Video Settings / VGA on MacBook Pro make VM useless

[ploth]

I'm trying out VirtualBox before upgrading VMware Fusion. I only need VM for Internet Explorer so VMware seems a waste HOWEVER...

When I have started up the VM the Windows screen is tiny and the icons huge. The only settings available are 640x480 and 800 x(600?). In device properties it says the display adapter is a VGA.

I can't see how to change this in Virtual Box - I would have thought it would be auto detected?
As it stands I can't even upgrade internet explorer as the website doesn't load properly. Downloading the right version has even taken a while - it's the first time I've had to use Windows for a few years and am thoroughly hating it!

My setup:
MacBook Pro 2011 17" His Res.
Mountain Lion.
Windows 2000 Pro.

Any help or a point in the right direction would be very helpful!

[mpack]

Install the Guest Additions inside the VM, these include a higher res display driver. See chapter 4 of the user manual.

[ploth]

Thanks mpack
I can't figure out how to copy items to the VM even though all settings say I can and no downloads on the Virtual box site called guest additions.

[rpmurray]

You don't need to copy items to the VM or download the guest additions. They're already a part of the VB installation. In your Windows VM go to Computer and you should see the Guest Additions as drive D. So just double-click on it and install them. Or look at the Devices menu in VirtualBox and choose Install Guest Additions.

[mpack]

Just to clarify: you must select "Devices | Install Guest Additions..." first. That attaches the GAs virtual CD to the VM. In some VMs the guest OS implements autoplay, hence when the CD is attached the GAs installer will immediately launch. If that doesn't happen then you need to run the .exe file manually as rpmurray describes.

[ploth]

Thank you so much for your replies - very easy once you know how!

Display settings are sorted - but I can't upgrade IE. I go to windows.com & Get the upgrade browser message - but then when I try I just get blank pages. I have tried to download directly and same result.

I still can't drag & drop or copy & paste iesetup.exe between guest & host. All settings say bidirectional - have tried just from host>guest but no change. I need to use IE6 / IE8 but can't get either running on guest.

[mpack]

IE6 may be getting too old for the upgrade to work - I haven't tried in a long time. I suggest you download and install Firefox instead.

There is no drag and drop for Windows guests.

[rpmurray]

IE 6 is as high as you can go with Windows 2000.

[michaln]

And of course if you used XP or later, you wouldn't be initially stuck with low-res, low-color graphics either... all this is just a consequence of using a rather old OS (Windows 2000 was released in 1999).

[ploth]

Yes I understand about the MS2000 comments.

As a small business owner on MS I tried to upgrade to XP around 2007 I think. It was a nightmare - so I stayed on MS2000, then tried Mac. I never looked back and have never touched windows since.
Now I need IE for something. I still had MS2000 disks and obviously don't want to go out and spend money for no reason. I thought IE6 would have been an easy install!

Looks like I will have to find some XP disks but a prelim look on eBay in AU shows nothing.