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Mouse Devices and Virtual Machines

You can use a PS/2 mouse or a serial tablet with a virtual machine. VMware Workstation attempts to auto detect the mouse type and the path to the mouse on your system.

VMware Workstation supports the following types of mouse devices:

If you want to change the mouse type or path, use the Configuration Editor.

To set mouse properties for a virtual machine:

  1. Select File > Open and open the virtual machine configuration file (.cfg) you want to modify.
  2. Select Settings > Configuration Editor from Workstation.
  3. Click Mouse from the left-hand panel.
  4. Choose the type of mouse you are using on the host machine from the Host Mouse Type field.
  5. Under Host Mouse Device, select either Autodetect (recommended) or Specify. If you choose to specify the location of the mouse device, click Choose and locate the mouse device.
  6. Click OK.

Issues with mouse devices and virtual machines

The following table describes situations that sometimes occur with mouse devices and certain virtual machine configurations.

Problem

Possible causes and resolutions

The mouse is sometimes unusable when using parallel ports in a virtual machine.

The mouse can sometimes become unusable when using parallel ports within a virtual machine. If this occurs, please report the details of this problem to VMware at the VMware support request page.

The mouse works fine in window mode but jumps around in full-screen mode.

The virtual machine always has a PS/2 mouse.

The mouse does not work inside the virtual machine window when an Always on top dialog box generated by the host operating system obscures the virtual machine window.

There is a problem with mouse trackcursor/toolbox software where it make the mouse cursor very difficult to control when an Always on top dialog box pops up over a running virtual machine window. An example of such a window is the Windows NT Task Manager window.

When an Always on top window appears over and within the virtual machine window as an island, then the mouse cursor stays within the Always on top window. The mouse cursor jumps to the center of the dialog window every time you try to move the mouse into the virtual machine window and you are unable to access both the Windows NT host and the virtual machine.

To work around the problem, click in the Always on top window to make it an active window; at this point you should be able to access the Windows NT host, drag the Always on top window so it does not obscure the virtual machine window or minimize it. The mouse should work inside the virtual machine when its windows is no longer obscured by the Always on top window.

Note: This problem occurs only on host systems running Windows NT.

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