1920x1080 display resolution missing under Win 7

Discussions about using Windows guests in VirtualBox.
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robho
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Joined: 28. Apr 2022, 14:10

1920x1080 display resolution missing under Win 7

Post by robho »

VirtualBox 6.1.32 (with Guest Additions 6.1.32 installed)
Host: Linux Mint 20.3 64-bit / Guest: Win 7 Pro 32-bit
Monitor: 24" with native resolution 1920x1080

Before I upgraded to VB 6.1.32 I had version 5.1.38 installed. The resolution needed for my monitor was available using graphics controller VBoxVGA - it was not using VBoxSVGA. Anyway, all was fine.

Now, after upgrading to VirtualBox / Guest Additions 6.1.32, the 1920x1080 resolution under Win 7 display settings is completey gone - it's neither available using VBoxVGA nor available using VBoxSVGA. VBoxSVGA offers a lot of resolutions, but there is not a single one that is 16:9. (BTW, if the guest is Win 10 Pro 64-bit and VBoxSVGA is used the 1920x1080 resolution is available.)

Is this Win 7 issue a bug or is it a feature? What do I have to do to get the 1920x1080 (16:9) resolution?

Any help is appreciated.
Thanks in advance.
mpack
Site Moderator
Posts: 39156
Joined: 4. Sep 2008, 17:09
Primary OS: MS Windows 10
VBox Version: PUEL
Guest OSses: Mostly XP

Re: 1920x1080 display resolution missing under Win 7

Post by mpack »

Windows will not offer display sizes with an incorrect aspect ratio (one different from the ratio it thinks your monitor has). Windows also thinks that the VirtualBox monitor has a 4:3 ratio, therefore 1920x1080 can't appear. Basically, Win7 is not designed for VMs.

However, look in the View menu of the running VM. View|Virtual screen 1|Resize to www by hhh - some of those will be widescreen ratios.

You can also drag the window borders to an abitrary size.
robho
Posts: 4
Joined: 28. Apr 2022, 14:10

Re: 1920x1080 display resolution missing under Win 7

Post by robho »

mpack wrote:Windows will not offer display sizes with an incorrect aspect ratio (one different from the ratio it thinks your monitor has). Windows also thinks that the VirtualBox monitor has a 4:3 ratio, therefore 1920x1080 can't appear. Basically, Win7 is not designed for VMs.
But up to VB 5.x 1920x1080 was offered by Win 7 display settings and worked well (using VBoxVGA). So why was a working setting removed from VBoxVGA? Win 7 is able to handle 1920x1080 when installed not using a VM.
mpack wrote:However, look in the View menu of the running VM. View|Virtual screen 1|Resize to www by hhh - some of those will be widescreen ratios.
The View menu of the running Win 7 VM does not offer View|Virtual screen 1|Resize to www by hhh - there are only items to scale from 100% to ...%.
mpack wrote:You can also drag the window borders to an abitrary size.
This breaks the size ratio of 16:9. But 16:9 is required for what I'm doing under Win 7.
mpack
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Posts: 39156
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Primary OS: MS Windows 10
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Re: 1920x1080 display resolution missing under Win 7

Post by mpack »

robho wrote: The View menu of the running Win 7 VM does not offer View|Virtual screen 1|Resize to www by hhh - there are only items to scale from 100% to ...%.
Are you using 6.1.x? Obviously I'm discussing features of the current software, and that menu option is definitely there, provided up-to-date GAs are also installed.
robho
Posts: 4
Joined: 28. Apr 2022, 14:10

Re: 1920x1080 display resolution missing under Win 7

Post by robho »

mpack wrote:Windows will not offer display sizes with an incorrect aspect ratio (one different from the ratio it thinks your monitor has). Windows also thinks that the VirtualBox monitor has a 4:3 ratio, therefore 1920x1080 can't appear. Basically, Win7 is not designed for VMs.
Sorry, but that's nonsense in my opinion. VB is able to virtualize pretty much any version of Windows, but it's not possible to implement 1920x1080 under Windows 7 32-bit? And, as I said in my first post, 1920x1080 was available in VB 5.x releases and worked great...

I did two tests with the free VMware Player. 1) In a freshly installed Win 7 Pro 32-bit VM, the 1920x1080 resolution is present in the Windows display setting and can be used without any problems. 2) I exported my previous VB (6.1.32) Win 7 VM and imported it into VMware Player. Also in this case 1920x1080 can be set and works fine.

So the problem with 1920x1080 is a VirtualBox v6.x problem. Either the lack of 1920x1080 (any 16:9 resolution at all) is an intentional decision by the VB developers or they have sort of screwed up working code.
mpack
Site Moderator
Posts: 39156
Joined: 4. Sep 2008, 17:09
Primary OS: MS Windows 10
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Re: 1920x1080 display resolution missing under Win 7

Post by mpack »

I'm not interested in arguing with you. I refer you to my first reply, which I know is correct.

Incidentally, these are user discussion forums. Nobody here is a developer, so speculating about their intentions is not useful IMO. But it's all open source, so if you can identify a bug in the code then by all means use BugTracker to submit a patch.
fth0
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Re: 1920x1080 display resolution missing under Win 7

Post by fth0 »

From a technical POV, I'd argue that VirtualBox 6.1 is behaving correctly in this case. ;)

VirtualBox offers different visual modes for the VM window: In full-screen mode, there is only the native resolution of the monitor (e.g. 1920x1080), and the guest OS is provided with that resolution. In normal (windowed) mode, the window decorations need space, so the guest OS can obviously only be provided with smaller resolutions.

Because the common user doesn't make this distinction, some programs (VirtualBox 5.2 included) are deceiving the user a little bit. The user selects a 1920x1080 resolution, but the guest OS is provided with a slightly smaller resolution (or scrollbars on the host). If the user then tries to start a program that enforces a 1920x1080 resolution, the program will refuse to run.
robho
Posts: 4
Joined: 28. Apr 2022, 14:10

Re: 1920x1080 display resolution missing under Win 7

Post by robho »

mpack wrote:I'm not interested in arguing with you. ...
That's a pity. I thought in a forum like this one you can ask for help, you can offer help to others, and you can discuss/argue when you disagree. So, if you feel offended by what I said I want to apologize for that. My post was in no way meant that way - it's just my point of view of the described problem.
fth0 wrote:... VirtualBox offers different visual modes for the VM window: In full-screen mode, there is only the native resolution of the monitor (e.g. 1920x1080), and the guest OS is provided with that resolution. In normal (windowed) mode, the window decorations need space, so the guest OS can obviously only be provided with smaller resolutions. ...
If I understand you correctly, 1920x1080 should be offered in the Windows display settings if the VM is running in full-screen mode? If yes - in full-screen mode 1920x1080 is not offered in my Win 7 32-bit VM.
fth0
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Re: 1920x1080 display resolution missing under Win 7

Post by fth0 »

robho wrote:If I understand you correctly, 1920x1080 should be offered in the Windows display settings if the VM is running in full-screen mode?
I don't know, but there should be no need to have it offered. To give you an example:

On my notebook with a native 1920x1080 display resolution, I have a Windows 10 VM that I usually run in a 1600x900 window. When I need more screen estate, I switch it to full-screen mode (Host-F), Windows 10 then automatically uses the full 1920x1080 pixels and also shows it in the display settings. When I shut down the Windows 10 guest OS without leaving full-screen mode, after the next VM start it still uses full-screen mode.
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