Double mouse pointer in Windows 10 guest (#17778)

[delphijunkie]

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[ModEdit; related ticket: #17778: Double cursor on Mac OS host with unscaled HiDPI / W10 Guest with 200% scale]

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Whenever the mouse cursor has focus in a text box in a Windows 10 guest, I'm seeing two cursors; the expected caret cursor, and the last cursor displayed. Often this is a mouse pointer, but it may also be the wait cursor or a window resize cursor.

The only way I can stop this happening is by disabling mouse integration. But this gives poor mouse pointer movement, and means I have to manually escape mouse access when trying to interact with the Host operating system.

This is behaviour I don't see with my Windows 7 VM. Are there any better workarounds for this issue.

IMG_9078.JPG (102.71 KiB) Viewed 10834 times

[socratis]

We're going to need a complete VBox.log, from a complete VM run:

• Gathering the necessary information:
  1. Start the VM from cold-boot (not from a paused or saved state).
  2. Observe the error, i.e. see the double cursors.
  3. Shutdown the VM (force close it if you have to).
• With the VM completely shut down (not paused or saved), right-click on the VM in the VirtualBox Manager and select "Show Log".
• Save only the first "VBox.log", ZIP it and attach it to your response. See the "Upload attachment" tab below the reply form.

[delphijunkie]

Log as requested. For this test run, I started the VM, launched Notepad, observed the problem happening.

I also typed in Notepad, which hid the caret cursor, but the pointer cursor remained.

[socratis]

You have a hardening problem:

00:00:03.399777 supR3HardenedErrorV: supR3HardenedScreenImage/LdrLoadDll:
                rc=VERR_CR_PKCS7_KEY_USAGE_MISMATCH
                fImage=1 fProtect=0x0 fAccess=0x0
                \Device\HarddiskVolume3\Windows\System32\DriverStore\FileRepository\nvdm.inf_amd64_a74a38776cc5071e\nvinitx.dll:
                fKeyUsage=0x0, missing 0x1:
                \Device\HarddiskVolume3\Windows\System32\DriverStore\FileRepository\nvdm.inf_amd64_a74a38776cc5071e\nvinitx.dll
00:00:03.399880 supR3HardenedErrorV: supR3HardenedMonitor_LdrLoadDll:
                rejecting 'C:\WINDOWS\System32\DriverStore\FileRepository\nvdm.inf_amd64_a74a38776cc5071e\nvinitx.dll'
                (C:\WINDOWS\System32\DriverStore\FileRepository\nvdm.inf_amd64_a74a38776cc5071e\nvinitx.dll):
                rcNt=0xc0000190

You should read the "Diagnosing VirtualBox Hardening Issues" FAQ. I would try to download/reinstall the graphics drivers again.

If that doesn't work, disabling 3D acceleration might help (VM Settings » Display » Acceleration » Enable 3D acceleration: uncheck that). I believe it's already unchecked in the Win7 VM, that's why you don't see the double-cursors.

[delphijunkie]

Interesting you mention graphics drivers. This is a VM that was created in VMWare (which is what my company uses). I exported it to .ovf, then imported that into VirtualBox. Could this be a contributing factor here?

I have already tried disabling 3D acceleration, and that made no difference. In the Windows 7 VM, I have this enabled. I also tried with 2D acceleration disabled too (which also made no difference).

[socratis]

I exported it to .ovf, then imported that into VirtualBox. Could this be a contributing factor here?

Could be, there might be a conflict with the Guest Additions. Did you uninstall the VMWare equivalent of the VirtualBox Guest Additions? If so, do it, and try again.

[delphijunkie]

Could be, there might be a conflict with the Guest Additions. Did you uninstall the VMWare equivalent of the VirtualBox Guest Additions? If so, do it, and try again.

VMWare tools are definitely not installed. I re-installed the VirtualBox tools, but that made no difference.

You mentioned re-installing the graphics drivers again. How exactly do I do that for the VirtualBox graphics driver? Or do you mean locating and re-installing the driver mentioned in the Hardening error message?

[socratis]

I'm sorry, I should have made it clearer; I'm talking about the host's graphics drivers.

Can you verify that your computer has two GPUs; one NVidia (discrete, high performance) and one Intel (integrated, low energy)? It seems that the NVidia drivers are being rejected and you're falling back on the Intel ones.

So, find if you can the drivers for your host's GPU. Avoid if you can additional "goodies" and stick to the basic drivers only.

[delphijunkie]

Thanks for the clarification.

I definitely have two GPUs; Nvidia and onboard Intel. I can also configure which GPU is used for particular apps, so forcing the VM to use the Intel one may be something else worth trying.

[socratis]

I can also configure which GPU is used for particular apps, so forcing the VM to use the Intel one may be something else worth trying.

This "enforcement" is already enforced by VirtualBox. VirtualBox is flat-out rejecting your NVidia, so your only other option is the Intel GPU, which are not known for writing the best drivers, hence your problem.

Your problem will be solved (hopefully) if you get the NVidia drivers installed and not rejected. Read again the Hardening FAQ to see why it might fail, might be a corrupted Windows Certificate Database, and the (re)installation might joggle it back to normal. It has happened on multiple occasions...

[delphijunkie]

Tried re-installing the NVIDIA drivers, but it had no impact. I also noted that the same hardening error is reported by my Windows 7 VM, which does not have this issue.

I tried the steps listed in the Hardening thread, with the exception of fixing the Windows Cert DB (haven't found instructions for that yet), and fully uninstalling my anti-virus (using Windows Defender; I disabled real-time scan). But none made a difference.

I'm still not 100% convinced the display driver is the issue here, for two reasons. Firstly the issue goes away if I disable mouse integration. But this comes at the expense of choppy mouse movement, and needing to use an escape key to get the cursor back in the host. And secondly, if you move the mouse around while it is in a text area (such as Notepad window), the secondary cursor jumps ahead of the actual caret one. To me it looks more like an issue with the Mouse Integration feature on Windows 10.

Hopefully this animated GIF demonstrates what I mean.

[delphijunkie]

More information. This happens if the guest OS uses the Windows 10 scaling setting (System->Display->Change the size of text, apps, and other items). Whenever this is set above 125%, this problem surfaces. I have it set to 200%, as I'm running a 3840x2160 monitor.

If I use the VirtualBox scaling instead, the issue doesn't happen. But the Windows scaling is far sharper, so I'd prefer to use that if possible.

[delphijunkie]

I have confirmed that a work colleague can reproduce this by setting his scaling to 150%. Here is his vbox.log file. I note it doesn't contain the same hardening errors that were in mine.

[socratis]

You ZIPPED the first log, why not the second?

That's an interesting finding. I wonder what's going on behind the scenes... Until it gets resolved, and if it gets on your nerves, I guess you can always fall back on the VirtualBox scaling.

[delphijunkie]

LOL! Sorry about that. I was pretty busy yesterday.

Thanks for all your help on this. I was happy to find an acceptable workaround in the end. Using VirtualBox scaling will definitely work for me for now.