Virtualisation

So you’ve loaded Hyper-V, created your virtual machine and loaded Windows server onto the virtual machine.  You are using remote desktop to connect to your Hyper-V host and power  on the virtual machine.

The first thing you’ll notice when you try to use the mouse is that you’ll receive the message popup “Mouse not captured in Remote Desktop Session”, and instead of a mouse pointer will just get a dot in it’s place. Have noticed when using  3rd party remote control software, logmein in my case I was able to see a mouse pointer but still not control it.

This is really frustrating for those of  us who have used VMware where the mouse works straight away (albeit jerky until VMware tools installed).

The way to get the mouse working under a Hyper-V VM is to install  Microsoft Virtual Machine Integration Services into the VM.  As you have no mouse you will need to use the keyboard to login and start the install, a list of common windows key combinations is shown below. Once logged in from the VM connection window click on the ‘Actions’ menu and select ‘Insert Integration Services Setup Disk’ from the drop down list, this will load the install disk into the virtual CD drive of your VM from where the install can be started.  Once installed you’ll get control of your mouse back.

Standard  Key combination	Virtual Machine Key Combination	Function
CTRL + ALT + DEL	CTRL + ALT + END	Displays the Task Manager or Windows Security dialog box.
ALT + TAB	ALT + PAGE UP	Switches between programs from left to right.
ALT + SHIFT + TAB	ALT + PAGE DOWN	Switches between programs from right to left.
ALT + ESC	ALT + INSERT	Cycles through the programs in the order they were started.
CTRL + ESC	ALT + HOME	Windows start menu button.
None	CTRL + ALT + PAUSE	Switches between full screen / windowed
None	CTRL + ALT + LEFT ARROW	Releases mouse and keyboard focus from the Virtual Machine Connection window.

Filed under: Microsoft Hyper-V