VMPlayer on Windows Vista

simplicity

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Aug 18, 2010, 11:36:47 AM8/18/10

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When I load a VM into a player and switch to VM I am losing the mouse
and the keyboard. Originally, I thought it might be the older release
of VMPlayer (I experimented with 2.5) but I have just made a fresh
install of 3.1.1 and the problem is still there.

This happens for Linux and Windows 7 VMs, so I guess these are not the
VMs which are at fault

So, my next guess is it is Vista but I have no clue where to look for
solution - provided that one exist.

Can someone help?

Hans-Peter Diettrich

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Aug 18, 2010, 5:15:54 PM8/18/10

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simplicity schrieb:

> When I load a VM into a player and switch to VM I am losing the mouse
> and the keyboard. Originally, I thought it might be the older release
> of VMPlayer (I experimented with 2.5) but I have just made a fresh
> install of 3.1.1 and the problem is still there.

Does the VM have installed the VMWare tools?

DoDi

simplicity

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Aug 18, 2010, 11:43:20 PM8/18/10

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Yes. Actually probably yes. It asked me to download and install VM
tools but at one point during the process I saw the message asking me
to go to guest OS and that's why I am not actually not sure. Mind you,
I cannot do anything in the guest OS window because it ignores both

Hans-Peter Diettrich

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Aug 19, 2010, 6:44:54 AM8/19/10

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simplicity schrieb:

> Yes. Actually probably yes. It asked me to download and install VM
> tools but at one point during the process I saw the message asking me
> to go to guest OS and that's why I am not actually not sure. Mind you,
> I cannot do anything in the guest OS window because it ignores both
> the mouse and the keyboard.

You may have to activate the window, by clicking into it first. If that
doesn't work, something is seriously broken. I remember no problems with
running my old VMs in Vista.

DoDi

simplicity

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Aug 24, 2010, 8:34:55 PM8/24/10

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I tried everything in my knowledge arsenal. Would it be a Vista Home
Edition which might be not "VMware capable". Which Vista did you run
as a host OS?

Hans-Peter Diettrich

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Aug 24, 2010, 11:35:54 PM8/24/10

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simplicity schrieb:

>> You may have to activate the window, by clicking into it first. If that
>> doesn't work, something is seriously broken. I remember no problems with
>> running my old VMs in Vista.
>>
>> DoDi
>
> I tried everything in my knowledge arsenal. Would it be a Vista Home
> Edition which might be not "VMware capable". Which Vista did you run
> as a host OS?

AFAIR it was Vista Home. I couldn't find any Windows version (since
W2K), that had real problems with VMWare Workstation or Player.

BTW, did you check your system for malware, or "security" updates, or
other tools that hook globally into mouse handling, and thus may prevent
VMWare from working properly? UAC and other "security" features also
often turned out to prevent the proper use of additional software.

I have disabled all AV software on my Windows installations (uninstalled
it to be sure), because it turned out to be the show stopper number one
since XP. Instead I use dedicated VMs for internet access, which can be
reset into initial state at any time, so that no malware can survive in
these machines. An offline scan of the installed systems, using some
Linux live CD, typically works more reliable than any online AV software.

DoDi

simplicity

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Sep 4, 2010, 8:54:30 PM9/4/10

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On Aug 24, 11:35 pm, Hans-Peter Diettrich <DrDiettri...@aol.com>
wrote:

I have AVG on the machine. But I had AVG on an XP host on which
VMPlayer worked flawlessly so it seems unlikely that this would be a
culprit. Otherwise, the machine is clean.

Anyway, I have given up.