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Is there any way to have a guest machine have a huge resolution (like 3000x2000 or something) in VirtualBox? I'd like to be able to move around the desktop by scrolling around. It seems like it would be possible. Most importantly, I don't want the windows that are not currently being shown in the guest machine to think they are being hidden. I just want to support a very large virtual desktop.

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  • It probably is; it's been possible on real machines for quite a while--but personally I think it's a complete load of crap and a terrible feature. Can I ask why you think it would be so nice?
    – STW
    Commented Aug 13, 2009 at 2:42

3 Answers 3

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Yes it's possible. My old machine was only capable of 1024x768 as it was a 15" LCD. Fedora worked fine on max resolution under VirtualBox (much higher than 1024x768), albeit I had to scroll the window over a lot to view things.

I would think this has to do with VirtualBox somewhat emulating a graphics adapter using your existing video memory. You will see the adapter labeled "VirtualBox graphics adapter".

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    where can i change the resolution past my screen's resolution? the guest machine doesn't let me do it
    – Claudiu
    Commented Aug 13, 2009 at 5:39
  • Make sure dynamic resizing is turned on in the settings menu. You could also just drag the guest window larger instead of setting the resolution manually.
    – user1931
    Commented Aug 13, 2009 at 5:42
  • You can't make a window larger than your screen by dragging at the corners.
    – Joey
    Commented Aug 13, 2009 at 11:39
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    yes you can.
    – user1931
    Commented Aug 13, 2009 at 14:36
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I did not find a way to get a higher resolution on a Linux host with a Windows XP guest - using VirtualBox only.

What I did was the following:

  1. I started a virtual X server with a huge resolution: xinit -- /usr/bin/Xvfb :1 -cc 4 -screen 0 4000x3000x16
  2. I made the virtual X server available via VNC: x11vnc -display :1
  3. Connecting to VNC server: xtightvncviewer localhost:1
  4. After connecting to the virtual X server, I started VirtualBox and my machine, and set it to fullscreen.

That way I can set the screen resolution as high as I need it.

About the use case:

We use proprietary software to make a photo book. It costs quite some money to get the book printed - and the software does not offer PDF export of course.

So to get multiple cheap copies, I could buy the photo book once, disassemble it, scan all pages and print them as often as I need them. Alternatively, I could set the virtual box screen resolution really high and make screenshots of each page and print them :)

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  • that would probably be xtightvncviewer localhost:1, wouldn't it?
    – stdcerr
    Commented Jan 7, 2016 at 23:30
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It's possible, but why would you want this? You are going to spend more time scrolling the desktop around to find windows than anything else.

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    Could be for testing, to see how software behaves in a large screen, to test web layouts, etc...
    – zildjohn01
    Commented Aug 14, 2009 at 2:57

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