Multi Monitor Taskbar Persistant over Virtual Box VM when in Full Screen mode

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Paul McCaffrey

8 discussion posts

Hi there,

I'm having an issue running Virtual Box 4.3.14 in full screen mode.
Whenever a VM is running in full screen mode on Monitors 2 or 3 (with monitor 1 being my main monitor), the multi monitor task bar remains visible over the top of the full screen VM - This does not happen in when running the VM full screen on monitor 1.

I've just rebuilt my machine to windows 8.1 from windows 7 and I didn't have this issue on Windows 7 (although I was running Virtual Box 4.3.12 prior to the rebuild).

The Troubleshooting tab in displayusion doesn't appear to be detecting any full screen apps when a VM is running (as far as I can tell anyway).

I've tried running the latest released version of displayfusion (v6 and the latest beta version (v6.1 beta 6) with the same result.

Other full screen apps appear to behave correctly (the multi monitor taskbar hides correctly when running mstsc.exe in full screen mode)

Is there anything else I can try?

Thanks

Paul

Sep 2, 2014 (modified Sep 3, 2014) • #1

I'll test this out here to see if I can reproduce it. If I can, we should be able to get this fixed up

Sep 3, 2014 • #2

Paul McCaffrey

8 discussion posts

Quote:

I'll test this out here to see if I can reproduce it. If I can, we should be able to get this fixed up

You Sir, are a gentleman!

:laugh:

Sep 4, 2014 • #3

Ok, I was able to reproduce this here, and have a found a work around. DisplayFusion isn't detecting it as full screen for some reason, and the VirtualBox window also "loses focus" when it's full screen, so there are a couple of things you need to do:

On the Settings > Compatibility tab, add a rule for *VirtualBox.exe, and enable the "Force DisplayFusion to treat this as a full screen application" option
On the Settings > Taskbar tab, disable the "Show taskbar in front of full screen applications when they lose focus" option
Close all instances of VirtualBox, make sure there are no more VirtualBox processes in Task Manager, then start it up and test it out

Hope that helps!

Sep 5, 2014 • #4

Paul McCaffrey

8 discussion posts

Quote:

On the Settings > Compatibility tab, add a rule for *VirtualBox.exe, and enable the "Force DisplayFusion to treat this as a full screen application" option
On the Settings > Taskbar tab, disable the "Show taskbar in front of full screen applications when they lose focus" option
Close all instances of VirtualBox, make sure there are no more VirtualBox processes in Task Manager, then start it up and test it out

Hope that helps!

Hi Keith,

Thanks for looking into this - I've tried the configuration you've mentioned above, but I'm still getting the same result.
I've just rebooted to see if it made any difference and it didn't

Sep 8, 2014 • #5

Ok, could you attach a copy of the info from the Settings > Troubleshooting tab?

Sep 8, 2014 • #6

Paul McCaffrey

8 discussion posts

Quote:

Ok, could you attach a copy of the info from the Settings > Troubleshooting tab?

No problems,

I've attached DebugInfo.txt and DisplayFusion.log for you with logging was set to detailed.

After enabling the logging, I fired up a VitualBox VM on monitor 3, clicked inside it a few times and then minimised / maximised it and clicked inside it again.

Let me know if you need anything else.

Thanks

Paul

• Attachment [protected]: DebugInfo.txt [75,110 bytes]

• Attachment [protected]: DisplayFusion.log [186,699 bytes]

Sep 9, 2014 • #7

Thanks! The Troubleshooting info still shows 0 full screen applications. After you created the rule, did you exit all instances of VirtualBox, then re-open them? That compatibility rule won't take effect until it's been full restarted.

Sep 9, 2014 • #8

Paul McCaffrey

8 discussion posts

Quote:

Hi Keith - I did, I even rebooted before starting the logging

Sep 10, 2014 • #9

Ok, was VirtualBox running when you attached the DebugInfo.txt file? I actually don't see it in the log or Troubleshooting info at all.

Sep 10, 2014 • #10

Paul McCaffrey

8 discussion posts

Hi Keith,

I think I've got to the bottom of it now.

I use a program called VBoxLaunch to actually fire up my VMs (it gives you Windows jump list functionality) and the problem only seems to appear when the VM is launched this way.

If I launch a VM via VirtualBox Manager, everything works as expected (at least with the compatibility rules in place)

I've just tried adding a compatibility rule for VBoxLaunch.exe, but it didn't have any effect.

For the moment I can live without my jump lists.

Thanks for all your help

Paul

Sep 11, 2014 • #11

Ah, ok, that makes sense! I have put an item on our list to see if we can properly detect VirtualBox full screen windows so that the Compatibility rule won't be needed. If we're able to get that working, I'll let you know

Thanks!

Sep 11, 2014 • #12

Paul McCaffrey

8 discussion posts

Quote:

Thanks!

Hi Keith,

Quick update.

I've been running in the configuration that appeared to be working (compatibility rule set for virtualbox.exe and disable the "Show taskbar in front of full screen applications when they lose focus" ) and it still appears to be a bit flaky.

Sometimes the taskbar hides behind the VM as expected and others it displays.
It always seems to correctly hide when the VM is starting up, but it looks like it can still lose focus somehow.

I currently have 2 VMs running in full screen on separate monitors - On one the multi-monitor taskbar is visible and on the other it's correctly hidden. - Very strange......

Thanks

Paul

Sep 15, 2014 • #13

Paul McCaffrey

8 discussion posts

Just upgraded to VirtualBox 4.3.16 and all seems to be working as expected......

Sep 16, 2014 • #14

Awesome, glad to hear it!

Sep 16, 2014 • #15