Shortcut to exit scale mode in VirtualBox

Question

What is the shortcut to exit scaled mode in Oracle VM VirtualBox, Windows 7/10 host?

It is fairly off-topic. The best answer is also very poor imho, doesn't cover non-latin based languages where a c might not exist. — Mike Miller, Jan 14 '19 at 15:16

score 1273 · Accepted Answer · edited Dec 10 '17 at 02:50

1273

To exit Scale Mode, press:

Right Ctrl (Host Key) + c

Note that your (Host Key) may be different from Right Ctrl. To check the current binding, go to VirtualBox Preferences > Input > Virtual Machine > Host Key Combination.

edited Dec 10 '17 at 02:50

Lemmings19

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answered May 23 '12 at 09:18

Mike Miller

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It works in Ubuntu 12.10 Virtual Box 4.2.6. Thanks! – krams Feb 04 '13 at 15:31
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Note: It's the ctrl button at your keyboard, not **right click** + **ctrl** + **c** (like what I lamely did). – Jürgen Paul Feb 28 '13 at 10:39
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what if your notebook doesn't have right ctrl key? – MatheusJardimB Jun 14 '14 at 23:16
What laptop is that? https://www.virtualbox.org/ticket/1753 is it covered under this? – Mike Miller Jun 16 '14 at 14:15
@MatheusJardimB you can remap the host key. – Mike Miller Jun 17 '14 at 11:08
@MikeMiller It's a Dell Inspiron 14" - really good in fact, but miss `right ctrl` and `pause/break` keys... :/ – MatheusJardimB Jun 17 '14 at 11:12
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@MatheusJardimB Bit lame this, but you can map a shortcut key to %windir%\System32\osk.exe - i.e. shift + win + k or similar. that way you can use the onscreen keyboard when needed. – Mike Miller Jun 17 '14 at 11:27
Under OSX (ubuntu guest) this doesn't work. Once I get into Scaled Mode, the normal commands to return to, e.g., fullscreen mode, don't work. Scaled Mode doesn't display the entire screen. – intuited Jun 18 '15 at 18:00
@intuited Hi this is a know issue with OSX/Ubuntu guests, have a read here and see if it sorts you out. http://www.hacksparrow.com/shortcut-keys-not-working-in-virtualbox-under-mac-os-x.html – Mike Miller Jun 22 '15 at 09:15
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for me, it's Shift + Right CTRL + C – pupil May 09 '16 at 02:25
I don't have a `right-control`... what a joke this software is. Luckily, my brain kicked in and I realized that I could use the `on-screen` keyboard... which does have the `right-control`. Wow. – pookie May 09 '16 at 21:07
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This may be a new development (as the question is quite old), but on my MS Surface Pro 5, VirtualBoxen automagically use SHIFT+LCTRL for the *host key* as there is no RCTRL. – Jan 14 '19 at 13:25

score 74 · Answer 2 · edited Jul 29 '16 at 18:46

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If Right Ctrl (Host Key) + C does not work (there have been some issues on Ubuntu), do the following:

1) File > Preferences > Input on the Virtual Machine which is stuck in Scale Mode

2) Change or Reset the Host Key. There's no need to even save after changing the settings

3) Re-open the Virtual Machine and it should be reset!

edited Jul 29 '16 at 18:46

Amadeus Sanchez

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answered Nov 18 '12 at 00:47

Jasdeep Khalsa

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Thanks, I also had this problem (using debian squeeze). I think I have determined the cause of this problem for myself. My ctrl key was set to 'show position of pointer when pressed' so when I tried binding left ctrl or right ctrl to the host key in VBox it wouldn't work. As soon as I turned off the option to 'show where my pointer is' I could bind the key to host again. – Matt Mar 14 '13 at 11:08
In my case, my notebook doesn't have Right Ctrl, so I had to change to AltGr key. – shimatai Feb 09 '17 at 04:36

score 37 · Answer 3 · edited Jul 29 '16 at 19:10

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Steps:

host + f, to switch to full screen mode, if not yet,
host + c, to switch to/out of scaled mode,
host + f, to switch back normal size, if need,

Tip:

host key, default to right ctrl, the control button on right part of your keyboard,
host + c seems only work in fullscreen mode,

edited Jul 29 '16 at 19:10

Amadeus Sanchez

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answered Oct 27 '15 at 11:24

Eric

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score 23 · Answer 4 · edited Dec 09 '16 at 08:55

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Yeah it suck to get stuck in Scale View.

Host+Home will popup the Virtual machine settings. (by default Host is Right Control)

From there you can change the view settings, as the Menu bar is hidden in Scale View.

Had the same issue, especially when you checked the box not to show the 'Switch to Scale view' dialog.

This you can do while the VM is running.

edited Dec 09 '16 at 08:55

phuclv

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answered Mar 23 '14 at 13:19

jacobus

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I don't know why this is voted down. It's correct; it does answer the question; and knowing the Host + Home key combination is useful because that's the only thing you need to know in order to access the menu -- that being the actual problem with Scale Mode that most people have difficulty with. – Daira Hopwood Oct 29 '14 at 23:21
Right Control + c works, thanks – Satish Babariya Jul 28 '19 at 12:37
Scale View is not avail via Host+Home on virtualbox vs 6.1 ubuntu. Rightcontrol + F worked for me. – rearThing Aug 27 '22 at 20:43

dantiston · Answer 5 · 2014-09-17T01:33:12.590

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I arrived at this page looking to turn off scale mode for good, so I figured I would share what I found:

VBoxManage setextradata global GUI/Input/MachineShortcuts "ScaleMode=None"

Running this in my host's terminal worked like a charm for me.

Source: https://forums.virtualbox.org/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=47821

edited Sep 17 '14 at 01:33

answered Sep 17 '14 at 01:11

dantiston

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This is useful for mac hosts, where I accidentally cmd+c all the time – Godisemo Jun 10 '15 at 09:17

score 10 · Answer 6 · answered Aug 11 '15 at 07:06

I was having the similar issue when using VirtualBox on Ubuntu 12.04LTS. Now if anyone is using or has ever used Ubuntu, you might be aware that how things are hard sometimes when using shortcut keys in Ubuntu. For me, when i was trying to revert back the Host key, it was just not happening and the shortcut keys won't just work. I even tried the command line option to revert back the scale mode and it won't work either. Finally i found the following when all the other options fails:

Fix the Scale Mode Issue in Oracle VirtualBox in Ubuntu using the following steps:

Close all virtual machines and VirtualBox windows.
Find your machine config files (i.e. /home/<username>/VirtualBox VMs/ANKSVM) where ANKSVM is your VM Name and edit and change the following in ANKSVM.vbox and ANKSVM.vbox-prev files:
Edit the line: <ExtraDataItem name="GUI/Scale" value="on"/> to <ExtraDataItem name="GUI/Scale" value="off"/>
Restart VirtualBox

You are done.

This works every time specially when all other options fails like how it happened for me.

score 3 · Answer 7 · edited Feb 01 '20 at 07:16

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In MacOS Cmd+C is useful to minimizing the full screen

edited Feb 01 '20 at 07:16

Josh Correia

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answered Jan 31 '17 at 10:42

Isru

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score 2 · Answer 8 · answered Mar 31 '15 at 12:44

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Another solution (poor one do) is exiting VM Box with saving desktop (top option), restart would bring back the screen as it was before the rescale.

answered Mar 31 '15 at 12:44

Xapon

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kumarz · Answer 9 · 2016-05-11T12:56:21.580

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as @MikeMiller pointed out, To exit scale mode: Right Ctrl (Host Key) + C
but for users who DON'T have a Right Ctrl (Host Key)
(such as MS Surface Pro users: we only have a Left Ctrl key), u need to go into Virtualbox>>File>>Preferences>>Input>>VirtualMachine tab>>change Host key Combination to one that works for ya(I used Ctrl+Shift+Alt which doesn't seem to be in use already)

edited May 11 '16 at 12:56

answered May 11 '16 at 12:50

kumarz

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Had the same problem when accessing a Windows VM running on a headless Windows computer I was accessing from Mac BookPro via RDP – Peter M Feb 19 '17 at 15:08

Shortcut to exit scale mode in VirtualBox

9 Answers9