how to add a resolution for Windows XP Guest

[StoneWoodman]

As I understand the list of resolutions is part of the VirtualBox Graphics Adapter:

VGA card list.png (7.08 KiB) Viewed 2101 times

Is there a possibility to add a custom resolution like 2560 x 1600 ?

I installed VirtualBox-5.1.4-110228-Win on Windows 10.
I disabled the Oracle_VM_VirtualBox_Extension_Pack-5.1.4-110228 extension, as found in VirtualBox Manual 9.8.1. Custom VESA resolutions.
I tried: VBoxManage setextradata "W5P32FR-ISO" "CustomVideoMode1" "2560x1600x32".

Code: Select all

C:\Program Files\Oracle\VirtualBox>VBoxManage getextradata "W5P32FR-ISO" "CustomVideoMode1"
Value: 2560x1600x32

But I didn't find how to get this working.

[mpack]

Section 9.8.1 of the user manual discusses the Guest Additions, not the Extension Pack, the latter having nothing whatever to do with guest graphics emulation.

Secondly, you misunderstood the point of that section of the manual. You do NOT want to disable the Guest Additions, as the graphics performance will be poor without them.

Just make sure that, in the manager, File|Preferences|Graphics|MaxGuestDisplaySize is set to "None", then drag the Windows border to the size you want.

[StoneWoodman]

Thank you very much, everything is OK now.
With Guest Additions removed from my Windows XP Guest, I was able to add the CustomVideoModes that I wanted:
from VBoxManage setextradata "W5P32FR-ISO" "CustomVideoMode1" "2128x1600x32",
to VBoxManage setextradata "W5P32FR-ISO" "CustomVideoMode5" "5000x5000x32".
Every resolution was easy to use, with very good performance, "6000x6000x32" was too large to work.

I have used before the solution "drag the Windows border to the size you want".
I could get a large horizontal resolution even if it was not easy, but I was unable to get a vertical resolution greater than the native screen resolution of the computer.
I feel that there was also a performance problem with this solution.

It was very simple to remove the Guest Additions from my Windows XP Guest.
I just started "C:\Program Files\Oracle\VirtualBox Guest Additions\uninst.exe" from the Windows XP Guest user interface.

Searching the web I found a lot of fancy solutions to uninstall Windows Guest Additions.
Therefore I think that it will be a good idea to add a chapter "4.2.1.5. Uninstalling the Windows Guest Additions" in the user manual.

[mpack]

Therefore I think that it will be a good idea to add a chapter "4.2.1.5. Uninstalling the Windows Guest Additions" in the user manual.

Since I already told you that isn't necessary, I don't agree that a user manual section saying otherwise is a good thing to have. Naturally, VESA hints don't work with anything except the VESA emulation. That doesn't mean that the VESA emulation is better or more capable than the GAs. They just work in different ways - and the GAs perform way better.