Screen Size Reduced without my Consent

[hhg7]

Hello,

I recently updated to the latest version of VirtualBox. However, now the screen size is severely reduced (about 50%) and I cannot change it. There is white space all around and I can't make the important part any larger, as I did before today, by simply resizing the screen. I can alter the scale factor, but this produces a distorted, heavily pixelated image. Adjusting the window size with the cursor does not expand the window, but only gives more white space. I cannot attach an image because 128 KiB doesn't even allow for a screenshot, all of the white space around, it is wasted space I cannot make use of. I assume this is because of the update I did yesterday.

How can I get rid of the new white space, and restore the resizing feature within VirtualBox?

-Dave

[socratis]

For future reference, please provide complete information about your host, your guest and your VirtualBox. Use the complete version numbers (including the build numbers) to identify your software:

• "OSX" isn't enough, "OSX 10.9.5 build 13f1911" is much better.
• "Win10" isn't enough, "Win10 1607, build 14393.969" is much better.
• "Ubuntu" isn't enough, "Ubuntu 16.04, 4.4.0-59-generic #80-Ubuntu SMP" is much better.
• "The latest VirtualBox" isn't enough, "VirtualBox 5.1.22 r115126" is much better.

Second, it sounds like a guest that supported Guest Additions (GAs). That's why you could resize the screen size arbitrarily. Not all guest OSes can do that, you need the GAs.

And something tells me that you didn't install/update the GAs. See ch. 4. Guest Additions in the user manual. Or go Help » Contents, and you have a nice, searchable PDF that you should use and search for keywords.

But to make sure (and for future reference we usually need that), we're going to need to see a VM log from a complete VM run:

• Start the VM from cold-boot (not from a paused or saved state) / Observe error / Shutdown the VM (force close it if you have to).
• With the VM completely shut down (not paused or saved), right-click on the VM in the VirtualBox Manager and select "Show Log".
• Save only the first "VBox.log", ZIP it and attach it to your response. See the "Upload attachment" tab below the reply form.