9.15. Locking down the VirtualBox manager GUI

There are several advanced customization settings for locking down the VirtualBox manager, that is, removing some features that the user should not see.

VBoxManage setextradata global GUI/Customizations OPTION[,OPTION...]

where OPTION is one of the following keywords:

noSelector

Don't allow to start the VirtualBox manager. Trying to do so will show a window containing a proper error message.

noMenuBar

VM windows will not contain a menu bar.

noStatusBar

VM windows will not contain a status bar.

To disable any GUI customization do

VBoxManage setextradata global GUI/Customizations

To disable all host key combinations, open the preferences and change the host key to None. This might be useful when using VirtualBox in a kiosk mode.

Furthermore, you can disallow certain actions when terminating a VM. To disallow specific actions, type:

VBoxManage setextradata "VM name" GUI/RestrictedCloseActions OPTION[,OPTION...]

where OPTION is one of the following keywords:

SaveState

Don't allow the user to save the VM state when terminating the VM.

Shutdown

Don't allow the user to shutdown the VM by sending the ACPI power-off event to the guest.

PowerOff

Don't allow the user to power off the VM.

Restore

Don't allow the user to return to the last snapshot when powering off the VM.

Any combination of the above is allowed. If all options are specified, the VM cannot be shut down at all.