VirtualBox

Opened 12 years ago

Last modified 9 years ago

#10105 new enhancement

Implement a keyboard shortcut key to minimize a fullscreen VirtualBox VM guest window

Reported by: 3F776B3E Owned by:
Component: GUI Version: VirtualBox 4.1.8
Keywords: Cc:
Guest type: other Host type: other

Description (last modified by Dsen)

When a VirtualBox VM client is running with a fullscreen window, minimizing it is done with the mouse touching the bottom of the screen and clicking the minimize button when the toolbar appears, or pressing Host+F to leave fullscreen mode and minimizing it.

Both ways are cumbersome when working with a fullscreen VM and switching between the guest and host frequently.

A keyboard shortcut to minimize the guest window should be nice, without needing to use the mouse or leaving fullscreen mode.

Change History (15)

comment:1 by grof, 12 years ago

I don't know if this helps, but when I am switching between host and guest a lot I use Scale mode which is done with keyboard shortcut Host+C.

Another option is: press Host key (and release it) and then switch to host program by using Alt+Tab.

comment:2 by rztaylor, 12 years ago

I'd also like to see the shortcut HOST + M added to minimize the host when running in full screen mode. Surely this is a trivial enough request?

comment:3 by DavidSankel, 11 years ago

I tried the HOST, release, and Alt-tab and it didn't work for me. It seems like clicking the minimize button is the only way to do this so far.

comment:4 by Foxhead, 10 years ago

Nearly two years and we still can't add a keyboard shortcut? What gives?

comment:5 by ValentinKostadinov, 10 years ago

Press and release HOST, then Alt-Tab doesn't let you minimize in any way. Only gets you out back to the host OS.

A minimize shortcut HOST-M would be great! Please!

comment:6 by Thoka, 10 years ago

Anything new on this one? Would be a real great feature. Host+M is unused anyways, I was very supprised first time I needed this future and Host+M did not work.

comment:7 by AndreasWu, 10 years ago

Yeah, I agree. A shortcut that would minimize the current virtual session would be really great - and is really, really, really needed. I'm always 'full screening' my sessions (rather than seamless), and whenever you need to switch back and forth, it's a bit of a pain

@others: The HOST key + ALT+TAB trick does work! - but... make sure that ALT-TAB has another windows (in the host OS) to go to. So, open up something like notepad. Then in your virtual session, hit your HOST key. And then hit ALT+TAB, and should work perfectly

comment:8 by Guy G, 10 years ago

Agreed, this would be incredibly useful. At the moment the mini toolbar really gets in the way and the only reason I have it switched on is because I regularly need to minimise my VM windows. Should be trivial to implement for someone who knows the code...

comment:9 by Marv, 10 years ago

The original post says it all, the current methods to minimize are beyond cumbersome, a direct short-cut for this is a must!

comment:10 by moymike, 9 years ago

+1. I was just messing with AutoHotkey to launch specific virtuals, and was hoping to also be able to minimize or switch between them with hotkeys.

It turns out AutoHotkey is overridden by virtualbox, leaving me with the next best option, minimizing the virtual from within itself. The HOST key + M would be the most obvious way to support this. It sounds like it would be a relatively a simple thing to implement.

comment:11 by dkharlan, 9 years ago

+1, this would make for better UX

comment:12 by tim 2001, 9 years ago

Specific proposed implementation: Add a command to the UI named e.g. MinimizeMachine which is the minimize in the mini-Toolbar. The user can set a shortcut (e.g. control-M) for this command using existing methods. This shortcut command would be active in any VBox-headed mode, e.g. Full Screen, Seamless, or regular virtualbox window. I expect in Seamless mode, this minimizes the whole machine with all of its windows, but I do not use Seamless so I do not know.

This specific proposal does not include adding anything to the main UI, such as adding a Minimize command on the Machine menu of the Virtualbox Control-Home Popup and so on, since specifying that would seem to be a whole -other debate. However, once the new command is in place, adding that should not be too hard given consensus on the spec.

I was going to work this, but I just got a new job. I think buying a second monitor for VirtualBox full screen is the smarter option till I have some time.

Version 2, edited 9 years ago by tim 2001 (previous) (next) (diff)

comment:13 by tim 2001, 9 years ago

I am still interested in this. I found a virtualbox forum thread under 'suggestions' for this. Anybody else interested, please post a reply there. https://forums.virtualbox.org/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=43379#p321724

I have already found the virtualbox code that needs to be modified for this. I know C/C++. I need someone familiar with coding virtualbox to check what I am doing, and to show me how to make tests for it compatible with the project. And I need the time. Mostly, I just need time.

Last edited 9 years ago by tim 2001 (previous) (diff)

comment:14 by Dsen, 9 years ago

Description: modified (diff)

Hello,
we are going to implement that stuff for Win/X11 hosts during VBox 5.0 beta period.
Mac OS X host has troubles minimizing full-screen windows since there are user-spaces involved into native full-screen support.
I doubt that will be backported to VBox 4.3, it will be a small feature of the latest VBox version only.

comment:15 by wacher, 9 years ago

I think this is duplicte of #2097

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