My question then is whether the problem described above has a solution - perhaps some undocumented setting? - within the current version 2.2.4. That is preferred than deactivating a modifier key completely as it is in 2.2.4.

Other virtualization programs allow you to have a combination of keys as 'Host Key', in that way only deactivating (within the guest) that particular combination, and also the combination being optional (you choose which combination becomes a Host Key).

To workaround I tried changing this Host Key, but noticed that the options are few: only the 'Ctrl', 'Alt', 'Shift' and 'Windows' keys can be used as 'Host Key', and deactivating any of these keys within the guest is bad.Īpparently I am hitting a design issue, which is that, currently, the Host Key can only be 'a single key, one of the modifier keys'.

But the default Host Key, which is left-command (so within windows it is the left 'windows' key), is used in shortcuts by the windows OS and also various programs, so to have it deactivated as described within the guest attempts against the functionality of the guest. As is clear, within the guest, the so-called 'Host Key' (VirtualBox -> Preferences -> Input) gets deactivated in that in only signals that whatever keyboard input that follows is for the Host not the guest. I run windows XP (the guest) within Mac OS X (the host).

What is virtualbox host key