OneNote document looks different when viewed in Windows 10 on Bare metal vs in a VM

Discussions about using Windows guests in VirtualBox.
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FlexMcMurphy
Posts: 22
Joined: 18. Apr 2021, 01:07

OneNote document looks different when viewed in Windows 10 on Bare metal vs in a VM

Post by FlexMcMurphy »

Hello,

I just started using Virtualbox recently with an Ubuntu mate Host and Windows 10 guest.

I have Windows 10 already installed bare metal and I use MS OneNote (installed locally) to view and edit documents in OneNote. The documents are saved on a shared drive so I can also edit them from OneNote running locally in a Windows 10 VM.

I am trying to make the experience of viewing and editing those documents identical in both Windows bare metal and in the VM running in the Ubuntu mate host.

Both are the same Windows version (Win 10 Pro: Win10_20H2_v2_English_x64.iso) and both have the same version of MS Office 2010.

Both Windows have resolution 1920x1080 with 125% scaling. The Ubuntu host is also 1920x1080 and dpi 96, but no scaling.

Please see screenshots of OneNote as viewed from Windows bare metal vs VM. I created the document from bare metal Windows and didn't make any changes to it except open it in the VM (ok I made one change so you can see in which environment each screenshot was taken).

-- Sorry but these are the links, the image files are uploaded to https://imgbb.com/ because too big to attach. I tested them and they work.
https://ibb.co/LxmwNkC
https://ibb.co/tqP0PMs

The visible document area is different and the amount of space available for page titles on the right menu is different between both. Why is this and can I make them the same? I tried changing the resolution in the guest. I also tried moving the vertical divider bar separating the document area on left from the page titles menu on right. If I move it in the VM then it's wrong in bare metal and vica versa... because it is the same document.

I can't make the document look exactly the same and have the same space for text either side of the vertical bar when the doc is used in Win bare metal vs Windows VM.

Is there a way to fix this? Is it an unavoidable fact of the different display drivers in Virtualbox vs Bare metal Windows?

Cheers,

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

Re: OneNote document looks different when viewed in Windows 10 on Bare metal vs in a VM

Post by scottgus1 »

I see the difference in the right pane width in your linked pics.
FlexMcMurphy wrote:If I move it in the VM then it's wrong in bare metal and vica versa... because it is the same document.
Are you opening the file in the host and the VM at the same time? If so, does changing the pane slider in one OS cause the pane to move in the other? Or is it that setting the pane on one OS, then closing the file and opening it in the other OS, does not put the pane in the same place?

This could be driver issues. The VM uses Virtualbox drivers for its own virtual graphics, which is different than the host's physical graphics. Could be an off-by-one calculation or other such stuff.

Short of making sure your VM has up-to-date Guest Additions and possibly 3D acceleration turned on, there is probably not much else we could suggest, short of a deep prickly dive into the source code and the debugging, and I can't swim that deep myself...
FlexMcMurphy
Posts: 22
Joined: 18. Apr 2021, 01:07

Re: OneNote document looks different when viewed in Windows 10 on Bare metal vs in a VM

Post by FlexMcMurphy »

Thanks a lot for looking into this anyway @scottgus1.

I'm using the same OneNote documents in the two Windows 10 OSs separately, at different times.

It doesn't look like a resolution issue because for any given document the font size and menu sizes are identical and the width that the document takes up is also the same when viewed from either environment... just whatever determines the placement of that scroll bar is different when I run the OneNote application in each OS.

I only have to move it left or right by a certain amount to make the everything in the screen identical to how it was in which ever OS I viewed it in last.

Maybe it's a OneNote thing interacting differently with the Virtualbox graphics drivers vs the Windows bare metal graphics drivers.

I think I'll just have to shift the scrollbar left or right when I view in each OS as needed.

Cheers,

Flex
FlexMcMurphy
Posts: 22
Joined: 18. Apr 2021, 01:07

Re: OneNote document looks different when viewed in Windows 10 on Bare metal vs in a VM

Post by FlexMcMurphy »

Just updating this question to says it's working properly now. I don't think the issue was Virtualbox graphics drivers vs the Windows bare metal graphics drivers.

I am running two different installations of One Note 2010... one in the Bare Metal Windows 10 and another in the Windows 10 Guest VM running on an Ubuntu host. I think this is why "initially" the vertical scroll bar was appearing in different locations when the same One Note document was viewed in each environment because it's position isn't just determined by the document but by the application.

I "trained" the vertical scroll bar to be in the same position on the screen when viewed in the bare metal and VM Windows by creating a new document and giving it a title which was an arrow --------> While in the bare metal Windows I adjusted the position of the scroll bar so the head of the arrow viewed in the Pages Pane would just touch the rightmost edge of the Pages Pane. After rebooting and swapping between the two environments and calibrating the position of the vertical scroll bar like that a few times I don't need to tweak it any more it's just correct.

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

Re: OneNote document looks different when viewed in Windows 10 on Bare metal vs in a VM

Post by scottgus1 »

Interesting! Thanks for letting us know!
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