Cannot Resize beyond 1600x1200

[Cain57]

Hi gang,

I'm brand new to VirtualBox and I'm having a BLAST playing with it! I've wanted something like this forever, it is amazing.....

I know this must be a basic noob question and I've been looking for the answer now for several days and cannot fix my problem, so hopefully some kind soul will take pity on me and answer this.

I'm running the latest VB on a Windows 7 64 bit HOST machine with a nVidia GTX980 card and a U3011 Dell Monitor (2560x1600). My Virtual machines are Windows 8.1 Pro and another with Windows 10 Pro.

No matter what I try I cannot get the virtual (Guest?) screen resolution any higher than 1600x1200. Also, the "Virtual Screen 1" resolutions are all greyed out.

It would not allow me to install my nVidia drivers, which made sense to me after I tried that.

I'd either like to either increase the Guest screen to a higher resolution, or enable the Virtual Screen settings. 1600x1200 is pretty small on my monitor, and scaling makes the image blurry.

Help.

[mpack]

You don't mention installing the Guest Additions. This is necessary for a pleasant graphical experience.

Your VMs are defaulting to emulating a 4:3 display, and 1600x1200 will be the largest standard 4:3 size that will fit on your desktop (VBox tries to avoid scroll bars on VM windows). Elegance tip: for lots of performance reason that I won't get into, good display sizes are where the number of horizontal pixels is exactly divisible by 32, and the number of lines is determined by the ratio (4:3, 16:9, 16:10).

Run the GUI, and in File|Preferences|Display, set the maximum display size to "None", then start the VM and drag the right border to a widescreen ratio. After that the guest OS should recognize that you have a widescreen (virtual) monitor and will offer more appropriate display size options.

[Cain57]

Thank you so much!! The Guest Additions did the trick. That was so much more simple than I imagined.

Like I said VB is AMAZING, I wish I'd have found it years ago!! I can't stop playing with it, I cannot wait to use it for software testing.

Take care and thanks!!

[mpack]

I cannot wait to use it for software testing.

In addition to testing your own software in various environments, it also makes a great sandbox for testing any software you have doubts about: e.g. is it malware, does it bundle adware, does it just make an awful mess etc.

Oh, and ps: remember to eject the GAs ISO now that you're done with it. People often forget, and this can be a problem when you next update VirtualBox (the old GAs ISO is still mounted and locked in one or more VMs).

[Cain57]

I cannot wait to use it for software testing.

In addition to testing your own software in various environments, it also makes a great sandbox for testing any software you have doubts about: e.g. is it malware, does it bundle adware, does it just make an awful mess etc.

Oh, and ps: remember to eject the GAs ISO now that you're done with it. People often forget, and this can be a problem when you next update VirtualBox (the old GAs ISO is still mounted and locked in one or more VMs).

Checking out third party software (shareware, freeware, etc.) is exactly why I researched this and installed it.

I'm tired of installing software I found on-line that is loaded with either viruses, trojans, crapware, adware, etc. then having to either rollback or re-install my OS! More and more of this stuff is creeping into otherwise legit software, and anti-virus checkers do not always spot junk. Try installing ImgBurn these days... sheesh... I almost had to reformat because of it.

Thank you you for the tip to unload the GA iso, I'll do that now.

Next up, I need to figure out how to migrate all my VMs onto another HD (if possible). My main HD is a smallish SSD and VB is hogging up quite a bit of its space.

Thank you again for the help and the warm welcome. Some Internet Forums can get ugly when asking a basic question, and the problem is when you are new and do not yet speak the lingo, reading and researching does little help (because the docs and other posts assume you know the language).

[mpack]

Howto: Move a VM.

I'm not immune to the snarky comment when somebody signs up to ask a question that has been answered 50 times today already (like during the Win10 run-up, how do I get the Win10 icon? (how about asking Microsoft?)). We're human.

Oh yes, ImgBurn. I have to say that I don't recognize the problem you mention. It's free, they have to get revenue somehow, but last I checked as long as you carefully read the install options you won't get anything installed that you didn't agree to. Obviously I don't reinstall it frequently myself, but I do frequently recommend it around the office etc, and I haven't had any complaints, or surprises when I looked at their PC myself.

[Cain57]

I understand completely. I ran a very busy GameServer Community and Forums for many years, I know folks who have not put in a tiny bit of effort are annoying at times. Like you said, we're all human.

Thanks for the link on moving the VMs I"m reading it now.

ImgBurn got really bad there for a while about not warning you about the stuff it was going to load. I had used it for years on many PCs but when I got it not too long ago, whoah it was a pain. I hope after so many complaints they've made it better. You have a point about them wanting to generate revenue, I'm fine with that, just don't be sneaky...

Take care and thank you again! I've been rooted to my chair since I first found and installed VB all weekend. It is amazing. I love it.