Why has VirtualBox's menu disappeared?

Question

How do I display the menu bar of VirtualBox?

Functions like cdrom, usb, etc need access to the menu bars to work.

score 233 · Accepted Answer · edited Sep 07 '12 at 17:30

233

Because you're in scale mode which causes it to be hidden.

Host + C is the toggle for scale mode (where Host is Right Control by default)

edited Sep 07 '12 at 17:30

Elijah Lynn

3,928

answered Aug 29 '11 at 10:21

Oli

299,380

score 48 · Answer 2 · edited Mar 14 '16 at 19:58

48

On Windows XP and Windows 7, as of Aug 2014, there's more to the story. To bring up the menu, and to be able to access all items on the menu:

If you're in scale mode, disable that with Host+c.
Bring up the menu by pressing Host+Home.
That will display the first of several menus. To get to additional menus, press the right arrow key.

edited Mar 14 '16 at 19:58

Kevin Bowen

20,055
57
82
84

answered Aug 19 '14 at 18:55

Steve Saporta

591

score 13 · Answer 3 · edited Jun 27 '19 at 22:34

Weird.. but you want to also make sure the menu has the proper options selected. so by.

going back to the Oracle VM VirtualBox Manager,
right click your virtual machine, go to setting
then go down to user interface.
make sure all your menu options are highlighted blue.

make sure the options look like this.

hit apply and/or ok (cant remember which one)
go back to your virtual machine, press Ctrl + home
use the arrow keys to go down to view then select show menu bar.

solved.

do note.. if u don't see the menu after pressing Ctrl + home. try pressing ctrl + c then ctrl + home.

score 11 · Answer 4 · edited Sep 18 '16 at 11:06

I faced the same issue on my macbook pro and I found a solution:

A dirty workaround if using Ubuntu is to shut down all VirtualBox, and then edit the ~/.VirtualBox/VirtualBox.xml file. Find the line
<ExtraDataItem name="GUI/Toolbar" value="false"/>
and change the value to true.

If any process were still running when edited the file, the changes will most likely be gone once the processes update the file.

(Source)

In case you don't find this line (like in my case) simply add this line.

On OS X you can find VirtualBox.xml in /Users/<username>/Library/VirtualBox dir.

score 3 · Answer 5 · answered Sep 10 '14 at 14:55

I came here to find an solution and suddenly had the hunch that something was interfering with the guest window processing host keys. I turned out that I enabled the "Show postion of pointer when the Control key is pressed" checkbox. Disabling it fixed the problem and now I can switch from scale mode to full screen and seamless mode. Also have the mini menu back :)

score 3 · Answer 6 · edited Mar 23 '22 at 21:57

3

To return ownership of keyboard and mouse to your host operating system, VirtualBox reserves a special key on your keyboard for itself: the "host key". By default, it is the right Control key on your keyboard on a windows machine and left Command key on a Mac.

edited Mar 23 '22 at 21:57

Community

1

answered Jun 10 '15 at 13:52

Leo Bastin

131

score 3 · Answer 7 · answered Jan 30 '17 at 05:22

I was tearing out my hair until I noticed that Ubuntu 16.04 puts menus not on the window but at the top of the screen (status?) bar. I didn't have the window maximized because I did not want to see excess white space, so the window has a bar also and that is where I was looking. :) noob moment of the day for sure.

score 2 · Answer 8 · edited Jun 08 '17 at 16:59

2

CTRL+C or CTRL+F won't work if the machine is paused.

You have to press CTRL+P to unpause, if the menu is hidden.

edited Jun 08 '17 at 16:59

Zanna

72,312

answered Jun 08 '17 at 14:06

ihaveitnow

21

score 1 · Answer 9 · answered Oct 30 '16 at 17:57

1

Sooo... First use "Host"+"Home" buttons, next go to "view" --> "Full screen mode" --> now you are in the full screen mode and you have to escape from full screen mode and you will see the top menu bar. :)

answered Oct 30 '16 at 17:57

Dajsnoo

11

Why has VirtualBox's menu disappeared?

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