"Boxed mode"

[lensv]

I left my VM (Windows 10) running when I went for vacation a few weeks ago. Today I came back and found everything still up and running. Fine I thought, except that it now acts some kind of weird. The windowed machine seems to get trapped in it's "box" and I constantly have to hit CTRL + CMD + F to release the mouse pointer. Over and over I also lose control of it in a way where it stops responding to mouse clicks etc. To get back I must repeat the previous keyboard combination and send a CTRL + ALT + DEL to the machine and then it works again for a while.

I have upgraded Windows to 1803 and applied all available patches from Windows Update. I have also uninstalled and installed VMware Tools, but nothing helps. I run VMware Fusion 10.1.2. What may be wrong?

[bfan]

Can you try to change setting 'Vmware Fusion -> Preferences -> General -> Gaming -> Never optimize mouse for game' to see whether it works

[lensv]

Somewhat better with that setting, but there is still a delay in the control of the mouse (when the "effect" kicks in). The window limits are also still there, but not as frequently as before. The strange thing is that all this seems to have started out of nothing at all...

[lensv]

Nope, after a while the behaviour's back just as before. Any other suggestions?

/Ps. I don't get any email notifications (for thread replies etc.) from this forum anymore. Has something changed?

[wila]

Hi Lennart,

As you already guessed, this is part of the functionality of VMware Tools.

Did you reboot the Windows 10 guest inbetween uninstall and reinstall VMware Tools?

This might make a difference because when you uninstall a driver and windows can't delete all files because they are in use, it will mark those files as "to be removed" and remove them on reboot.

If you don't reboot inbetween uninstall and re-install in such a case and then reboot, your VMware Tools config now has a few files it is missing. The re-install will not remove the "to be  removed" mark, so these files get axed during the reboot.

So my suggestion is to do the uninstall/reinstall dance one more time, but with the reboot inbetween.

--

Wil

[lensv]

Hi Wil!

Unfortunately it doesn't help. I did even shut down the VM (and VMware) between the uninstall and the install, but that didn't make a difference.

I really don't understand what's going on here, so any idea is appreciated.

/LS

[wila]

Lennart,

In another topic with a similar mouse issue, it was suggested to switch to unity mode and back to windowed mode.

Not sure if that helps, but it is easy enough to try.

Yet another topic which AFAIK is about Mojave, but perhaps is also relevant for High Sierra is this:

Keyboard and Mouse not working in VMWare Fusion guests

and is basically talking about the kernel component for your mouse/keyboard requiring a special approve.

Hope this helps,

--

Wil

[lensv]

Nope,

The Accessibility setting didn't do it either.

Switching from Singel Window to Full Screen or Unity Mode and back makes a momentary difference, but after a short while the old behaviour is back.

/Ps. I still don't get any email notifications (for thread replies etc.) from this forum anymore. Is there a setting for this?