Windows 7 Guest Display too small on Mac OS X 10.9.1 Host

[Buzz]

I've been running a Windows XP Guest on my 15" MacBook Pro (OS X 10.9.1) for several years and the XP window fills up my Mac screen completely (when in Seamless mode). I created a new VM for Windows 7, used the same settings, etc. but now the Win 7 display only fills up about 50% of the screen. Also, the Seamless Mode isn't active (grayed out). I tried changing the screen resolution in Win 7 from "800 x 600" to "1024 x 768" and even higher, but then the Win 7 window is too large to fit on my screen and, although I can scroll around to see everything, it's a real pain to do that. I also tried simply re-sizing the Win 7 window by grabbing the corner of the window and pulling it out and, while that works, the Win 7 window stays the same size. It's almost like the screen resolution in Win 7 needs to be adjusted to some unknown (and unavailable) ratio.

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

[Buzz]

Additional Information: I was incorrect about the size of the default Win 7 display (800 x 600). It fills up about 70% of the screen horizontally and about 110% vertically. In other words, I still have to scroll up and down to see the whole screen. Regardless of what I try to change, the "Seamless Mode" remains "grayed out".

[Perryg]

See chapter 4 in your VirtualBox users manual.

[Buzz]

I have looked at the User Manual. I've installed the Guest Additions but it's almost like it isn't working. Trying to select "Seamless Mode" or typing Cmd-L doesn't work. The only difference between my XP VM config and my Win 7 VM config is that, on XP, I have a VDMI drive attached to a Primary IDE Controller (and the GuestAdditions attached to a secondary IDE Controller) and, on Win 7, I have a vdi drive attached to a SATA controller (and the GuestAdditions on the IDE Controller). Could that make a difference?

[socratis]

typing Cmd-L doesn't work

Try looking again at the "View" menu. My gut feeling is that you have not enabled "Auto-resize Guest Display (Host+G)". Give it a shot. Also look (and understand) what the rest of the entries in the View menu do...

[Buzz]

Socrates,

When I click on "View", the "Auto-resize Guest Display" is checked but it's also "grayed out". The "Switch to Seamless Mode" is also "grayed out". I have experimented a little and I think switching to "Full Screen Mode" is tolerable. It doesn't use the entire screen but at least I don't have to scroll up and down or back and forth to see the entire Win 7 window.

I just don't understand it. In my XP VM, the XP window fits perfectly on the screen, the VMBox menu at the bottom goes away and it all happens transparently when I start up the XP VM.

[loukingjr]

For what it's worth, I am running Windows 7 Professional with OSX 10.9.1 using VB 4.3.6. It also worked with 4.3.4. It really does sound like the guest additions aren't really installed. With Windows 7 you don't have to install the guest additions in safe mode. Make sure you actually run the guest additions installer and not just select them from the device menu.

[mpack]

If the Windows Guest Additions are installed then you'll see a little VirtualBox icon in the notification area of your guest taskbar. If you hover the mouse over that icon then it reports the GAs version. If you don't see the icon then the GAs aren't installed.

If you need to discuss this further then provide a VM log file. Read Minimum information needed for assistance.