Windows 8 – Fix Metro Apps Not Opening in VirtualBox

Move your mouse toward the left edge of the monitor that is displaying a metro style app full screen. Be careful not to cross to another monitor to the left. Wait for a moment until a window thumbnail comes up, then drag the thumbnail until the metro window moves to the right, then release your mouse. You need to position the mouse just barely on the edge of the monitor in order for this to work.

It appears that side-by-side apps will only work if your screen is widescreen (16:10 or 16:9). You can switch windows using this method on 4:3 screens, but you can't use apps side-by-side.

I have found a workaround here: http://liliputing.com/2011/09/how-to-enable-windows-8-metro-style-apps-on-an-older-netbook.html What it does is basically it 'pretends' that the screen has resolution 1024x728 - when, obviously, it has still only 1024x600. The effect is OK if you want to play a bit with the Metro, but graphics and especially text displayed in this 'artificial' resolution looks bad, I found it quite tiring for my eyes... So I won't close this question for a while hoping that somebody comes up with a better solution.

Anyway, to get this 'artificial' higher resolution you need to modify registry entry (I found only one) Display1_DownScalingSupported - by default it is set to 0, so set it to 1. After restarting computer right-click on your Desktop and you'll find additional higher resolutions.