[Fixed 5.1.28] Seamless not working with Windows 10 guest

[jsdev]

At the suggestion on my other thread (VirtualBox keeps crashing), I upgraded to 5.1.14, but I can't get seamless mode to work. I upgraded the guest additions, but when I go to seamless mode, the following happens:

- The taskbar appears at the bottom of the screen as it should
- The macOS desktop is otherwise visible
- I can't select anything in macOS, all clicks go through to Windows
- Anything drawn in Windows doesn't show up on the screen. For example, if I click the start button, it doesn't appear. I left the main VB window open, so I can see in the preview window that the start menu opened.

Suggestions on getting seamless mode working?

[socratis]

You're not going to like the answer...
You have to downgrade to 5.1.8. It's a known issue since 5.1.10 came out. Take a look at the bug 16246: In seamless mode, mouse events do not reach host windows visible behind the VM and add your name to the Cc: list to be notified when things change.

[jsdev]

It didn't work at 5.1.8 either. At 5.1.8, all that happened was the OS border for the VM was removed.

[socratis]

Wait... what???
You updated to 5.1.14 from 5.1.8. You never complained before, only after you upgraded. Now you downgraded to 5.1.8 and you're trying to tell me that it's not working?


PS. Since this issue you're having is a standalone issue, please do not refer to "my other thread". I added a link to your other thread for reference, but please state versions and settings as this was a standalone thread, because it is a standalone thread. You don't want future readers going back and forth between threads...

[jsdev]

No, I had tried seamless before, couldn't get it to work but didn't complain. I haven't downgraded to 5.1.8 because I'm still testing 5.1.14 for the crash stability. Even if it still shows the same instability, downgrading to 5.1.8 won't help me with seamless because it didn't work for me then, but for a different reason than 5.1.14.

In summary:

• Had 5.1.8. Seamless didn't do anything but remove the border around the VM. I didn't report this bug because while bothersome, I didn't really consider it bad enough to register here and dig through given my current workload.
• 5.1.8 continued crashing over and over, so I decided that was severe enough to register and seek assistance on.
• Upgraded to 5.1.14 and upgraded guest additions to 5.1.14. Now experiencing the bug you linked to with seamless, so I'm still not using seamless mode. I'd like to have it, but it's not mission critical.
• Still running 5.1.14 waiting to see how stable it is for the next week or two.

Good point on the thread references. My apologies.

[socratis]

Ah, I see... Thanks for clearing this. I would do the same in your case, focus on the stability and live with the inconvenience.

BTW, if you want to be testing the cutting edge VirtualBox, try also the test builds. Stable, accepting reports against them, but incorporating fixes in between official releases, even the manual lists the incorporated fixes: https://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/Testbuilds

[jsdev]

I tried downgrading to 5.0.32 (downgrading guest additions of course) and seamless still doesn't work. It behaves the same for me as it did in 5.1.8, it removes the VM border, but nothing is shared between the OS desktop and the guest desktop.

[BerlinSnoop]

Do you have used Parallels previously with your installation? Maybe you have some drivers left. I have had this problem. After fixing this the screen drawing works better but I have still the problem with the focus change Mac/Win.

[socratis]

Do you have used Parallels previously with your installation?

I know I haven't and still seamless is not working, so it's not Parallels that's the culprit here. It may help for other things (anything left over can mess your system), but no for this.

[jsdev]

Same here, no Parallels.

[Serge Populov]

Is there any progress with seamless mode?

On Linux Mint 18.3 (Cinnamon edition) and VirtualBox 5.2.6.r120239 it still works not as expected.
In best case, when I switch to seamless mode, resolution is not changed, and I just see guest desktop of same size, ad in maximized window mode, but shifted to top - empty space of window title size appears between guest desktop and host 'opened windows' panel.

But short before that I start see different kinds of visual artifacts, mixin host and guest desktop. Guest windows are not displayed correctly.

And after short period of usage it usually crashes.

[socratis]

@Serge
This thread is not about seamless problems in general. It was about OSX Hosts, having a very specific problem, with a very specific solution. 5.1.28 fixed this.

You have (a) different problem(s). Please open a new thread, do not hijack old, fixed ones. Locking this...