● Covered by 1 source · 1 reportLow impact1 neutral
Community Fork Revives SPICE Windows Guest Agent for Modern VMs
Key points
- Fork of abandoned freedesktop.org SPICE Windows guest agent.
- Maintains compatibility for Windows 11 VMs on Linux.
- Includes multi-GPU mouse fix.
- Provides client mouse, resolution matching, clipboard sharing, file transfer.
Project Revival
A new community-maintained fork has emerged for the SPICE Windows guest agent, taking over from the previously abandoned freedesktop.org spice/win32/vd_agent project. This initiative aims to keep the Windows agent functional and available for contemporary virtual machine environments, specifically targeting Windows 11 VMs running on Linux hosts.
Addressing Maintenance Gaps
The fork directly responds to Red Hat's decision to cease upstream maintenance of SPICE. By continuing development, the project ensures that critical features such as client mouse mode without pointer grabbing, automatic desktop resolution matching, clipboard sharing for text and images, and file transfer capabilities remain operational for users.
Key Enhancements and Features
The community fork already incorporates important fixes, including a multi-GPU mouse fix that prevents mouse movement loss when a real GPU is passed through alongside the SPICE display device. The agent also provides a Windows service (spice-agent) that starts vdagent.exe in each session, ensuring consistent functionality.
Technical Details and Availability
The project is licensed under GPL-2.0-or-later, with original copyright retained by Red Hat, Inc. and other upstream authors. Canonical downloads are available on GitHub Releases. The supported build process utilizes Autotools with MinGW-w64 UCRT64, while CMake with MSVC is available for local development but does not produce an MSI installer.
✨ This summary was generated by AI from the outlets' reporting listed below. It is not independently verified and may contain errors — check the original sources. How BrevFeed works →
The daily brief
One email each morning: the day's tech stories, clustered across outlets and summarized. No account needed.
One email a day. Unsubscribe in one click, any time.
Today's brief
Spend a few minutes, get the whole day. Every topic's top stories in one hands-free rundown — listen, watch, or read the transcript.
▶ Play today's brief
New every morning, and the back catalogue is archived by date.
Primary sources
GitHub cmc_internal/api GitHub github/collect GitHub nefarius/vd_agent GitHub _private/browser GitHub get-started/accessibility GitHub open-source/sponsorsReporting from
A community-maintained fork of the abandoned freedesktop.org SPICE Windows guest agent project has been created to ensure continued compatibility with current Windows guests, particularly Windows 11 VMs on Linux. This fork addresses Red Hat's discontinuation of upstream SPICE maintenance, providing essential features like client mouse mode, resolution matching, and clipboard sharing.