Scrolling in VMware Fusion 13 in virtual Windows 11 (MacOS Ventura Host)

[trey_a_12]

TLDR Version: Scrolling is unbearable with trackpad/touchpad in Windows 11 VM on M1 MacBook Air. Tried using drivers and every known setting (decent tech person here) to no avail. However, it works on UTM and Parallels just fine, so it's just VMware. Why?

Hey guys, as someone just looking to run a little occasional Windows on my new M1 MBA, I looked at a few VM softwares. Parallels was best but way too expensive, UTM worked well but had bad animation stutter, and then I came to here. VMware Fusion 13 is perfect for my needs, with great visuals, great animations, all the basics, except one: Trackpad/Touchpad scrolling.

I simply cannot tolerate scrolling with the built-in MacBook Air trackpad. Do note, it does work, but it is so jittery and sped up that it might as well not. I'll gently scroll up or down for a second, and the entire page will stutter up and down repeatedly, taking seconds before it finally scrolls down "normally" (assuming it does). At first I attributed this to a lack of drivers for the Mac, but then the same occurred with my Magic Trackpad, meanwhile a normal mouse works just fine.

I've tried adjusting almost every setting in macOS, from toggling reverse scrolling to changing trackpad scroll speeds, adjusting the various pointer and other trackpad settings, and looking around in VMware's settings - all to no avail. I then tried looking in Windows in the VM, and it doesn't even detect a trackpad so I can't adjust anything except scroll speed, which doesn't change anything! Of course, I looked for Magic Trackpad drivers and all in the Windows VM, but softwares there either don't support ARM or didn't work at all. Even installing a Magic Trackpad driver from an Apple Boot Camp archive did nothing (while it DID fix that issue when I once used said trackpad on a Windows laptop, so it's the VM).

All of this would be fine and I would assume something isn't passing to the VM because they can't, but that's not the case - both UTM and Parallels scroll with the trackpad without issue, it's just VMware.

My last resorts were to add two lines of code from someone reporting a similar issue on Ubuntu about enabling reverse scrolling in the registry and the VM file itself, and neither worked at all. After that, I tried installing UTM's Spice tools and Parallels's Guest Tools, which of course didn't work. Could someone please help or at least explain why VMware is the only VM software that can't recognize a simple trackpad?

 Video

• Scrolling Problem.mp4

[Technogeezer]

I've been able to repro this on my Mac mini M1, external Magic Trackpad v1, Fusion 13 and a Win 11 ARM 22H2 VM. I'd say it's a bug.

If you have access to open a support request, I'd do that. Something about how the trackpad is sending events and how Fusion is interpreting them before sending to the VM is not quite right.

 

[rswoods]

I'm having the exact same issue on my M2 Mac Air. The cursor movement in the Win11 VM is ok (not great), but two-finger scrolling is very jerky/jumpy.

Anyone know of a solution? Other than that, Win11 arm64 runs very well in Fusion 13. 

[ColoradoMarmot]

Change over to the tech preview.  There are issues upgrading VM's from Fusion 13, so would recommend building a new one from scratch using the instructions in the unofficial guide pinned in that forum.

[rswoods]

I'm using the Tech Preview. I just got a fresh ISO and installed it into a new VM

Same problem. Scrolling is very glitchy.

[Technogeezer]

Tech Preview doesn't solve it. VMware's virtual USB mouse driver isn't really handling the Apple trackpads very well.

 can someone from your team look into this and see if we can get a fix by the time you GA the next version? It's very annoying for us using Apple trackpads (either built-in MacBook pads or add-on Magic Trackpads)?

[ColoradoMarmot]

I'm not seeing that in either my win VM's on the tech preview.

There's a bit of jerking, but two finger scrolling otherwise works just fine.  I suspect the 3d acceleration support in the TP might help with it.

Or...are you in windowed mode, or full screen when it happens?  

[trey_a_12]

What devices are you testing this on/what settings are you using in macOS and the Windows VM? Since using the 3D Acceleration Tech Preview, the issue remains - I can scroll left and right or up and down tolerably on webpages in my tested browsers (Chrome, Edge) but up and down movement remains erratic outside of those (Ex: Settings, MS Word, Start Menu List).
This behavior was consistent for me in windowed AND full screen mode, in normal and gaming mode with VMware’s settings.

[rswoods]

>> There's a bit of jerking, but two finger scrolling otherwise works just fine.

Mine scrolls exactly like the attached video in the OP. It does work, but it's so out of place considering most other animations, and graphics in general, are buttery smooth.

 

[VMware Community Member]

I'm running windows 11 23H2 with VMware Fusion Player 13.5.1 and still have this issue.

[Technogeezer]

There's still some issues with the VMware virtual mouse.

I'm going to place an entry in the VMware Fusion suggestion box. 

[Rajeswara Reddy Kotla]

We have filed a ticket internally and the relevant team will look into it.

[Felipe Pereira]

I'm using VMware Fusion 13.6.2 (24409261), host is Sequoia 15.3 and Guest is Fedora 41. Builtin trackpad two-fingers scroll is way too fast. Is there any setting on Host or Guest to fix it?

[Felipe Pereira]

Mac M2, Sequoia 15.3 as host, Fedora 41 as guest, Fusion 13.6.2 (24409261): 2 finger scrolling is too fast. Any hints on how to fix it?

[Gabriel Francisco]

Seems to be an issue with apps that use the winUI like settings, wintoys and any other app that uses the windows 11 ui. I've used other apps with different ui's and it just doesn't have smooth scrolling which feels weird but at least it aint broken.