Advanced USB Port Monitor
Problem
I have just acquired Advanced USB Port Monitor yesterday, and already have a major issue : Now that it is installed, I cannot use VMware Workstation correctly, as the VMware USB Arbitration service doesn't want to start and fails with an error 31.
Solution
Explanation about this problem exists on the the VMware support Forum:
http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?language=en_US&cmd=displayKC&externalId=1016809
This problem is caused because of an incompatibility between VMware and USB monitors, as seen here :
Confirm that you are not using any conflicitng USB services such as monitors (sniffers) on your host. For more information, see Configuring Windows Hosts for Use with USB Monitors (Sniffers) (1679). (http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?language=en_US&cmd=displayKC&externalId=1679)
You can disable the check for USB monitors by modifying the registry:
1. go to "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\hcmon\"
2. Create a new key called "Parameters"
3. In Parameters, create a new DWORD value entry named DisableDriverCheck and then set the value to 1.
It allows to to start the VMware USB arbitration service and run VMware smoothly.