Use VM as second workstation

[Breazle]

(mod edit: originally called "Stop host mouse going to guest monitor", but OP's project has more facets.)

Hi,

Im new to virtual box and trying to setup a secondary machine for the office to save two PC's being run.

Host PC has mouse and keyboard and I've setup a virtual machine with access to a different mouse and keyboard. The PC is running two physical monitors so I have dragged the vm to the secondary and enabled full screen. I've turned mouse integration off, but how do I stop the host mouse and keyboard being able to be moved over to the second screen and getting 'lost' or clicking something it cant see (monitors are other sides of the office) Is there also a way to stop showing the VM Manager and the VM machine as running on the task bar of the host?

Have I set things up correctly for my desired outcome or is there a more efficient way of doing this? I do not want to run two vm's and only use the host for setting up as I can see this would be a way around the problem

Thanks in advance

[scottgus1]

Virtualbox itself does not have a way to restrict the host mouse.

You could try finding an app that restricts mouse movement, if such exists, and run it on the host.

Another alternative is to position the monitors in the host OS monitor position app so the two monitors meet at corners, such as North-East corner to South-West corner. If such is possible, it might make the crossover point a mere pixel wide. Not perfect, but possibly good enough.

Is there also a way to stop showing the VM Manager and the VM machine as running on the task bar of the host?

The VM Manager does not have to be running to run a VM, and the VM can be started from a desktop shortcut, right-click the VM in the Manager to make the shortcut. Normal Virtualbox must show the VM icon in the taskbar, though. But see our 3rd-party apps forum viewforum.php?f=32 which has one or more alternative VM display setups.

[Breazle]

Thanks for the reply. I suppose then selecting a seperate audio output is out the question too then? I was planning on plugging in two sets of speakers.

How does the network get a connection? The vm is using an adapter I dont recognise but is getting Internet, I have two network cards in the machine and wanted to make sure the VM only has connection to one of the networks.

Thanks again.

[scottgus1]

Per One issue per thread, I changed your topic title to reflect the whole project of two workstations on one computer.

selecting a seperate audio output

On a Windows 10 host running 2 Windows VMs, the host OS audio mixer shows separate audio input from each VM. Virtualbox does not have a way, to my knowledge, to send different VMs' audio to different host devices, but there may be a way with a Linux host or with 3rd-party apps: viewtopic.php?f=6&t=48164&start=0

Another alternative: Get a basic USB soundcard, pass it into the VM using a Virtualbox USB filter (use Virtualbox's USB 3 controller) then let the VM use that USB soundcard directly. You might even disable the Virtualbox audio completely, so only the USB soundcard can be used by the VM. See USB basics and troubleshooting

make sure the VM only has connection to one of the networks.

I am assuming that "two network cards in the machine" means the host PC has two network cards. Virtualbox defaults to using NAT for the network type, which uses whatever primary network connection the host uses. Since your workstation VM should probably be just like any other workstation on the office network, it should probably use Virtualbox's Bridged, which also has control over which host network card to Bridge to. See Virtualbox Networks: In Pictures