Windows virtual machines with transparent mouse capture

virtualboxvirtualizationvmware

I've tried VMWare and VirtualBox and both have an intentional "mouse capture" process wherein the keyboard and mouse control is passed into the VM, and then has to be explicitly released to get back to the Mac desktop.

Are there any VMs, or configuration methods, that allow a Windows VM to behave like any other window? I.e., meaning that:

  1. When the mouse is over the VM window it is assumed to be operating in the VM,
  2. The mouse can be dragged out of the VM onto adjacent desktop without clicking a "release" key
  3. The keyboard is captured and released by the VM based on whether the VM window is the "top" or "active" window on the Mac dektop

Best Answer

Install the Guest Additions.

The Guest Additions from VirtualBox provide the seamless mouse pointer integration in which it auto captures/releases the mouse pointer.

Mouse pointer integration

To overcome the limitations for mouse support that were described in Section 1.8.2, “Capturing and releasing keyboard and mouse”, this provides you with seamless mouse support. You will only have one mouse pointer and pressing the Host key is no longer required to "free" the mouse from being captured by the guest OS. To make this work, a special mouse driver is installed in the guest that communicates with the "real" mouse driver on your host and moves the guest mouse pointer accordingly.

You can "insert" the Guest Additions CD from the Devices Menu in Virtual Box. On the "CD" it will have installers for various operating systems.

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