Actual Windows becomes unusable if virtual Windows hangs up on rebooting

[ahmd9]

I'm curious if there's an easy method of getting out of this situation:

I run VMWorkstation 8 on Windows 7 machine. One of the virtual machines is Windows Vista. So what happens is that at times when I try to reboot the virtual Vista it indefinitely hangs up in "Shutting down windows" message.

At the same time the mouse disappears (like it'd do if Vista was installed in a real machine) and I can't seem to get out from the virtual machine into the real one.

What I end up doing is hit Ctrl+Alt+Del on the keyboard and start task manager. Then the weird thing is that although this brings up the mouse back on the screen, it is limited to a small window (where virtual Vista is) and I can't move it out of that window. So if I'm lucky and the Task Manager gets into the same window as well, I start killing wmware*.exe processes until VMWorkstation closes and I can get my computer back and operational.

Is there a better way to do this?

[mfelker]

Try resetting  the guest from VM Tab (i.e not in the virtual machinies itself).  Ig this doesn't do the trick reset the entire VM. Worth a shot.

[continuum]

do you see this when running the Vista-VM in fullscreen mode only ?

[ahmd9]

Sorry for delay. No, I see this when running Vista in a window mode. That's what's weird. Again the mouse completely disappears and the only way to bring it back is to hit Ctrl+Alt+Del on the "real" keyboard and pick Task Manager. Then I can see the mouse but it doesn't go outside of the VMWare window where Vista is still running. (Again, Vista window is hung up on "Shutting down computer" message, like one would see when computer is shutting down.)

[mfelker]

Sorry for not follwoing up promptly. I thought your problem  was thatyou could not shut down the Vista machine macine cleanly  without kiling l the vmware program though task manager.  If you can shutdown the VM with the task manager and want to deal withi the mouse - well have you insatll VMware Tools?  Since, while I have it, I see no reason to install Vista I won't comment anymore.  It very well could be OS related.

[ahmd9]

OK, let me explain again.

(Let's take a simpler example)

1. I start the VMware Workstation 8 and click on my virtual Vista installation to boot it up in a window (NOT full screen).

2. When virtual Vista loads the mouse cursor (in my "real" Windows 7) disappears, like it would if I was loading Windows Vista in a "real" machine. Note that if at that memont I want to move the mouse cursor back to my "real" Windows 7, WMware workstation won't let me. Again, my "real" cursor simply disappears.

3. When virtual Vista boots up I get my cursor back and I can move it from virtual Vista (that again runs in a window) to my "real" Windows 7 and at this stage everything works fine.

Now picture a situation when virtual Vista gets hung up on step 2 (above.) My "real" cursor will also be hung up and I won't be able to do anything (even go the VMware menu, or switch to another window in my "real" Windows 7.)

So my qustion is how do I "leave" VMware in that case and get my cursor back to the "real" Windows 7?

PS. I hope it's clear now...

[dariusd · Accepted solution]

Hi ahmd9,

This sounds like the virtual machine has "grabbed" the keyboard and mouse -- pertectly normal for when the virtual machine's graphical environment isn't running anymore.  When this happens, just press the Ctrl and Alt keys simultaneously and then release them both... that is the "ungrab" hotkey combination, which tells VMware Workstation to give the keyboard and mouse back to the host system.  The status bar at the bottom of the VMware Workstation window should remind you of the ungrab hotkey combination, saying something like: "To return to your computer, press Ctrl-Alt".

If you press the ungrab key combination, does everything then return to normal?

Cheers,

--

Darius

[ahmd9]

Very nice. It fixes it. Thank you. Only if I could read what it said at the status bar :smileylaugh: