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xmick
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VMware workstation 14 Pro loses Mouse Focus

Has any one found / have a solution for - Mouse repeatable loses focus after a short time. Focus restored by moving mouse to top of screen over Vmware menu bar.

No problem on VMW 12.

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bonnie201110141
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When you added that option, did you do it after powering off the VM? If yes, please attach your vmware.log with debug enabled (VM Settings > Options > Advanced > Gather debugging information to Full). Thanks a lot!

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charlielewis
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Hello bonnie201110141

Did as you said. I also managed to reproduce the condition shortly before shutting down the guest. If you look in the logs for the last time the mouse (input) was released from the guest, right before that the condition happened; I had to release the input in order for the VM to "reset" its mouse. Once I come back, the mouse is ok.

Let me know if you need something else.

Carlos

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banackm
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We believe that most of these issues are resolved by either upgrading to Workstation 15, or by upgrading to the latest Windows 10 update, version 1803 (released Sep 26, 2018).  (There were fixes shipped in both products, so upgrading either Workstation or Windows 10 should resolve these.)

(Or else the Workstation 14.1.3 option mentioned in my earlier post, for users still running the Workstation 14 line on Win7/Win8.)

If anyone is still seeing issues after upgrading to Workstation 15, or running the latest Windows 10 update, please let us know.

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banackm
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Ah sorry, the Windows 10 fix was the September update to Win10 version 1803.  (See this Microsoft KB article for the precise Windows version: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/4458469/windows-10-update-kb4458469  ).

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charlielewis
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The mouse does seem more responsive after updating to build:

17134.320

(still using VMware 14.1.x)

Thank you for the follow up.

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f92809
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Just to add to this long list of comments, I've the following one to make:

  1. I started using WS 14.1.3 a couple weeks ago on my primary host, having updated it from WS 14.1.2 which I installed just after it became available.
  2. Various guest VMs - W10 v1809 (installed as an Inside Dev), W2012R2, Fedora Workstation v28 (with Gnome), Fedora Labs Scientific v28 (with KDE), etc. - all had the mouse working just fine for each of them, although the mouse was a little slow on the Fedora VMs.  All these VMs had the latest available updates installed.
  3. The primary host was running Fedora Server v27 for some time, so I decided to upgrade it to Fedora v28 on Saturday (October 6th).  The upgrade went fine and WS 14.1.3 came up after the upgrade was in place with no problems.   However, the mouse use appeared for these four VMs as follows:
    1. Fedora Workstation v28 - The mouse was gone.  after some hunting on-line, I decided to swap  at logon the default Gnome UI, which uses Wayland, with Gnome using XORG.  Not the first time I've had to do this for past versions of Fedora, but for different reasons.  Anyway, the mouse worked just fine after changing over to Gnome using XORG.   Good on it.
    2. Fedora Labs Scientific v28 - The mouse worked just fine using the KDE UI.
    3. W10 v1809- While the mouse worked, it had a problem with resizing or moving any windows.  Resizing pretty much didn't work at all.  When moving any window, it would only go a few pixels in any direction when attempting to drag it across a 1920x1080 screen.  Based on somewhat earlier comments, it didn't look like adding Wizmouse would help with these two problems
    4. W2012R2 v6.3 (build 9600) - The mouse was gone.  
      1. Looking on-line again, I came across this URL's long list of comments, then gave the vmx addition of  mks.win32.processWin32MouseInput = "TRUE" a try.  It did make the mouse work, but as with my W10 VM, the mouse had a problem with resizing or moving windows.   Well, depending on when I restarted or did a shutdown then rebooted, the mouse would not work at all or would show up with this problem.  
      2. After half a dozen reboots the mouse insisted on not working, so I RDP'ed into this VM to see if I could have a more positive result.  Yup, the mouse worked just fine via a remote login.  Since I could get in, I figured I'd give WizMouse a shot.  After installing it, then connecting to W2012R2 directly on a monitor...the mouse was still gone.  A few French cuss words I'm familiar with would be appropriate here. 
  4. On my secondary host, which was running Fedora Workstation v27 with WS 14.1.2, I  upgraded them to v28 and 14.1.3 last Tuesday (October 2).  I usually do the upgrades on this host first as it only has one VM, W10 v1803, active on it.  This supposedly lets me verify how to eliminate risks before doing the same upgrades on the primary host.  Anyway, the mouse on the W10 v1803 running on this secondary host worked just fine, which led me to upgrade the primary host. Ah well.

So there you go.  The mouse worked just fine on the various VMs with WS 14.1.3 before I upgraded the primary host to Fedora v28.  So is the problem completely due to this WS version or to whatever updates and upgrades folks have made to the host for the WS or to the guests?   Inquiring minds would like to know - the solutions, if any.

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banackm
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So, the issues described in this thread are Windows-host issues.  They shouldn't affect Linux hosts at all, and they should be fairly guest agnostic.

You sound like you might be having issues with mouse input on Linux hosts using Wayland.  If you want to pursue this further, if you can start a new thread or message me and post a vmware.log from a run where this didn't work for you, I can take a look.

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f92809
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Well, the mice used for each of the hosts and the guests, whether Linux or Windows, are all performing properly now.   I'd responded earlier but I'd brought in a replacement monitor for the primary host to improve its resolution, with it finally in place on Wednesday (October 17th).   Before the monitor came, I'd also done another update on the Fedora V28 primary host last Friday (October 12th), which brought in the latest kernel update and a number of other updates which I'd not identified uniquely.

Well, after rebooting the primary host, the mice worked just like they have in the past for each of the guest VMs.  

  • A mouse is still somewhat slow on the Fedora v28 guests, but that I can live with.   At least all of the mouse functionality works as it should.  The Linux host and the Linux guest running their displays with Gnome are both doing fine with their mice when using Wayland, as is the other Linux guest using KDE.  
  • For the Windows 10 1809 and Windows 2012 R2 guests, a mouse does all it is supposed to.  On the Windows 2012 R2 the WizMouse is working fine, but wasn't needed. as this VM's mouse worked normally even if WizMouse was disabled.
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thorr2
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I had this same issue even with the latest version of Workstation 15 Pro and I solved it.  The reason it turns out is because when I was installing text-based non-Windows VM's, the text was so small it was nearly unusable.  I searched how to make it bigger, and the fix Google found to make the text console screen bigger was to right click on the VMWare Workstation Pro icon, go to Properties - Compatibility - Change High DPI Settings - Override High DPI Settings - System (Enhanced).  This made the text bigger and I was happy until I tried installing Windows 2012 Pro and then the mouse had these problems.  Undoing that setting fixed the mouse issue.  Hope this is helpful to someone.

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Adrscuds
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Seems like this has never been solved for good.

Workstation 14 here.

3 VMs I need for college (Windows 10, Server 2016 and Linux). Running on Windows 10 Pro host.

Dell Inspiron 15 7000 gaming Laptop - 7567

Core I7 - 16gb ram - gtx 1050ti

Windows game bar disabled. Geforce overlay disabled. No fraps or different mouse software installed.

Only 1 game installed (world of waships) which I doubt has anything to do with it.

I've been having this issue since last october actually. Managed to fix it a couple of times. Tried different Nvidia drivers, removed the realtek audio driver. I even wiped my system completely, did a full clean install of windows 10 a couple of weeks ago. It was working just fine up until yesterday.

Then all of a sudden it started acting up on me again. Bluetooth mouse, wired mouse, even the trackpad. It simply doesn't take any input from the mouse. Pointer moves just fine, stuff gets highlighted. Keyboard works...

Can't update VMWare as I have an educational license via college (every lab uses Workstation 14)

My VMs work just fine at the workstations in school.

Tried every single solution available in this topic. No success.

Thoughts?

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bonnie201110141
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Did you upgrade your windows 10 host to the latest patch? The VMware fix does not go to Workstation 14. But latest update in Windows 10 should fix the issue as well.

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Adrscuds
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Yup, host has all the latest updates.

It started working again after a few reboots. I just can't figure out what is it that I did that solved the issue.

It was working just fine, up until early this afternoon.

Took my laptop with me to college. Did some work on my windows 2016 server. Also on my windows 10 workstation.

Both VMs running at the same time, just fine. (they are running off of a external, btw)

Got home, plugged everything back to it's place. Power cord, external drive and headset. The only thing that I didn't have with me this morning, in college, was my secondary display.

First boot of the VMs, mouse isn't working again.

Maybe it has something to do with the dual monitor situation?

Laptop is running 4k, secondary display 1280x1024 (older HP lcd, connected via VGA-HDMI adapter).

Tried unpluging the monitor, still no mouse inputs.

This is driving me insane, not knowing what is it that causes the mouse to just stop working.

EDIT: just to add to this.

Mouse is working fine after doing the following.

Changed my main display scalling from 200% to 175%. Restarted laptop

Still wasn't working.

Changed main display scalling again, back to 200% (from 175%). Restarted

Mouse working just fine.

Beats me. I have no idea as to why the screen scalling would make VM not take mouse inputs

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TimothyHuckabay
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I have a problem where the mouse pointer simply disappears inside my guest VM.  I find that I have to do <Ctrl><Alt><Insert> to get it back.  Both my host and guest OSes are Windows 10 Pro (1809), and I am on Workstation 14.1.7, though this has been happening with 14.1.3 and 14.1.6 as well.

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Martin_Forster_
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Nordqvist
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Updating to VMware Tools 10.3.10 worked for me!

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