Shortcut shuts down virtual machine: ?+U. How do I stop it??

[polocanada]

Does anybody know how to disable application specific shortcuts on Mac / Virtual box?

I am running Windows VM on Mac SL host. My fingers are fat and happened to hit ?+U a few times by mistake when editing a document thinking it will underline the highlighted word. Of course correct shortuc under Windows VM is CTRL+U.

By hitting ?+U it makes the Windows virtual machine to Go to Fast Shut down. It sends the machine power down signal and it starts shutting it down even without any confirmation. I looked in keyboard shortcuts in System Prefs in OSX, I looked in VirtualBox preferences and I can't find where to disable this.

I am using Mac keyboard, so I assume this ?+U shortcut is either interpreted as Mac shortcut or Windows shortcut.

Thanks.

[Perryg]

You can change the host key in the preference -> input section of the VirtualBox main Manager. You can also turn all warning back on by clicking help in the guest and reset warnings.

[polocanada]

Doesn't help. Weird.
I changed ? to Option key or Control key.. it doens't make difference. Still pressing the Host key and U leads to reboot within the Windows VM.

[Perryg]

If resetting the warnings does not help then the only thing that is left is to disable the host key completely. click the red X and save, but you will not be able to use any of the host key functions.

[polocanada]

It's "ACPI shutdown signal"....

Here we go, found it, it's in the menu in the Virtual Machine on top of the screen. It seems it's the Advanced Configuration and Power Interface in Windows. I didn't know it has ACPI shutdown function. But why does VirtulBox need to include this function under Windows. There may be use for this in Linux or others, but I can't see it why I would need to use it under Windows VM. Maybe as a last resort when the Windows VM hangs on shut down. But Windows would hang anyways, it doesn't matter what shutdown signal it gets.

The reset warnings in VM guest does not help, because that's reset for warnings from VB and not within Windows VM.

This is very nasty command.

Could you please add a CONFIRMATION dialogue when pressed for this command or disable completely or something like "Host key + shift + Delete + D"? Anything to avoid crazy accidents.

Thank you.

[Sasquatch]

The reset warnings in VM guest does not help, because that's reset for warnings from VB and not within Windows VM.

VB sends the ACPI shutdown signal, which is the same as pressing the power button once. The Guest OS then acts accordingly. If you have set the OS to respond to that signal by shutting down, then you simply tell it to do nothing.
But why Host+U? On my Linux system, it's Host+H that sends the shutdown signal. Should be the same on all Hosts. And if you did change the Host key to something else than the command key, you would not have the 'accidental' shutdown when you press cmd+U, because it's no longer a shortcut key.

I find it really odd that you press the command key when you aim for ctrl. There is another key between them: the alt key. Having fatty fingers doesn't make sense to me for making such mistake. Maybe it's time for a different keyboard?

[japester]

The reset warnings in VM guest does not help, because that's reset for warnings from VB and not within Windows VM.

VB sends the ACPI shutdown signal, which is the same as pressing the power button once. The Guest OS then acts accordingly. If you have set the OS to respond to that signal by shutting down, then you simply tell it to do nothing.
But why Host+U? On my Linux system, it's Host+H that sends the shutdown signal. Should be the same on all Hosts. And if you did change the Host key to something else than the command key, you would not have the 'accidental' shutdown when you press cmd+U, because it's no longer a shortcut key.

I find it really odd that you press the command key when you aim for ctrl. There is another key between them: the alt key. Having fatty fingers doesn't make sense to me for making such mistake. Maybe it's time for a different keyboard?

Odd? it's completely normal to an OS X user, as the command key is the one we use all the time, rarely do we the control key.
I keep regularly hitting cmnd+R to bring up the windows Run command window. Guess what that does to my vm? Resets it. More than mildly irritating, thank you very much.
(and I've been touch typing for over 15 years now. Learned habits are *hard* to break)

The problem is that there are two dangerous commands (reset and reboot) mapped to frequently used keyboard shortcuts. At least let them be mapped to a multi-key combination.

[Sasquatch]

The reset warnings in VM guest does not help, because that's reset for warnings from VB and not within Windows VM.

VB sends the ACPI shutdown signal, which is the same as pressing the power button once. The Guest OS then acts accordingly. If you have set the OS to respond to that signal by shutting down, then you simply tell it to do nothing.
But why Host+U? On my Linux system, it's Host+H that sends the shutdown signal. Should be the same on all Hosts. And if you did change the Host key to something else than the command key, you would not have the 'accidental' shutdown when you press cmd+U, because it's no longer a shortcut key.

I find it really odd that you press the command key when you aim for ctrl. There is another key between them: the alt key. Having fatty fingers doesn't make sense to me for making such mistake. Maybe it's time for a different keyboard?

Odd? it's completely normal to an OS X user, as the command key is the one we use all the time, rarely do we the control key.
I keep regularly hitting cmnd+R to bring up the windows Run command window. Guess what that does to my vm? Resets it. More than mildly irritating, thank you very much.
(and I've been touch typing for over 15 years now. Learned habits are *hard* to break)

The problem is that there are two dangerous commands (reset and reboot) mapped to frequently used keyboard shortcuts. At least let them be mapped to a multi-key combination.

He, guess again, that's possible! Just open the VB Preferences and change the Host key as noted a earlier in this thread. In fact, it was the first response you got! How about that. Who knew?