[Solved] Issue with Windows Virtual Box

[dfran1972]

I am new to the virtual box world, so be gentle, but I run a MacBook Pro and wanted to have the ability to run Windows. I downloaded Virtual Box, configured everything and got it running without an issue. The screen was small but I made adjustments and it seemed ok. Then I read that I needed to run the Guest Additions ISO and things got weird. Windows went full screen which was great, but now every time I make a move with my mouse or type something, I need to press HOST+F to "see" the change. For instance, double click on Internet Explorer and nothing happens. Hit HOST+F and then I see the browser open. Type something into the search bar, nothing happens, but then I press HOST+F and the verbiage shows up. Any idea what is going on here or if I messed something up?

Thanks

[socratis]

I'm going to take a leap of faith here and assume that you created the VM with VirtualBox 6.0.0.

If that's the case, shutdown the guest (from within the guest, from its Start Menu), and then go to the VM Settings » Display » Screen. Change the "Graphics Controller" to VBoxVGA (not the VBoxSVGA, the VBoxVGA without the "S"). If you're not having 2D/3D acceleration enabled, enable them. And then take the "Video Memory" to its maximum. See if that changes the situation...

It's a known issue with 6.0.0: #18205 VM does not refresh, but preview window runs realtime.

[dfran1972]

Thank you for your reply. I'd say it's better now, but when I took your suggestions verbatim it made it unusable. The screen was bouncing around and I couldn't click on anything. It was a mess. So I went and turned off 2D and 3D, but did the VGA thing and went to 256MB Memory. Now it's back to mini screen again but usable. I'll keep playing with the settings... See attached.

And yes, 6.0.0 ( am pretty sure). Thanks

[dfran1972]

Got it working pretty nice now. Have VGA setting, no 2D/3D set, but changed the "scale factor" to 200%. *Almost* full screen now. Thanks for the assist. Hopefully they release a fix to 6.0.0 for this issue soon.

[socratis]

The screen was bouncing around and I couldn't click on anything

I'm not sure what that means... Honestly...

Now it's back to mini screen

Mini-screen? That's because you changed the resolution and you didn't have the View » Auto-resize Guest Display setting most probably, or you were running FullScreen and you changed the resolution manually.

Glad you got it going, marking as [Solved].