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Groverstudio
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Fusion 11.5.1 on 16 inch MacBook Pro cursor issues

In a few of my financial charting applications the visible cursor is higher than the actuation point. A click is made and drawing starts below the desired point.

I have tried a few scaling options in the monitor pane, but I can't seem to fixe the issue.

Any help appreciated!

Thanks,

John

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Groverstudio
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So this issue appears to have been resolved by VMWare support. Short story: the fix is to remove VMware  entirely from Security & Privacy / Accessibility tab. It does not work to simply unclick it. When it is removed, it will replace itself on reboot, but remain "unchecked".

The cursor is now performing as expected in Fusion.

One other thing we tried, that did not seem to work, and also seems to cause a small issue on Fusion startup:

Locate a folder called "Virtual Machine" on the Mac OS side and open the folder and you should see an ex: Windows 10*64.vmwarevm.
1. Right click on Windows VM
2. Select "Show Package Content".
3. Look for file ends with an extension .VMX (not .VMXF).
4. Right click and copy the file to your desktop.
5. Right click on the .VMX file and select open with Texedit.
6. Scroll all the way down and add the below entries.

mks.noHostCursor = ”TRUE”

7. Click on File and select save.

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wila
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Hi,

A few things to try.

1. Make sure the VM has the latest virtual hardware. I have seen this issue with windows guests where vmware tools was up to date, but the virtual hardware was version 10 or something instead of version 16  (menu -> Virtual Machine -> Settings -> Compatiblity -> Advanced). You can only change this when the VM is shut down.

2. Make sure that VMware Tools is installed, up to date and working well. If unsure, uninstall vmware tools -> reboot the guest -> install vmware tools

3. If none of the above helps then you can try changing the mouse behavior. Menu -> VMware Fusion -> Preferences -> General Tab -> Gaming: "Auto-detect mouse for games"

There's also been times where people had this problem when having resize options enabled on the display or having the retina option on the screen.

But.. first see if the above helps.

--

Wil

| Author of Vimalin. The virtual machine Backup app for VMware Fusion, VMware Workstation and Player |
| More info at vimalin.com | Twitter @wilva
Groverstudio
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Thanks for the response. I checked Auto detect mouse for games = on. Virtual hardware is on 16. I cannot figure out how to uninstall VMWare tools?

The monitor settings are attached in a screen grab.

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wila
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Hi,

You can uninstall VMware Tools via control panel "Add Remove software".

re. mouse settings, try one of the other settings. It is currently on the default (you can always change it back)

--

Wil

| Author of Vimalin. The virtual machine Backup app for VMware Fusion, VMware Workstation and Player |
| More info at vimalin.com | Twitter @wilva
Groverstudio
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Thanks for the help with how to uninstall and reinstall VMWare tools.

Unfortunately that did not help.

I worked through all the mouse settings and none of them helped.

I worked through the monitor / display settings as well, but none helped.

One detail I noted:

On the charting software, the icons on the sides of the charts are accurately selected by the mouse--the cursor point matches the item to be selected.

But when applying the tool that was selected to modify or draw on the chart, THAT is when the cursor is above the actuation point of the cursor.

Another detail, and this is really weird, is that I made a video screen capture to share with you, and while recording the cursor behaved as I'm describing...

but the recording appears that the cursor is properly placed 😕

Maybe all that will give a hint as to what is the fix here.

Thanks for all the help.

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wila
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Hi,

Hmm... so it works correctly in all applications except for this one where in the charting control it misbehaves?

That starts to smell like that it might not be a VMware problem after all, it might be the reason you are seeing this now, but I'm getting the feeling that the culprit is in the app not being fully DPI aware.

Can you check the following in your Windows 8.1 VM?


Right click on the desktop, from the menu select "Personalise" -> then in the screen that comes up at the bottom right there's a menu item "Display", click that.

You'll be getting the following screen:

pastedImage_0.png

If your setting is anything else then 100%, then it might be what triggered this.

If your application is not "DPI aware" then anything but 100% might give it the idea your cursor is in a different place as where it is.

There's a workaround for this that sometimes helps.

Create a shortcut for your app on the desktop.

Rightclick that, then go to Properties.

Then the compatibility tab and disable display scaling.

pastedImage_1.png

That would disable the font scaling just for this application while keeping it for all the others.

--

Wil

| Author of Vimalin. The virtual machine Backup app for VMware Fusion, VMware Workstation and Player |
| More info at vimalin.com | Twitter @wilva
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Groverstudio
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Thanks for those ideas.

The first setup was correcly set at 100% and the second control was already unclicked.

So no help in the end unfortunately.

I'm going to work with the app developer tomorrow. They may have an idea how to solve the issue.

Thanks,

John

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wila
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Hi,

It would be check to disable, but if your DPI settings are already at 100% then it won't help.

If you can reproduce it with other applications then it might still be a VMware issue, if not, yes have a chat with the developer if you can.

Perhaps try and see if MS Paint works as it should?

--
Wil

| Author of Vimalin. The virtual machine Backup app for VMware Fusion, VMware Workstation and Player |
| More info at vimalin.com | Twitter @wilva
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Groverstudio
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So long story short, I returned the computer and received another exact same computer. Hence the delay.

The issue is still occurring, and I was able to confirm that the cursor misbehaviour is also happening in MS Paint.

When starting to draw a box in paint, the cursor is above and to the left of where the box begins to be drawn.

Thanks for any continued help!

John

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Groverstudio
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3072 x 1920 is the native mac resolution of the 16" monitor. Is there something that can be done to set the VM monitor to the same exact dimensional proportion? The monitor control panel goes in chunky jumps rather than setting the resolution manually relative to the host.

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ColoradoMarmot
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For what it's worth, I'm seeing this behavior when I have a non-standard mouse pointer selected on the host (in accessibility).  When it's the normal cursor everything works fine.

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Groverstudio
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The accessibility pointer control "alternate control methods" or unclicked.

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wila
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Hi,

How much memory did you assign to the graphics adapter in the VM?

Can you try with 3D disabled (just to see if that isolates the issue)

--

Wil

| Author of Vimalin. The virtual machine Backup app for VMware Fusion, VMware Workstation and Player |
| More info at vimalin.com | Twitter @wilva
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Groverstudio
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Hi,

1024 MB is allocated to graphics adapter

Turning off 3D does not fix it. I have also tried unclicking "use full resolution for Retina display"

Thanks,

John

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wila
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Hi,

This article: https://kb.vmware.com/s/article/1003 has some tips on how-to set custom screen resolutions in Windows guests.

It also mentions how much video RAM you would need to set.

If I calculated it correctly then 22MB is OK, so 1024MB is certainly sufficient.

Your issue is not exactly a normal thing to see.

I'm starting to run out of ideas to try.

One thing I would try in your case is to use an older version of VMware Tools (perhaps the graphics driver of the latest version for Windows 8.1 has a bug?)

BTW, just checking.. is the guest OS of your VM set to Windows 8 correctly? (menu "Virtual Machine" -> Settings -> General -> OS )

It has to match your guest OS (and bitness)

Perhaps you should open a ticket with VMware support, that is still something to try.

https://www.vmware.com/support/fusion/

--

Wil

| Author of Vimalin. The virtual machine Backup app for VMware Fusion, VMware Workstation and Player |
| More info at vimalin.com | Twitter @wilva
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wila
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Another idea... are you perhaps using a non standard apple mouse instead of the track pad?

(There are apparently issues with some Logitech mouses in multi monitor setups)

--

Wil

| Author of Vimalin. The virtual machine Backup app for VMware Fusion, VMware Workstation and Player |
| More info at vimalin.com | Twitter @wilva
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Groverstudio
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So this issue appears to have been resolved by VMWare support. Short story: the fix is to remove VMware  entirely from Security & Privacy / Accessibility tab. It does not work to simply unclick it. When it is removed, it will replace itself on reboot, but remain "unchecked".

The cursor is now performing as expected in Fusion.

One other thing we tried, that did not seem to work, and also seems to cause a small issue on Fusion startup:

Locate a folder called "Virtual Machine" on the Mac OS side and open the folder and you should see an ex: Windows 10*64.vmwarevm.
1. Right click on Windows VM
2. Select "Show Package Content".
3. Look for file ends with an extension .VMX (not .VMXF).
4. Right click and copy the file to your desktop.
5. Right click on the .VMX file and select open with Texedit.
6. Scroll all the way down and add the below entries.

mks.noHostCursor = ”TRUE”

7. Click on File and select save.

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wila
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Hi,

Happy to hear that your problem got resolved by VMware support.

Thanks for letting us know what finally fixed it for you, that's very useful for others who might be bumping into this issue.

cheers!

--

Wil

| Author of Vimalin. The virtual machine Backup app for VMware Fusion, VMware Workstation and Player |
| More info at vimalin.com | Twitter @wilva
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BarnettF
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Thank you to Grovestudio.  I had the same problem after installing the 11.5.7 update (after installing Catalina on my MacBook).  VMWare asks for permission in the Accessibility tab.  At first, after installing Catalina, I refused it, and everything worked in VMWare.  When I did the update to 11.5.7, I I  was again asked for permission, and gave it.  The result was no cursor at all.  I had to use keys to move about.  The solution was to go back in and uncheck the box as Grovestudio said, and problem solved.  Again, thank you!

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snishtala1
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Thanks much!! This helped me too. 

All of the message even from VMware support suggest that we explicitly check the VMware app in Security &privacy/Accessability. In fact they specifically ask you to delete and re-add. What is really needed is to uncheck it!!!!!!

 

-Satya

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