If you switch to Seamless, the Windows Taskbar should be visible right above your Dock, see Ch.
4.6. Seamless windows for a reference picture (for better analysis see:
https://www.virtualbox.org/manual/images/seamless.png). If you've select to auto-hide your Dock/Taskbar, then it may not be seen. You either need to have them showing or use the keyboard.
And to answer the keyboard question, the VM
has to have the focus. That's mandatory. You can't be working on TextEdit and have the StartMenu show up with a keyboard shortut. If the VM the focus, then pressing the equivalent of the WindowsKey, gets your StartMenu. The equivalent key on a Mac is the... Mac-key, or else the Cmd-key, or else the -key, or else the ⌘-key (not sure about if the last two ones will show in your font).
Now, the default HostKey for VirtualBox is set to the Left-Cmd key and it makes it kind of difficult. I personally consider it a bad choice, because it's one of the most used keys, and you want your HostKey to be something "special". I would suggest to go to the VirtualBox preferences » Input » Virtual Machine » Host Key combination : set it to Right-Opt (click on the right-field and press the right Option/Alt key).
As for the missing options, yes, they are missing on OSX because they're not needed. I had the same question, and I opened a bug report about that,
#16504: OSX - Mini toolbar settings missing from "VM Settings » User Interface". After a discussion I had with a developer, I had to close the ticket as "Invalid" and here's why:
socratis wrote:The mini-toolbar is not required on OSX, since the native OSX MenuBar is always accessible, no matter which mode you're in: Normal, Seamless, even FullScreen (mainly FullScreen). So, there is no actual need for a mini-toolbar on OSX, therefore no need for the mini-toolbar settings.
QED
