Mouse without borders not working - computers can ping each other

[thewbuk]

Microsoft PowerToys version

0,78,8

Installation method

GitHub

Running as admin

Yes

Area(s) with issue?

Mouse Without Borders

Steps to reproduce

Neither MwB nor Barrier is working for, even though PCs can ping each other by IP. Firewall and VPN are off. Both latest Powertoys versions running as admin and as service. Firewall off on both.

✔️ Expected Behavior

No response

❌ Actual Behavior

Yellow border around when trying to add 2nd PC

Other Software

No response

[crutkas]

Can you try removing %localappdata%\Microsoft\PowerToys\MouseWithoutBorders folder and see whether it makes any difference?

Idea is from: https://github.com/microsoft/PowerToys/issues/28868#issuecomment-1739621548

[mdeso]

Can you try removing %localappdata%\Microsoft\PowerToys\MouseWithoutBorders folder and see whether it makes any difference?

This didn't change anything in my case. Whats helps sometimes is rebooting one or both machines. MwB than typically fails again after the screen gets locked or an elevation prompt occurred. As mentioned in #31680, the Windows event log for the MwB service then shows messages like the following:

Failed to read settings: The process cannot access the file '[user-home]\AppData\Local\Microsoft\PowerToys\MouseWithoutBorders\settings.json' because it is being used by another process.

It seems as if the service and something else (the PT frontend?) lock the settings file at the same time.

[mdeso]

It seems that the error message I mentioned above no longer occurs since version 0.80. Apart from that, the problem still persists. MwB works after a restart or resume from standby but stops to work until some kind of interruption occurs, like an elevated prompt. In the services view it can be seen that PowerToys.MWB.Service doesn't run anymore and any try to restart it won't succeed, it stops immediately without leaving a trace in the event log. It can only be activated again by going into standby or rebooting.

[deanis74]

I was having extreme difficulties connecting yesterday. The status colors would stay (handshaking), briefly switch to yellow (resolving) then back to blue.

I tried generating a new security key, running as a user instead of admin, restarting both PCs, hardcoding IP addresses, switching between public and private networks, everything I could think of but nothing worked.

Then, magically, I was notified that 0.82 had been released. I upgraded both PCs and now MwB is working. I don't know if any fixes were made in this version or if it's just a big coincidence, but I'm not touching anything for as long as I can, and I really hope Microsoft doesn't release a Windows Update for at least a little while.

[mdeso]

Yes, it seems to be working again with 0.82 although the version history doesn't mention any changes.

[deanis74]

I think that falls under "Bug fixes and stability."