Clipboard Copy and Paste option is disabled in vSphere Client 4.1

Symptoms

• Cannot copy and paste from the virtual machine remote console to the system in which the vSphere client is installed
• The Copy and Paste options are disabled in vSphere 4.1

Note: This functionality was enabled by default in earlier releases of vSphere. 

Resolution

Starting with vSphere 4.1, the Copy and Paste options are, by default, disabled for security reasons.

To be able to copy and paste between the guest operating system and the remote console, you must enable the Copy and Paste options using the vSphere Client. Alternatively, you can use RDP (Remote Desktop Protocol) to connect to the Windows virtual machines.

--> The rest is on the VMware KB site :

http://kb.vmware.com/kb/1026437