Aero not working in Windows 7

[Konstantin Vlasov]

Host: Windows XP SP3 Professional 32-bit
Guest: Windows 7 SP1 Professional 32-bit
VirtualBox 4.1.3 r73690 (from misha's reply in ​#9240).

I installed Guest Additions with WDDM (in non-safe mode checked the "3D" option and answered NO when installer suggested Direct3D). In Device Manager under Display Adapters I can see:
VirtualBox Graphics Adapter (Microsoft Corporation - WDDM)
Video memory is set to 128 MB.

After that I go to Personalize and select any Aero theme. But only wallpaper changes, the rest of the windows decoration remains the same non-Aero "Windows 7 Basic"-like design (no changes of the windows borders' color, no transparency, no window previews, etc.)

[Konstantin Vlasov]

Session log with booting Windows 7 and trying to turn Aero on

[Konstantin Vlasov]

Installed VB 4.1.4, updated guest additions — now trying to use Aero makes the whole guest screen a complete mess.

On the forum there is a thread which describes a very similar situation:
​https://forums.virtualbox.org/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=44901
I, too, have ATI graphics card (X800 XL), and what I see in the guest machine looks very much the same to the screenshot posted in the first message of the thread. In my system the latest available driver is already installed (10.2), so I cannot update it to the newer version, my card is unsupported.

VMware Workstation works with guest Aero fine on the same machine, so the problem does not look like a bug in the video driver.

[Konstantin Vlasov]

Log file for VB 4.1.4

[misha]

Replying to CaptainFlint: Did you do any changes to your host (like updating video driver software, installing Win service packs, etc.) or to you guest (installing Win service packs, etc.) between VBox 4.1.2 and 4.1.4 installations?
Just want to determine whether this is a 4.1.4 regression or not.

[Konstantin Vlasov]

Replying to misha:

Did you do any changes to your host (like updating video driver software, installing Win service packs, etc.) or to you guest (installing Win service packs, etc.) between VBox 4.1.2 and 4.1.4 installations?

No hardware was changed. Host software did not change significantly, I only install updates from WindowsUpdates regularly except for the video drivers they suggest, and updated some user-mode-only programs. Guest did not change at all.

Just want to determine whether this is a 4.1.4 regression or not.

When I first installed 4.1.0 beta 1 on the same machine I got absolutely the same problem like now, with completely messed guest screen contents. I did not report it because soon after that beta 2 appeared with fixes in WDDM, but I could not check it because of another bug (#9240) that prevented running Windows guests on my machine.

[Isaac Salsberg]

Same thing: aero still not working on VB 4.1.4.

The Windows Experience Index could not be updated and is still 1 because of the display driver.

Same thing happened in version 4.1.0

It seems that aero is never going to work with VB ;-(

[viking13]

Maybe I should create a new ticket, but mine is almost identical to this one.

OS versions are different, but description of bug is same.

Aero works fine in host OS and in a another VM (I do not want to advertise here, so no name or version of that product)

Details:

Host: Windows 7 SP1 Professional 64-bit
Guest: Windows 7 SP1 Ultimate 64-bit

from .vbox

<Display VRAMSize="256" monitorCount="1" accelerate3D="true" accelerate2DVideo="true"/>

from vbox.log

VirtualBox 4.1.4 r74291 win.amd64 (Oct  3 2011 16:38:50) release log
00:00:00.911 Log opened 2011-10-18T20:40:33.363467700Z
00:00:00.911 OS Product: Windows 7
00:00:00.911 OS Release: 6.1.7601
00:00:00.911 OS Service Pack: 1
00:00:00.915 Host RAM: 3894MB RAM, available: 2304MB
00:00:00.915 Executable: C:\Program Files\Oracle\VirtualBox\VirtualBox.exe
00:00:00.915 Process ID: 4260
00:00:00.915 Package type: WINDOWS_64BITS_GENERIC
00:00:00.915 Installed Extension Packs:
00:00:00.915   Oracle VM VirtualBox Extension Pack (Version: 4.1.4 r74291; VRDE Module: VBoxVRDP)
...
00:00:01.137 OpenGL Info: Render SPU: GL_VENDOR:   Intel
00:00:01.137 OpenGL Info: Render SPU: GL_RENDERER: Intel(R) HD Graphics
00:00:01.137 OpenGL Info: Render SPU: GL_VERSION:  2.1.0 - Build 8.15.10.2509
00:00:01.137 OpenGL Info: Render SPU: GL_EXTENSIONS: GL_EXT_blend_minmax GL_EXT_blend_subtract GL_EXT_blend_color GL_EXT_abgr GL_EXT_texture3D GL_EXT_clip_volume_hint GL_EXT_compiled_vertex_array GL_SGIS_texture_edge_clamp GL_SGIS_generate_mipmap GL_EXT_draw_range_elements GL_SGIS_texture_lod GL_EXT_rescale_normal GL_EXT_packed_pixels GL_EXT_texture_edge_clamp GL_EXT_separate_specular_color GL_ARB_multitexture GL_EXT_texture_env_combine GL_EXT_bgra GL_EXT_blend_func_separate GL_EXT_secondary_color GL_EXT_fog_coord GL_EXT_texture_env_add GL_ARB_texture_cube_map GL_ARB_transpose_matrix GL_ARB_texture_env_add GL_IBM_texture_mirrored_repeat GL_EXT_multi_draw_arrays GL_NV_blend_square GL_ARB_texture_compression GL_3DFX_texture_compression_FXT1 GL_EXT_texture_filter_anisotropic GL_ARB_texture_border_clamp GL_ARB_point_parameters GL_ARB_texture_env_combine GL_ARB_texture_env_dot3 GL_ARB_texture_env_crossbar GL_EXT_texture_compression_s3tc GL_ARB_shadow GL_ARB_window_pos GL_EXT_shadow_funcs GL_EXT_stencil_wrap GL_ARB_vertex_program GL_EXT_texture_rectangle GL_ARB_fragment_program GL_EXT_stencil_two_side GL_ATI_separate_stencil GL_ARB_vertex_buffer_object GL_EXT_texture_lod_bias GL_ARB_occlusion_query GL_ARB_fragment_shader GL_ARB_shader_objects GL_ARB_shading_language_100 GL_ARB_texture_non_power_of_two GL_ARB_vertex_shader GL_NV_texgen_reflection GL_ARB_point_sprite GL_ARB_fragment_program_shadow GL_EXT_blend_equation_separate GL_ARB_depth_texture GL_ARB_texture_rectangle GL_ARB_draw_buffers GL_ARB_color_buffer_float GL_ARB_half_float_pixel GL_ARB_texture_float GL_ARB_pixel_buffer_object GL_EXT_framebuffer_object GL_ARB_draw_instanced GL_ARB_half_float_vertex GL_EXT_draw_buffers2 GL_WIN_swap_hint GL_EXT_texture_sRGB GL_EXT_packed_float GL_EXT_texture_shared_exponent GL_ARB_texture_rg GL_ARB_texture_compression_rgtc GL_NV_conditional_render GL_EXT_texture_swizzle GL_ARB_sync GL_ARB_framebuffer_sRGB GL_EXT_packed_depth_stencil GL_ARB_depth_buffer_float GL_EXT_transform_feedback GL_EXT_framebuffer_blit GL_ARB_framebuffer_object GL_EXT_texture_array GL_ARB_map_buffer_range GL_EXT_texture_snorm GL_INTEL_performance_queries GL_ARB_copy_buffer GL_ARB_sampler_objects GL_NV_primitive_restart GL_ARB_seamless_cube_map GL_ARB_uniform_buffer_object GL_ARB_depth_clamp GL_ARB_vertex_array_bgra GL_ARB_draw_elements_base_vertex GL_EXT_gpu_program_parameters GL_ARB_compatibility GL_ARB_vertex_array_object 
00:00:01.140 Shared crOpenGL service loaded.

[sunlover]

Most likely this is the same problem as in ticket #14670. Please try VirtualBox build mentioned there.