How do I display the menu bar of VirtualBox?
Functions like cdrom, usb, etc need access to the menu bars to work.
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RIGHT CLICK MOUSE + HOME? Not working!!! Please help, what is Host and Right Control? What I should press to access the menu?– user269776Apr 17, 2014 at 5:48
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If the answer doesn't work, you may be using the keyboard in French mode ;)– HarvinderJun 8, 2014 at 15:15
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This may be a New Change. Unsure on that one. However you can simply double click the top of the window(where the file/menu should be) and toggle modes.– BlueToeCheeseSep 26, 2018 at 21:57
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9 Answers
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)
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20Lost my temper on this, lol. hours later, gave up and googled this. Thank you so much.– motobóiDec 2, 2014 at 16:00
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3Amended this answer with the Host+Home trick from Steve Saporta's answer - however note that it isn't necessary to exit scale mode to access the menus in this way.– TomMay 8, 2015 at 18:10
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1I'd love to understand the logic behind this behaviour. It's something so trivial, I didn't even think of Googling about it. And I lost an entire day on it.– aalaapJul 6, 2016 at 12:31
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Thanks, that did the trick. I agree, it is a very bad behaviour without any visual hint. I thought they just decided to remove the menu. It has been frustrating me for a long time, I had to use USB filters and re-connect to pass USB device into a VM until I lost patience and searched this problem. We should consider creating a bug report upstream.– k3aJun 6, 2018 at 18:51
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.
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1or just use the mouse to bring up the menu (assuming you're not in full screen mode) :) Dec 30, 2014 at 18:19
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2This is a great answer! I am running in FWVM and therefore have no menu bar. As far as I can tell, this is the only way to do it in FWVM. Feb 15, 2016 at 17:50
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4
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.
answered Sep 17, 2017 at 22:28
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2In windows, Right Ctrl is the default Host key. So try above shortcuts with Right Ctrl not Left one :) Jun 28, 2019 at 3:19
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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.xmlfile. 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.
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Most complete answer if you're looking for virtualboxmanager GUI toolbar(s) -- especially with the Source cited. Read the source: there's a quick way to right click the /bottom/ menu and turn on the toolbar if you haven't whacked both of them.– fbicknelFeb 27, 2017 at 15:24
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1This is the only answer that worked for me. Turn off the menu bar in the gui when the VM is running and you can't turn it back on without powering down the VM and either editing the .vbox file by hand or ticking the easy to miss, untitled check box on the gui somewhere. Terrible UI.– user12753Sep 21, 2017 at 8:45
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.
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It's usually called the "panel" (menu panel, to be specific): askubuntu.com/q/232189/158442– muruJan 30, 2017 at 5:39
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.
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 :)
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. :)
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.
