Troubleshooting a stuck mouse in the Workstation virtual machine

Products

• VMware Desktop Hypervisor

Issue/Introduction

Symptoms:

• You cannot release the mouse from the Workstation virtual machine
• Pressing Ctrl+Alt does not release the mouse

Environment

VMware Workstation 11.x (for Linux)
VMware Workstation Pro 15.x (Linux)
VMware Workstation 11.x (for Windows)
VMware Workstation 9.x (Linux)
VMware Workstation 8.x (Linux)
VMware Workstation Pro 14.x (for Linux)
VMware Workstation 7.x (Windows)
VMware Workstation 7.x (Linux)
VMware Workstation 8.x (Windows)
VMware Workstation Pro 15.x (Windows)
VMware Workstation Pro 14.x (for Windows)
VMware Workstation 9.x (Windows)
VMware Workstation 10.x (Windows)
VMware Workstation 10.x (Linux)

Resolution

To troubleshoot this issue:

1. Verify that your preferences are configured correctly.
   
   Go to Edit > Preferences, click Hot Keys, and confirm that Ctrl+Alt is selected.
    
2. Check if your preferences.ini file is corrupted.
   
   In Windows hosts, the preferences.ini file is located at:
    
   • Windows XP – %USERPROFILE%\Application Data\VMware\
   • Windows Vista/7, Windows 8, Windows 10, Windows Server 2012 and Windows 2008 R2 – %USERPROFILE%\AppData\Roaming\VMware\

   In Linux hosts, the preferences file is located at ~/.vmware/preferences.

If the preferences file is corrupted, quit Workstation and delete or rename the file. The file is regenerated the next time Workstation launches.

Additional Information