Num Lock status in Windows 7 guest is opposite of host

Discussions about using Windows guests in VirtualBox.
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terje7601
Posts: 3
Joined: 25. Aug 2011, 13:02
Primary OS: MS Windows 8
VBox Version: VirtualBox+Oracle ExtPack
Guest OSses: Oracle Linux, Windows 10

Num Lock status in Windows 7 guest is opposite of host

Post by terje7601 »

As the subject says: the num lock status in my Windows 7 guest is the opposite of the status on the host. This is on a fresh install: I just created a Windows 7 32-bit VM with all default settings & installed the OS.

Host: Windows 8.1 Professional 64-bit
Guest: Windows 7 SP1 Starter 32-bit
VirtualBox: 4.3.8 r92456

The log looks completely normal.

Has anyone else encountered this before? If not, how can I debug this issue & find out where the problem (host, guest, VirtualBox itself) is?

Thanks, Anthony
socratis
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Re: Num Lock status in Windows 7 guest is opposite of host

Post by socratis »

According to the changelog for version 4.3.8, it's a newly added, experimental feature:
GUI: experimental HID LEDs synchronization for Windows hosts, see Section 9.27, “Support for keyboard indicators synchronization
You have to manually enable it, per VM.
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terje7601
Posts: 3
Joined: 25. Aug 2011, 13:02
Primary OS: MS Windows 8
VBox Version: VirtualBox+Oracle ExtPack
Guest OSses: Oracle Linux, Windows 10

Re: Num Lock status in Windows 7 guest is opposite of host

Post by terje7601 »

Thanks, that works perfectly indeed.

This also led me to realize that without the feature, changing Num Lock in the guest switches both guest & host status. On the contrary, changing Num Lock on the host only switches host status. So if you just want to enable Num Lock on both: first enable it in the guest, then, if required, enable it again on the host.
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