Mouse movement is not smooth in a hosted virtual machine
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Mouse movement is not smooth in a hosted virtual machine

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Article ID: 329350

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Updated On: 11-18-2024

Products

VMware Desktop Hypervisor

Issue/Introduction

This article talks about smoothing mouse movement (or enabling clicks) in a VMware Workstation virtual machine.
  • Mouse cursor movement is jumpy, jerky, or not smooth inside a virtual machine
  • Mouse is not working inside a virtual machine
  • Mouse clicks are not recognized
 
For more exhaustive mouse troubleshooting, see Keyboard or mouse do not work in a hosted virtual machine.

Environment

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

Resolution

There are two different kinds of mouse movement possible. One kind of movement allow for smoother and more responsive mouse movements by exclusively locking the mouse to the virtual machine. This is often useful for games, and so this is how VMware products refer to it. The other kind of movement allows the mouse to travel freely between the virtual machine and the host, but this can entail a slight loss of precision. The VMware product automatically detects which is more appropriate, depending on the circumstances.
 
On some occasions, the automatic detection may not operate correctly. In these cases, manually configure the mouse mode.
 
To set the mouse mode:
  1. Go to Edit > Preferences from the VMware Workstation user interface.
  2. Click the Input tab.
  3. From the Optimize mouse for games dropdown menu, choose Always.

    Note: It is required to click back in the virtual machine for the mouse to be recognized. Hereafter, press Ctrl+Alt to release the mouse from the virtual machine and click in the virtual machine to return the mouse to the virtual machine.
     
  4. If choosing Always from the Optimize mouse for games dropdown does not resolve the issue, choose Never from the dropdown instead.