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SimonRW
Contributor
Contributor

Leaving keyboard focus with VM whilst working with mouse on Host

Is there anyway to leave the keyboard focus within a VM whilst working with the mouse on the host?

The reason I ask is because I get detailed technical criteria for quality assurance tests on images and would like to scroll through the documents on the host whilst entering the test data in the VM. However, at the moment, as soon as I move the mouse outside of the VM my keyboard is no longer there. Currently working with VM workstation 6.

Is there an option that will allow the focus of the keyboard to remain with the guest VM until the host is clicked?

cheers

Simon.W

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ProPenguin
Hot Shot
Hot Shot

I think your best bet may be to use the Unity mode. That way whatever program you are trying to scroll in will be like a native app on your computer, instead of being in a VM window. Hope this helps.

RParker
Immortal
Immortal

Check your mouse settings, you have a driver on your laptop that is doing this. VM ware doesn't sacrifice focus once context is changed UNTIL you click. So this must be a mouse driver.

Something like "hover to get focus". I remember this being an option on MS mouse and some logitechs...

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admin
Immortal
Immortal

Is there anyway to leave the keyboard focus within a VM whilst working with the mouse on the host?

The reason I ask is because I get detailed technical criteria for quality assurance tests on images and would like to scroll through the documents on the host whilst entering the test data in the VM. However, at the moment, as soon as I move the mouse outside of the VM my keyboard is no longer there. Currently working with VM workstation 6.

Is there an option that will allow the focus of the keyboard to remain with the guest VM until the host is clicked?

When you move the mouse out of the guest screen, the Workstation window will remain active (assuming you haven't configured your host to use focus-follows-mouse behavior with TweakUI or other tools). However, the guest will not be "grabbed", so keyboard input will go to the Workstation UI window, not to the guest.

If you want keys to go to the guest, you should either get into the habit of pressing CtrlG to explicitly grab first or to enable grab-on-keypress in the preferences (under Edit > Preferences > Input). Be forewarned that grab-on-keypress currently is a bit aggressive and isn't very pleasant to use, so I recommend the CtrlG approach.

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mdunn-vmware
Expert
Expert

I think you're asking about the automatic grab/ungrab that Workstation does when the mouse cursor enters/leaves the window. You can change ths behavior at: Edit->Preferences->Input tab->uncheck "Ungrab when cursor leaves window"

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SimonRW
Contributor
Contributor

Thanks for all the responses so far. They've been helpful but not quite resolved the problem. The keyboard focus is lost once the mouse is out of the VM. The suggested solutions modifying the "grab" options under the preferences keep the mouse in the VM until "ctrl+alt" is pressed and then the situation is back to where it started from; keyboard focus outside the VM.

I run two monitors; left hand montior VM in full screen mode, right hand monitor host with technical documentation to follow - what I want to achieve is scrolling with mouse on rh monitor, entering input in VM on lh monitor.

I am using a logitech mouse and have tried the Windows 7 drivers and Logitech drivers all to no avail.

TweakUI has not been used - but could this be used to undo "focus follows mouse"?

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ProPenguin
Hot Shot
Hot Shot

Just out of curiosity did the Unity mode give you the same issue? Or is the Unity mode not an option for your situation?

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admin
Immortal
Immortal

Thanks for all the responses so far. They've been helpful but not quite resolved the problem. The keyboard focus is lost once the mouse is out of the VM.

When you say that keyboard focus is lost, do you mean that the main Workstation window itself is no longer active (its titlebar changed color), or do you mean that keystrokes don't go to the guest? If the main Workstation window is no longer active, then it sounds like you have a focus-follows-mouse tool installed (is that true? does moving your mouse over other windows make them active when the cursor passes over them and inactive when it leaves?)

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