Alt-Click Not Captured By Guest OS

[SirTech]

I'm running VirtualBox 1.3.8 on a Linux host OS, and a Windows XP guest OS. One of the applications I run frequently in the virtual machine is Adobe Photoshop 7. To access a lot of the tools, there are 'hot keys' that need to be passed to Photoshop. A common hot key is the Alt key + primary mouse click.

When I do this in the guest with VirtualBox, it captures the Alt click, but as soon as I add the primary mouse click, the host takes control. For example, if I Alt+double primary mouse click, it maximizes the actual VirtualBox window. The Alt+Primary mouse click never reaches the guest.

I know in VMWare, when the guest OS has focus, it captures _ALL_ keyboard and mouse input, _EXCEPT_ for the hotkey to escape from the virtual machine, and so hotkeys like the above work (as long as they are not configured as the virtual machine escape key).

Is there a simple solution to enable this sort of feature in VirtualBox, or is it intended for the next version?

[mattmcmanus]

I agree, the alt click thing is really irritating. I use photoshop all the time and not being able to alt click is debilitating.

However, I understand why this is set up the way it is. I usually fullscreen the windows vm in another desktop and being able to ctrl alt left/right is awesomely convenient.

Does anyone have any ideas/solutions?

[litemotiv]

same problem here, and would be very interested in a way to fix or work around this

edit: i just found out that disabling mouse integration seems to be a (temporary) workaround

[glennvtx]

This is not Virtualbox's Fault, but rather common behavior from
many window managers.
The fix (for metacity, the default WM under Ubuntu)
is to go into preferences > Windows and change the "movement" key to
something other than "alt".
I suggest that stupid "Super" (i.e. windows) Key.

[digitaltrousers]

On my system I can use CTRL+ALT+left mouse click and this accomplishes what ALT+left mouse click should.

[bx6]

I know the thread is old, but I wanted to add that I had success by going in to my guest OS and modifying the keymapping via the windows registry.

(link) how to re-map keys via windows registry
http://www.usnetizen.com/fix_capslock.php

specific binary value to map the left 'windows' key (the left 'command' key on a mac) to the left ALT key
00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,02,00,00,00,37,e0,0e,00,00,00,00,00

note: these values have to be typed in. i could not copy n paste

this worked for me and gave me ALT key access in my guest.


Running VirtualBox on Snow Leopard with guest OS -> Windows XP