Taskbar unresponsive in Windows Guests when in Full Screen Mode

[Eric]

Host: Gentoo Linux w/ KDE Guests: Windows XP and Windows 7 Issue: When changing view to full screen mode, no task bar items can be activated with the mouse, including the start menu or other taskbar icons. Switching back to the regular view clears the problem and the taskbar is again functional until the next time it is switched to full screen mode. This occurs with both XP and Win 7 guests. I have changed the settings from 2d to 3d, and other display settings to no effect.

[misha]

Please attach a VM log file here.

[misha]

Also please try VBox 4.1.8 which was released recently, to see if the issue is solved there.

[Eric]

Upgraded to 4.1.8 with no change.

[Eric]

I have just discovered that changing the settings on the kde desktop task bar to "allow windows to cover" will allow the virtualbox guests to run correctly in full screen mode.

I am using KDE 4.7.3

It appears that there is some sort of conflict with the virtualbox guest and KDE when the KDE taskbar is set to "autohide".

[Jay Gates]

This has just started affecting me recently (I've been using VirtualBox for years on a KDE 4 desktop without seeing this issue). It may be a result of recent changes to VirtualBox or KDE (my panel has always been set to Autohide, never Windows Can Cover, and I've never experienced it before). I'm currently using VBox 4.2.4 r81684 on Debian Wheezy with KDE 4.8.4. Setting the panel to Windows Can Cover does circumvent the issue for me.

[Jay Gates]

Of interest is that (for a Windows XP guest anyway), the height of the Windows taskbar is the same as the "status bar" at the bottom of the VBox window in windowed mode (not present in full screen). In either mode, when the cursor reaches this portion of the screen (i.e., the window's status bar or the height-equivalent in full-screen mode), the cursor changes to the host native (KDE) cursor. It seems that the guest additions are incorrectly transferring cursor control to the host when it reaches this area of the screen (in KDE, the panel does not un-autohide until the cursor reaches the very bottom of the screen). If I increase the height of the Windows taskbar, then I can, in fact, access the controls on the top part of the taskbar, while the bottom part is inaccessible, since the cursor has been returned to the host OS. So it seems that the guest additions are not aware that the VBox window status bar is no longer visible when in fullscreen mode.

[aeichner]

Please reopen if still relevant with a recent VirtualBox release.