Windows 2008 DataCenter Mouse Blues

Working with the Windows 2008 Datacenter version, I had to create a couple of Virtual machines. Once I remote into that server, and created the virtual machines, I've found out that connecting to those VM while using Remote Desktop causes the VM machine to not recognize the mouse.!

I keep getting this annoying dialog box: Mouse not captured in Remote Desktop session.

Of course the content help wasn't helpul at all:

The mouse is available in a Remote Desktop session when integration services are installed in the guest operating system. For more information, search on 'integration services' in Help.

if you look at the bottom of the Virtual Machine Connection screen you see this

I have tried removing the virtual machine additions, adding the Hyper-V Integration Services, etc, etc.  It is still did not work. I found a blog post from Maarten van Stam that talks about making the VM look at the HAL by adding an extra CPU to the VM.  At this point, I'm very aggravated that I don't have a mouse and keep having to use TABS and SHIFT-F10 keys all over, so I give it a try.

After adding an extra CPU, rebooted the VM, and now my mouse works.!  WTF?  I remove the extra CPU from the VM, and confirmed that in fact the mouse still works.

One more thing, you can get your mouse working if you install the Hyper-V Management Tools on your Windows Vista, here is the MSDN article that talks about it http://support.microsoft.com/kb/952627.

DocTools not working

For one of the projects we are working on, we need to make sure our end user documentation matches correctly the template provided by the customer. I have started playing with one of the products that the Patterns and Practices at Microsoft is using to generate their documentation. Take a look at their package: http://www.codeplex.com/doctools

After going through all of the installation and pre-requisites.  I was ready to try the sample Word Document they provide.  Snag.!  

First thing I notice is that the sample scripts are looking for the Microsoft DocTools in the c:\program files\Microsoft DocTools.  Changing those scripts brought to my attention that the install program gives you the ability to specify the path on where to install the DocTools.  However, it will always install to the (x86) directory on my Vista x64.

The main error I was getting was:

PS C:\DocToolsDemo> .\HTML.cmd

C:\DocToolsDemo>PowerShell ConvertToHTML.ps1 ESBIntro.docx .\outputHTML """C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft DocTools\Document Converter\Formatting\MSDN2\xsl""" convertESBConfig.xml

    Directory: Microsoft.PowerShell.Core\FileSystem::C:\DocToolsDemo

Mode                LastWriteTime     Length Name
----                -------------     ------ ----
d----         10/1/2008   9:10 AM            outputHTML

    Directory: Microsoft.PowerShell.Core\FileSystem::C:\DocToolsDemo\outputHTML

Mode                LastWriteTime     Length Name
----                -------------     ------ ----
d----         10/1/2008   9:10 AM            html
Add-PSSnapin : No Windows PowerShell Snap-ins are available for version 1.
At C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft DocTools\Document Converter\ConverterLibrary.ps1:9 char:15
+         Add-PSSnapIn  <<<< ppConverter.Cmdlets
--Splitting: C:\DocToolsDemo\ESBIntro.docx
An Error Ocurred: The term 'Split-Document' is not recognized as a cmdlet,function, operable program, or script file.Verify the term and try again.

PS C:\DocToolsDemo>

After doing all of the regular stuff (check PATH, re-install, start/stop program, google), I could not get this error to go away.

The problem seems to be with the OS I am running.  Since I am running a 64bit OS, I need to call the PowerShell that is on the c:\windows\syswow64 and not the one in the regular 32bit.  This is accomplish by running the one marked with the (x86)

Once I opened this one, ran the set-executionpolicy remotesigned command.  It ran and split the Word document successfully and generated my HTML help compile file.

One of those simple bugs that can waste a whole hour for you.!