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jodykw1982
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

Windows 2008 R2 Slow Mouse After Sysprep

So,

I know installing VMware's WDDM driver in C:\Program Files\Common Files\VMware\Drivers\wddm_video will fix slow mouse problems normally and it does.

I've installed this into a VM and converting this VM to a template, I've deployed other VMs from it.

Every VM that I deploy has the slow mouse problem again.  If I check the Display Adapter in the device manager it is still using the VMware WDDM driver but the mouse cursor is slow again.

I heard uninstalling VMware tools and reinstalling and reinstall WDDM driver will fix the problem.  I don't want to have to do this though.  How can I fix this so when I deploy VMs from my template, the mouse cursor stays quick.

Thanks.

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jasonistre
Contributor
Contributor

Hmmm, my template is built fresh from msdn 2008r2 iso with sp1.  VMtools installed on first boot and then Windows Update for all patches with multiple reboots. Oh well

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jodykw1982
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

So after deployment from template the mouse driver is reverting back to the standard one?

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iLikeMoney
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

Wish I had an answer for these annoyances but they do seem to be increasing. I've waded through similar issues in recent weeks after deploying my sysprep'd templates both Win7 and '08R2 after applying the SP1 and windows updates. A number of things to check, first there's the default display properties after the OS is cleanly installed, set hardware acceleration to the max with the default driver prior to even installing the VMware tools.  There's an issue if you have old virtual HW version 4, in that case WDDM driver might install with VMware tools but then it doesn't actually work until you upgrade the virtual HW on the VM.  I've found mouse issues are all tangled up with the above, fix that and the mouse gets back to normal. I've also seen these new VMs with the virtual hardware fail to have a working NIC after deploying with sysprep, that's another (new) bonus with SP1.  The fix for that one is you have to delete the existing NIC from dev mgr and rescan so it reinstalls, then it starts working fine.  These are all driver installtion issues with sysprep and it defeats the purpose deploying templates in the first place if I have to mess around with tons of stuff post-deployment....I'm blaming MS, their deployment system has been deplorable in my opinion since XP / 2003 and they had room to improve even then. It would not surprise me if they're 'looking' for VMware drivers now during reseal and allow some stuff to get botched on purpose.  Let me guess, nobody running hyper-v has these issues?  Smiley Happy

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jasonistre
Contributor
Contributor

I just installed a new 2008 r2 enterprise sp1.  Did VMtools immediately, rebooted, loaded wddm driver, rebooted.  Did all windows updates.  Rebooted, did more, rebooted, did more.  Minor changes to the admin profile.  shutdown.  cloned, booted up clone. ran my sysprep as specified above.  rebooted and mouse was funky.  checked device manager.  shows PS/2 Compatible Mouse.  all other drivers show fine.  Repair VMtools, problem fixed.

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iLikeMoney
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

Yeah, but this is what I don't get because all the tools repair is doing for the mouse is reinstalling the driver for VMware compatible pointing device or whatever it's called.  The bigger mystery is why sysprep mini-setup PNP doesn't see the device properly and re-install the correct driver which is clearly intact and working prior to running sysprep. I have never seen an issue like this when running sysprep, old devices should be cleared from dev mgr and redetected during the pnp phase of mini-setup period. The NIC issue is another one, sorry to bring that one up in this thread but I'm sure others will hit that too, not just me. Maybe it's because the NIC is now seen as a USB device?  It's weird stuff, you can eject the NIC when running the latest virtual hardware version?  Maybe I need to choose another virtual NIC type instead of the default. This is under ESXi 4.1 btw..

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crkrusch
Contributor
Contributor

I ran into the same issue with our 2008 R2 images - after a sysprep the mouse driver would revert to "PS/2 Mouse"...

It turns out that by default, sysprep will remove all PNP drivers during the Generalize phase, causing windows to re-discover drivers during the sysprep. The PNP scan gives a better ranking to the PS/2 drivers, and therefore selects them over the VMWARE one...

The solution appears to be the "PersistAllDeviceInstalls" sysprep option - this tells sysprep not to remove the PNP drivers during the generalize phase and leave the existing ones in place. Since the cloned VM wil have exactly the same hardware, there is no compelling reason to rescan for new drivers. With this option in place, the mouse driver remains set to "VMware Pointing Device" and continues to work fine after I sysprep a 2008 R2 VM.

Here's the XML that I added to my 2008 R2 answer.xml file to resolve the issue:

    <settings pass="generalize">
        <component name="Microsoft-Windows-PnpSysprep" processorArchitecture="amd64" publicKeyToken="31bf3856ad364e35" language="neutral" versionScope="nonSxS" xmlns:wcm="http://schemas.microsoft.com/WMIConfig/2002/State" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance">
            <PersistAllDeviceInstalls>true</PersistAllDeviceInstalls>
        </component>
    </settings>

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jasonistre
Contributor
Contributor

AWESOME

works

thanks!

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A_Mikkelsen
Expert
Expert

Hi,

I'm having the same problem.

You stated that you added it to your answer.xml file, but when I do a clone I don't get an option to supply an answer.xml file.

So where to put it??

A. Mikkelsen

If you found this or any other answer useful please consider the use of the Helpful or correct buttons to award points. Regards A. Mikkelsen
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crkrusch
Contributor
Contributor

I am not using the guest OS customization feature of VMWare. The customization wizard generates it's own answer.xml file and invokes sysprep to perform the guest OS customzation. There is no way to adjust any of the advanced sysprep settings in the answer file it generates.

I am cloning without guestOS customization, then customizing the guest OS by invoking Sysprep in the cloned image and providing it with my own answer.xml file.

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TiloVM
Contributor
Contributor

same here with Win7 SP1 and Win 2008 R2 SP1. No answer.xml used just a plain sysprep (c:\Windows\System32\sysprep\sysprep.exe) OOBE and generalize -> Shutdown

Repair VMware tools fix this.

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A_Mikkelsen
Expert
Expert

Or just update the mouse and display driver from drivers located in

C:\Program Files\Common Files\VMware\Drivers

This works.

If you found this or any other answer useful please consider the use of the Helpful or correct buttons to award points. Regards A. Mikkelsen
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duber3
Contributor
Contributor

I updated my xlm file with this fonction <PersistAllDeviceInstalls>true</PersistAllDeviceInstalls>

now my tempates are correct, no need to re-install the tools :smileysilly:

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spf62
Contributor
Contributor

I tried all the things people had written before.... mouse drivers, video drivers etc. With no success.

Finally I re-installed the VMTOOLS and bango!! it works. :smileylaugh:

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arbsysts
Contributor
Contributor

Is there a way to fix the mouse issue without an answer file or re-running vmware tools after sysprep?  This is very annoying and I don't want to go through all the steps to create an answer file in our environment...

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spf62
Contributor
Contributor

This has worked for us many, many times

Replace video drivers - C:\Program Files\Common Files\VMware\Drivers\wddm_video

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arbsysts
Contributor
Contributor

Found another way to do this without an answer file.  After installing the complete VM Ware tools and before running the sysprep, set PersistAllDeviceInstalls to 1 under: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Setup\Sysprep\Settings\sppnp

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