VB 4.2 *very slow* after installing the tools?

[mpack]

This is total nonsense.

... and begs the question of why "installing the tools" (the GAs I assume) would be significant if the cause was any of those things.

[dragoff]

nevertheless the vm runs a heavy duty windows office java application on a mac laptop and it goes flawless untill now. i did not say it is a right or sane solution, but it works in my case to overcome the unusual "slowness" with user interaction on the guest vm with virtualbox guest additions installed and running. and being a temporary solution it tends to stay for some time with me. i will not argue about why it is like that or whatever... just presumed maybe that can help someone with a similar problem, so i post it.

[michaln]

Since what you suggest makes no sense, it would be really helpful if you could provide some actual performance data obtained in a controlled environment.

[starlocke]

I am starting to suspect that the slower-than-snails performance drag that we're experiencing is due to running VirtualBox on the main screen in that funky/magical "scaled / HiDPI" mode (ex: 1920x1200 scaled HiDPI). Thus, this currently only affects MacBook Pro systems as far as I know. This idea came to me once I realized that the Mac Mini at work was handling keyboard input and window managers (ie: dragging windows around) effortlessly on an integrated Intel HD4000 GPU.

Two experiments that I'd like each of you to try and report on: set the resolution to full retina, and, set the resolution to something easier on the eyes in classic / non-HiDPI mode (ex: standard old 1920x1200). I've been using "Retina DisplayMenu" (aka: RDM for short) to handle changing resolutions. I used to use QuickResX, but they started charging money for their tool.

So far, these regular modes are working wonders for my VirtualBox experience. Keyboard responsiveness is MUCH better, and the guest systems' window managers are much smoother (ie: dragging windows around).