One VM won't allow "any screen resolution" or go to full screen mo

I have been using Virtual PC for about a year. Most of my virtual machines
are working correctly. One of them is stuck in one particular screen
resolution. If I resize the window smaller, I just get scroll bars. It won't
resize to a larger resolution. Alt-Enter puts it into full screen mode, but
gives a black border all the way around. The settings are set to allow any
screen resolution. Changing the settings in Control Panel | Display |
Settings to a different resolution changes the resolution of the screen, but
doesn't change the problem. All of my other VMs on the same physical machine
are able to resize to any resolution and go into true full-screen mode with
no problem, just not this one. Deleting and recreating the virtual machine
from the virtual disks doesn't change it. Even if I move the virtual disks to
another physical machine (my laptop) and create a new VM, the problem
persists. Obviously the problem is in the configuration of the windows
installation on the virtual system disk itself, but I can't think of anything
else to do (short of recreating the virtual system disk from scratch and
reinstalling everything). Any ideas?

 

Have you removed and reinstalled the VM Additions?

 

Steve,

Yes, I tried that too (uninstalling and reinstalling VM Additions),
several times. I tried it again now, just to be sure, but this time it
worked! Strange.

Thanks!

Rick.

 

That raises some doubts of my own:

Do we have to do uninstall & reinstall the additions every time we moved a VM to another machine?
Even if there is no change in the guest OS inside that VM?

Isn't the additions meant to patch the kernal of the guest OS?
Does it have anything to do with the host OS?

Thanks,
Sarah

 

Do we have to do uninstall & reinstall the additions every time we moved a

No, only when you have a newer version of additions available.

Yes to both, but it's more generic, you just want to update the additions
with a newer version -- VPC adjusts to the hardware that's present.

 

Thanks for the response.
I have built a WinXP-SP2 VM with additions on my much powerful PC
and then copied that VHD file to a simple laptop and attached that to a new VMC on the laptop.

Both my PC and the laptop PCs have Windows XP SP2 as hosts.
But the laptop has a limited hardware resources when compared to my PC.
1. Is that a case for uninstall & reinstall the additions on the laptop?

2. Btw, do I have to create the VMC file on each machine or can I copy the VMC file too.
Of course, I will have to adjust the memory settings of the VMC in each machnie,
depends on how much memory they can afford to allocate to the VM.

Thanks,
Sarah

 

1. Is that a case for uninstall & reinstall the additions on the laptop?

No, not if the original additions are the same version as you have available
on the laptop.

You can copy them, but I usually create a new one so there are no NIC
address problems. You might also have a problem with the assigned NIC too,
but I really haven't run across that problem.

 

That depends. As long as you're not going to run both machines at the
same time. If you are, then you'll have MAC address collisions. You
also need to be aware that each copy of the VM requires a license.

--
Paul Adare - MVP Virtual Machines
It all began with Adam. He was the first man to tell a joke--or a lie.
How lucky Adam was. He knew when he said a good thing, nobody had said
it before. Adam was not alone in the Garden of Eden, however, and does
not deserve all the credit; much is due to Eve, the first woman, and
Satan, the first consultant." - Mark Twain

 

You are right. I have seen that problem.

Thanks,
Sarah