Is there a way to set a fixed *minimum* screen size?

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papaathome
Posts: 6
Joined: 24. Oct 2015, 12:01

Is there a way to set a fixed *minimum* screen size?

Post by papaathome »

Hi,

I'm using VirtualBox for years and I'm quite happy with it.
There is one thing that is bugging me and I cannot find a way around it.

Some system information:
Host machine: windows 10.
Most guests: windows 7.

I have two monitors, 3840x2160 each.
When configuring a guest I have the option to open in 'full screen' mode or not.
On the guests I populate the desktop with a number of icons in fairly fixed positions and groups as the means to operate the machine for what I want to do with it.

When I open a guest configured not to use 'full screen' mode, the max screen size I get is about 1920x1080, which is a quarter of my monitor space. I cannot find a way to configure the guest to open with a higher setting.

When I open a guest configured in 'full screen' mode I cannot move it from one monitor to another, which I would like to do quite often.
To drag a guest from one monitor to the other I first have to make it not using 'full screen' and that resizes it to quite small, often far less than 1920x1080. And that causes my point of iritation. Windows will rearange all icons on the desktop in a seemingly random order. There are no tools (to my knowledge) to simply restore icon positions to a known arangements. (No tools as in: not expensive, and no spamming included.)

You might say: This is a windows problem, not a VirtualBox problem. And I would admit that it is true. But Microsoft has not done anything about this issue since window 95 and I do not think they will do anything about it before they start windows 11 (which, they say, will never happen.)

Thus, I got into a habbit of starting a guest, then manualy drag window size to *nearly* full screen and then I have maximum screen size use and the ability to move from one to the other monitor. I still have to rearange the icons on the desktops every now and then.

When I turn off my monitors windows will rearange all forms to the number 1 screen. Unfortunately, when I turn the monitors on again the windows will not go back to the previous position. Another source of iritation I will have to live with. But the guest windows, being in near full screen size, are quickly restored.

I am looking for an option to preset a minimum window size for guest which, once set, will always be used on system startup.
Another option that I would appreciate is to specify which screen a guest should use by default on system boot.
Preferrebly *not* expressed in pixels but in % of host screen size, say '98% of host screen #x'.

Is it possible to archieve such settings, by scripting or whatever means to manipulate boot arguments of guests?

I also make remote desktop connections to my host machine. The machine I use for that does not have a luxury screen of large sizes but has `merely' 1920x1080. My host machine resizes and moves all open windows to the one active screen. With it all guests open at the moment will move and resize. This works without any problem and I would like this behaviour not to change.
But disconnecting the remote desktop and start working at the host machine I have to restore all windows again. That I would like to change in a way that windows move back to the previous position of the '2 active screens' configuration. I have no idea how to do such a thing.

Kind regards.
scottgus1
Site Moderator
Posts: 20965
Joined: 30. Dec 2009, 20:14
Primary OS: MS Windows 10
VBox Version: PUEL
Guest OSses: Windows, Linux

Re: Is there a way to set a fixed *minimum* screen size?

Post by scottgus1 »

papaathome wrote:the max screen size I get is about 1920x1080 ... I cannot find a way to configure the guest to open with a higher setting.
While the VM is running, try:

VBoxManage controlvm "VM name" --setvideomodehint <xres> <yres> <bpp>
papaathome wrote:Windows will rearange all icons on the desktop in a seemingly random order.
Try DesktopOK. I've used this for controlling icon placement. It comes as a zip file so you can inspect the contents if security is a worry.
papaathome wrote: am looking for an option to preset a minimum window size for guest which, once set, will always be used on system startup.
I don't think Virtualbox has something like this.
papaathome wrote:Preferrebly *not* expressed in pixels but in % of host screen size, say '98% of host screen #x'.
Nor this one either, though a script running the pixel-numbers version of "--setvideomodehint" could calculate what 98% of host screen size is in pixels then use those numbers.
papaathome wrote:Is it possible to archieve such settings, by scripting
A VM can be started from a script, which can wait for the VM to boot and pass further commands. See 'vboxmanage startvm' and 'vboxmanage/vboxcontrol guestproperty get/set'
papaathome wrote:That I would like to change in a way that windows move back to the previous position of the '2 active screens' configuration. I have no idea how to do such a thing.
I don't either, unfortunately, but a web-search "save and restore windows positions" showed some possibilities.
papaathome
Posts: 6
Joined: 24. Oct 2015, 12:01

Re: Is there a way to set a fixed *minimum* screen size?

Post by papaathome »

scottgus1 wrote:...
papaathome wrote:Windows will rearange all icons on the desktop in a seemingly random order.
Try DesktopOK. I've used this for controlling icon placement. It comes as a zip file so you can inspect the contents if security is a worry.
That is a *very* nice tool! Thanks for suggesting it. 8)

Your other suggesions looks prommising.
It will take me some time to have a better look at it.

Kind regards.
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