When you start a virtual machine in VirtualBox, there is always a frame around the virtual machine desktop with a menu bar at the top and a status bar at the bottom.
The menu bar and status bar prevent you from working at maximum resolution (unless you are using continuous mode). If you are using a computer with a small screen, such as a laptop, your screen real estate is very limited and you need to take every inch of the space you can.
There is a hack to disable the menu bar and status bar and make the virtual machine run at its maximum resolution.
NOTE. When you use this method, make sure no virtual machines are running.
Open a command prompt (Windows) or a terminal window (Linux) and enter the following command:
– / “C: Program Files Oracle VirtualBox VBoxManage.exe” global graphical interface setextradata / Settings noMenuBar, noStatusBar
NOTE. The path to VBoxManage.exe may be different on your computer, especially on Linux. Use the appropriate path. Be sure to use quotation marks around the path to the executable file if there are spaces in the path name.
The menu bar and status bar should disappear.
When the menu bar and status bar are hidden, it can be helpful to know some of the VirtualBox keyboard shortcuts so you can quickly access the menu options.
To bring up the VirtualBox menu options, press the Host key and the Home key on your keyboard. When the status bar is available, the Host key is displayed in the lower right corner of the virtual machine window.
The menu items are displayed with a list of keyboard shortcuts for each.
To display the menu bar and status bar again, enter the following command at the command prompt or terminal window:
“C: Program Files Oracle VirtualBox VBoxManage.exe” setextradata global GUI / Customizations MenuBar, StatusBar
Again, remember to use the appropriate path to the executable file. Enjoy!
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