Moving From A Console Window to the Inventory List

[VPMan]

When I’m using VMware Infrastructure Client, and accessing the console tab for one a virtual machine I have a situation where once I click on something in the console window the only way I can return control of the mouse to the outer area, for example, the inventory list, is to press the control and Alt keys at the same time. This is only true for some of my virtual machine but not all of the. Some of the machines do not require that I press Ctrl-Alt, I can just move the mouse the the inventory listing and click another machine. Does anyone know how I can change this behavior for the machines that require me to press Ctrl-Alt?

[msemon1]

Have you installed VMware Tools? Vmware tools installs the virtual drivers for keyboard, mouse, video, and NIC driver. You should have better keyboard and mouse experience after installation.

Mike

[VPMan]

Yes, I have the VMTools installed. Keep in mind that some of my virtual machines do not have this problem, only some of them. I just can't figure out how to fix it for the problem machines.

Thanks for the input.

[msemon1]

What type of VM's are having problems? Windows or Linux. You might try removing and reinstalling VMware Tools. Sometimes it has problems.

[VPMan]

All my VMs are Windows (no UNIX/Linux). There is one difference in the VMs that work seamlessly vs. the ones I have to press Ctrl-Alt. The ones that work seamlessly were cloned from physical servers, the ones that require me to press Ctrl-Alt to leave the console window were created from “scratch “.

[msemon1]

You might check the machines that were P2V'ed for hidden devices.

Open a command prompt on the Windows VM (Start --> Run --> cmd).

set devmgr_show_nonpresent_devices=1

devmgmt.msc

In the device management console (View --> Show Hidden Devices).

Uninstall the devices that are no longer required. Such as old network devices

[VPMan]

I reviewed the hidden devices and removed one that looked like it might help with the problem, but it didn’t. However, we may be on the right track because even though it didn’t help I can see where it had an effect on the VM, albeit an adverse one, I now have two mouse pointers in the particular VM I was trying this on. Do you have any other suggestions?

Thanks in advance for any additional information you may provide.

[msemon1]

Now that you have removed the hidden device, you might try reinstalling VMware Tools.

[VPMan]

That worked, thanks for the help.