[Resolved] Lost use of mouse clicks in Windows 10 guest (and other 5.2.22 quirks)

[wcsbca]

Help! I can't click the mouse in my Win 10 guest!

I have a Windows 10 guest, recently installed and tailored after I had to replace a failed hard drive. It runs on a Windows 10 host using VBox 5.2.22 with corresponding Guest Additions installed on the guest.

Made the mistake of browsing through the menus at the top of the screen, clicked on the "Input" tab, then inadvertently clicked the "Mouse Integration" icon, thinking it was a menu tab.

Thereafter I have been unable to click on anything on the guest desktop. The cursor moves smoothly between the guest machine desktop window and the host desktop, and I frequently get the popup message about the captured mouse: "You have clicked the mouse inside the Virtual Machine or pressed the host key", telling me to look in the lower right corner of the guest screen for the host key to use to uncapture the mouse (Right Ctrl). But, as I said, the mouse moves smoothly inside the virtual desktop and across to my host desktop, so it doesn't seem to be captured, and the Right Ctrl key has no effect.
Re-clicking the "Mouse Integration" icon on the "Input" menu has no effect. either. The right mouse click does seem to work for changing the Win 10 desktop screen resolution, etc, but not on icons.

Without mouse clicks, I cannot re-install Guest Additions to try to clear the issue caused by the Input>Mouse Integration button (not sure GA re-install would work even if I could). I have to use the host icons for the virtual machine windows to abort the virtual machine session.

I have many hours invested in tailoring the Win 10 guest, so I hate to go through an install and tailor again, and this issue seems like a bug to me.

A side issue: the sound is absolutely terrible in the Windows 10 guest (a friend reports the same problem)... can I install sound drivers in the guest? Both of us have had Win 10 guests before, under earlier VBox releases and didn't have an issue with sound.
Another side issue: the default for Virtual Screen 2 in virtual machine desktop menus for this release 5.2.22 is that it is not enabled (despite my having configured 2 displays in VBox Manager), whereas I think it used to default to enabled (that took me awhile to figure out).

[socratis]

Is it Left-Click, or Right-Click_over_specific_items/icons that you have an issue with? I can't figure it out. Because if it's the latter, then I don't think that it's VirtualBox that's done that.

As for the Mouse Integration, that's not a permanent setting or anything close to that. Just reboot the guest and it will be set.

[wcsbca]

Thanks for your reply.

The problem is left-click on anything on the guest desktop just does not work, nothing happens when I left-click. Left mouse clicks do work on the VirtualBox border menu items above the guest desktop.

Haven't done enough with right-clicks to know when they work and when they don't, except I know that right-clicking a (guest desktop) icon does NOT bring up a menu of actions (and even if it did, how would I then left-click the desired action?). And as I said, the right-click does work on the desktop to bring up Windows display settings, but I can't then use the left click to change screen resolution, for example.

About it not being a permanent setting... how do you reboot the guest when the cursor left-click isn't working? The only way I've been able to reboot the guest machine is to force it to end using the host system Task Manager to nuke the VirtualBox window, but when I then do a fresh boot of the virtual Win 10 guest using VirtualBox Manager, I'm right back where I started, with no cursor left-click ability inside the guest desktop.

Mouse clicks were working fine until I clicked on the "Input" tab, then inadvertently clicked the "Mouse Integration" icon... now I can do nothing with left mouse clicks inside the guest portion of the virtual machine window, can't even re-install Guest Additions in the virtual Win 10 to try to see if that would clear the problem.

[socratis]

Left mouse clicks do work on the VirtualBox border menu items above the guest desktop.

Are you running in full-screen mode? Otherwise I don't understand what that statement means.

The only way I've been able to reboot the guest machine is to force it to end using the host system Task Manager to nuke the VirtualBox window

It's best if you don't do that, but close the VM from the CloseWindow widget, if you're running in windowed/normal mode.

About it not being a permanent setting

Yes it's not. If you disable it, the next time that you start the VM it will be enabled, it's not saved anywhere.

I'd like to see a complete VBox.log, from a complete VM run:

• Start the VM from cold-boot (not from a paused or saved state) / Observe error / 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.

I would also like to see the "recipe" of the VM, the ".vbox" file:

1. Right-click on the VM in the VirtualBox Manager. Select "Show in Finder/Explorer/Whatever".
2. ZIP the selected ".vbox" file and attach it to your response.

Finally, what kind of mouse do you use? Anything out of the ordinary? Like a wireless Bluetooth one for example?

[wcsbca]

Again, my thanks for giving this problem your attention.

1. You said: "Are you running in full-screen mode? Otherwise I don't understand what that statement means."

I don't understand your question, what do you mean by full-screen mode. I have my Native Win 10 running, with a guest Win 10 up and running in a window that is slightly smaller than the Win 10 host screen.
I will attach a photo of my physical display (display 2 of the guest minimized to the host tray to get it out of the way for this photo in order to minimize clutter/confusion).

2. You said "close the VM from the CloseWindow widget"

Well, I have to eat crow here, because I found that if I click the "X" in the upper right corner of the guest window, it gives me the option to send the shutdown signal (or power the guest down) without resorting to "nuking" it

3. You said: "Yes it's not. If you disable it, the next time that you start the VM it will be enabled, it's not saved anywhere."

Not quite sure what you mean here, but as I said in (2:), I can bring down the guest now without "nuking" it.

4. I am attaching the zipped VBox log, and the zipped ".vbox" file; also a photo of the physical computer screen with the Win 10 guest running
(looks normal, but mouse clicks not working inside the guest Win 10, not even the right click this time).

5. I am using an old-fashioned mouse connected to the mouse port; works fine with a Win7 guest and was working fine with this Win 10 guest until (as I said previously) "I clicked on the "Input" tab, then inadvertently clicked the "Mouse Integration" icon".

Win 10 Pro (64-bit) Nov 2018-2018-11-29-19-48-57 log.zip

log

(33.14 KiB) Downloaded 285 times

Win 10 Pro (64-bit) Nov 2018 vbox.zip

vbox

(2.34 KiB) Downloaded 188 times

photo of my display with Win 10 guest under Win 10 host

Win 10 virtual macjhine screenshot.jpeg (122.84 KiB) Viewed 32798 times

[socratis]

a guest Win 10 up and running in a window that is slightly smaller than the Win 10 host screen.

That's called the default/normal/windowed mode. In full-screen mode, you only see the guest, nothing else, and not as a window.

Yes it's not. If you disable it, the next time that you start the VM it will be enabled, it's not saved anywhere.

I meant the "Mouse Integration" setting. If you close the VM and you restart the VM, is it enabled or not?


And now, for the big surprise! Did it escape you to mention the following fact?

00:00:05.752229 MonitorCount <integer> = 0x0000000000000002 (2)

That's why your clicks don't get registered, you're clicking on the wrong screen! Please lower the monitor count to 1 (you can't fit 2 in any event) and try again.

[wcsbca]

OK, I did try redefining the Win 10 guest in VBox as having one display as you suggested.
The Win 10 guest with one display defined works.

Epiphany.

I now think I had failed to specify 2 displays originally when I re-installed VBox (after a disk failure that caused me to reinstall VBox and redefine the guest machines).
The Win 10 guest worked with one display, so it strikes me as probable that the problem occurred after my first boot of the newly-altered profile (to add the second display); it didn't dawn on me that maybe the problem occurred after the first boot of the redefined guest profile, and I blamed the Input setting I'd played with in the menu above the booted Win 10 guest.

So, the Win 10 guest I built and tailored didn't support a second display.
In "real life" I don't think I had to do anything special when I added the second physical display to my "real" Windows, but in that case there was real hardware in place to support 2 displays back when the host Windows was originally installed.

So, it appears I need to do the time-consuming work of rebuilding my guest machines from scratch.

Thanks for your help, Socratis.

[socratis]

So, it appears I need to do the time-consuming work of rebuilding my guest machines from scratch.

No, you simply have to go to the VM settings and choose only 1 monitor. Done.

[wcsbca]

Yeah, I could do that, but I'm used to having a LOT of desk space: (2) 27-inch displays. I often feel cramped with only that much deskspace.
And, I'm an old guy and need large fonts.
Not uncommon for me to have a half-dozen windows open & visible at the same time and to be flitting between the virtual machine and the real one.

But, as I attempt to get a Win 10 guest set up in the new Win 10 definition that includes 2 displays, I've installed guest services (and rebooted) and although the Win 10 guest shows the second display, it doesn't allow me to choose how to set up the second display; I click for the second display to be set up as an extension and the main display then displays a window asking if I want to keep the configuration, with a timer counting down, but when I click the "keep" button, it evokes no action and the timer keeps going until it times out and the displays revert to just the main display.
Clicks do seem to work, except for this. I'm trying to find a solution.

Also: I'd sure like to get the audio working decently in the new Win 10 guest (it is terrible, words are static and cannot be discerned), is it permissible to load your own sound driver?
My host Win 10 system lists an NVIDIA GeForce GT 720 with driver(s) NVIDIA High Definition Audio 1.3.35.1 and Realtek 6.0.1.7541
VBox Manager doesn't seem to give me any options.

VBox Audio settings.jpeg (19.21 KiB) Viewed 32776 times

The Win 10 guest shows this:

Win 10 guest settings

VBox Win 10 guest audio.jpeg (76.72 KiB) Viewed 32775 times

[socratis]

We're not going to solve all your problems in one thread. One thread per issue, one issue per thread, which BTW I wanted to mention from your first post since "and other 5.2.22 quirks" doesn't work with that rule. Next thing you know, we're going to be discussing your tax returns!

As far as I can see, the original issue has been addressed. The only remaining question is, what should I mark the thread as: Resolved, WorksForMe or Invalid? I think I'll go with [Resolved]...

[wcsbca]

Fair enough, I'll start a new thread about the sound issue.

Come to think of it, I probably could use some help with my tax returns...

[socratis]

Moving to "Windows Guests" from "Windows Hosts" after all, that's where it belonged in the first place.