Capture and Release the Keyboard and Mouse

To start working in a virtual machine, you need first to capture the keyboard and mouse input in the virtual machine. To do this:

1. Move the mouse pointer over the virtual machine window.
2. Click in the window.

When the keyboard and mouse input is captured in the virtual machine, you cannot move the pointer out of the virtual machine window and all keystrokes and button clicks go to the virtual machine. To release the keyboard and mouse back, press the hot key combination (Ctrl+Alt by default). The keyboard and mouse will be released immediately.

Note: You can change the key combination for releasing the keyboard and mouse input using the Keyboard pane of the Preferences dialog.

If you want to automatically capture and release the keyboard and mouse input, you should install Parallels Tools in your virtual machine. After the Parallels Tools installation, you can capture and release the mouse and keyboard input more easily:

• Click anywhere in the virtual machine window to capture the input; and
• Click anywhere outside the virtual machine window to release the input.