Mouse Without Borders within PowerToys connectivity issues

[jopaul14]

Microsoft PowerToys version

0.75.1

Installation method

Microsoft Store

Running as admin

No

Area(s) with issue?

Mouse Without Borders

Steps to reproduce

I used to use the Mouse Without Borders stand-alone tool - that was extremely reliable.

I recently switched to Mouse Without Borders within Powertoys and that has been quite unreliable. I am constantly running into issues with the two computers losing connectivity to each other while both are still reliably connected to the network. They will not re-connect when I try reconnecting. Typically the only thing that works is to reboot one or both computers.

I have experienced this problem utilizing Mouse Without Borders with:
Windows 10 <-> Windows 11
Windows 11 <-> Windows 11

Log_2023-11-13.txt

✔️ Expected Behavior

Mouse Without Borders will reliably maintain a connection between the two computers.
Mouse Without Borders within PowerToys will have the same functionality as the stand-alone Mouse Without Borders.

❌ Actual Behavior

Mouse Without Borders within PowerToys drops the connection and does not reconnect when using the shortcut to try reconnecting or when pressing the Refresh connections button.

Other Software

No response

[USMA56795]

I've been unable to connect since upgrading from PowerToys 0.75.0 to 0.75.1. I have not tried re-installing the old version yet to determine if this is a regression issue, but it may be. The Mouse Without Borders built into PowerToys has worked for the past several months of versions, other than 0.75.1.

Commit ba76bfe was the only change to MWB that I can see. It may explain the behavior: I get the blue frame--showing that each machine can see each other, but never get the green frame of an established connection.

[MikeDevs]

Can confirm I am seeing the same issue. Though I think the connection has been a little flaky for more than just this most recent (0.75.1) version. If I had to hazard a guess, I'd say around 0.74.0 things started going wrong.

I've had the same Windows 11 workstation and Windows 11 laptop sitting next to each other and using Mouse Without Borders since it was first included in PowerToys. Same network, both wired connections. It was rock solid up until fairly recently and borderline unusable as of 0.75.0/1. Very occasionally it will work and then just stop, even while actively using MWB on the guest. Looking over the commit history I am not entirely sure what could have caused the change, 434e26d seems suspect but I have not deep dived it.

Log_2023-11-22.txt

[cinnamon-msft]

Are you still experiencing this issue? /needinfo

[USMA56795]

The last time I tested I did, though that was several months ago. Have there been changes to MWB such that I should re-test? @cinnamon-msft