRUE"
mouse.vusb.useBasicMouse = "FALSE"

to

C:\ProgramData\VMware\VMware Workstation\config.ini
(C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\VMware\VMware Workstation\config.ini)

This path might be different for you, depending on how VMware is installed.

Completely restart your VM and VMWare Workstation!

Ubuntu Host:

Add (or create file if not available)

.encoding = "UTF-8"
mouse.vusb.enable = "TRUE"
mouse.vusb.useBasicMouse = "FALSE"

to

~/.vmware/config

Completely restart your VM and VMWare Workstation!

Tested with Windows 10 Host, VMWare Workstation 15 and Ubuntu 16.04 Guest