VirtualBox

Opened 14 years ago

Closed 14 years ago

Last modified 14 years ago

#5636 closed enhancement (fixed)

Re-enable macosx top menu bar and dock on fullscreen (VB 3.1.0) -> fixed in SVN

Reported by: ecterrab Owned by:
Component: GUI Version: VirtualBox 3.1.0
Keywords: Cc:
Guest type: other Host type: other

Description

I noticed that in VB 3.1.0 the macosx dock and top menu bar, that would appear when hovering the mouse close to top of the screen in fullscreen mode, do not appear anymore. I read in the changelog that this is a "fix" to bug #4866. But in that bug report, what is requested is only an option to not autoshow the macosx menubar and dock. What is provided in 3.1.0, however, is not an option: the macosx dock and menubar are not displayed anymore in full screen and apparently there is just no way to make them visible again as in VB before 3.1.0.

Although some people may prefer to work that way, I note also that for people that are mac and use VB with a guest heavily for work for instance, the new design is inconvenient: it makes the guest be less integrated to the host. Before 3.1.0, we were able to just hover the top to automatically see the macosx menubar with it all the macosx menulets and dock, no need to touch the keybord for that, nor to hide them after giving a rapid look at the dock - and in that way have instant and direct access to the specific macosx applications that we use all the time as well as instantly see whether we have mail and etc. useful info that mac conveys through the doc. All that without having to switch guest -> host -> guest using the keyboard. In brief: this "auto show the menubar and dock in fullscreen" is one of the most appreciated features of VB (for many of mac & VB users like me at least), especially when comparing VB with VMWare and Parallels.

So could this "auto show the menubar and dock in fullscreen" be offered again as an option? In this way everybody will be happy, including all of us that prefer more of integration Host <-> Guest (in the sense explained above) instead of more of screen display. In some sense it appears to me that this is the same design issue of the mac-dock and windows-taskbar, both provide auto-hide as an option.

Thanks

Edgardo

Change History (8)

comment:1 by Technologov, 14 years ago

I agree with "ecterrab".

Mac users, in VBox 3.0.x got an extra feature not available on other hosts. (Auto show/Auto hide of host OS panels).

I am fully aware, that they (Mac users) got this "feature" by mistake (by bug in VBox), not on purpose, but if this feature is useful to some people, maybe it makes sense to add it on all platforms, instead of removing it on the Mac Hosts (as in v3.1). After all science is trial-n-error.

-Technologov

comment:2 by Bill Geisler, 14 years ago

I agree with this request. After working with VBox for awhile now on Mac Hosts, I have grown to appreciate this serendipitous "feature".

Please consider returning this behavior in an upcoming build of the Virtualbox 3.1 branch as an optional feature. Edgardo has done a nice job in summarizing my views on this topic.

See also Mac OS X user comments in the forum => http://forums.virtualbox.org/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=25325

comment:3 by Paul, 14 years ago

I agree with "ecterab". etc.

comment:4 by Christian Pötzsch, 14 years ago

Summary: Re-enable macosx top menu bar and dock on fullscreen (VB 3.1.0)Re-enable macosx top menu bar and dock on fullscreen (VB 3.1.0) -> fixed in SVN

I added an option for this. It will be available with the next minor release of VirtualBox. The default will be not auto showing the Dock & Menubar. Go to Preferences->General to enable this feature.

comment:5 by Bill Geisler, 14 years ago

Poetzsch,

Thanks for including this option in the next build of VBox 3.1. I appreciate it!

comment:6 by Frank Mehnert, 14 years ago

Resolution: fixed
Status: newclosed

comment:7 by Technologov, 14 years ago

Resolution: fixed
Status: closedreopened

according to "ecterrab" it is still not fixed in 3.1.2.

His letter:

===============================================================================

Hi

I just tried 3.1.2, host = mac, guest = windows xp 32 bit. I appreciate the intention of bringing back the autoshow the mac menubar and dock, but what I see in 3.1.2 is not what was there in 3.0.12, and it is not satisfactory at least for me. Details: in 3.0.12 and previous releases, hovering the top of the screen shows the mac "menubar and dock". That got removed in 3.1.0 and was requested to be an option (expected for 3.1.2). What we got in 3.1.2: hovering the top only shows the menubar, not the dock (expected: also shows the dock) and in addition (new) hovering the bottom (typically to see the windows or other OS taskbar) now shows (on top of the taskbar) the mac dock (expected: it does not show the dock, only the taskbar). I don't know but can guess (sorry if I am wrong) that this is intentional. The problem with this new change in design is that instead of having the mac panels (menubar and dock) related to one sector of the screen (top) and the windows panels (taskbar) in another sector (bottom), we have now everything mixed. So if I want to have access to the mac applications and info I need to hover 2 regions (top and bottom) and in addition each time I hover the bottom to have access to the windows taskbar (bottom) I see on top of it the mac dock.

Please, is there any way that the behavior of 3.0.12, that is also the one in previous VB releases, that people asked as an option, be made as an option? (I mean without changing the design as I see it got changed in 3.1.2). Many thanks in advance.

In addition, the several fixes to 3D and display matters on mac hosts didn't improve the display of Safari's topsites page in a windows guest: Safari contues crashing, not in other virtual machine software. The menu "VirtualBox -> Quit -> Send the shutdown signal" also does not work. For me the most important thing is this change in the interface design that hits badly the productivity at work - I need to reinstall 3.0.12 and look forward for an option to continue working with the design of VirtualBox before 3.1.0 noting that all mac users that expressed opinion so far, all of them, only and explicitly asked for an option (to have or not to have it working as in 3.0.12), and not asked for a change (what I see in 3.1.0 or 3.1.2).

by "ecterrab"

comment:8 by Christian Pötzsch, 14 years ago

Resolution: fixed
Status: reopenedclosed

As I wrote in the forum, the previous behavior was wrong in the way you describe here. Ofc you have seen the Dock, but there was no way to reach the Dock by mouse, which is very misleading. This is now possible cause the Dock & Menubar are activated separately (Btw, that now the Dock is in the way for your taskbar, was the same argument I used in the forum for OS's which have there panel on top, like in Gnome). I see your use case, but we will not switch back to the old & wrong behavior. If the content of the Dock is so important for you, please try to maximize your window & don't use the fullscreen. Another possibility is to move the Dock to the left or right screen border. I do this all the time & it feels more comfortable to me.

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