Default Windows XP 'Fade Effect' hangs explorer.exe or leaves display artifacts

[Trevor Horsfall]

Windows XP Pro 64-bit SP2 guest, on Windows XP Pro 32-bit SP2 host.

Immediately after OS installation, with or without Guest Additions installed and with or without 3D acceleration support, opening the Start Menu and clicking an icon leaves an artifact of the fade effect on the screen until the VM is rebooted. (Screenshot attached)

Similarly, right-clicking a item such as the language bar causes a menu to partially appear (i.e. fade in), and then hangs "explorer.exe".

As this is the default configuration of Windows XP, this is quite a major issue, although it can be worked around by disabling the fade effect.

This is reported publicly, although no bug appears to have been raised. URL: ​http://forums.virtualbox.org/viewtopic.php?p=37237&sid=53612deb57db6720537eff62d24ec1ae

[Aaron Graham]

Confirmed running 2.1.4, Host OS Windows Vista 64-bit. Attaching my log also, thinking it may have something to do with the following entry:

00:00:22.141 OpenGL Warning: Render SPU: WGL chose these visual capabilities: RGBA, Doublebuffer, Z, Stencil

[Pete Hurst]

Confirmed still present in 2.2.2.

Worked around the issue by switching the start menu to "Classic" mode and disabling menu effects in Display Properties. Which, to be honest, I'd recommended for performance reasons especially in a VM.

Also of note is that modifying the start menu settings removes the artifacts without having to reboot.

[adityakini]

This problem also appears to affect going into full screen mode with Silverlight where the "Press ESC to exit full-screen mode" message does not go away.

[Frank Mehnert]

Please reopen if still relevant with VBox 3.1.6.