Disable Windows Key hotkeys when using Virtualbox

Solution 1:

I had the same problem (Linux guest in Windows host with wmii windows manager). This registry hack works perfectly.

Open up regedit.exe through the start menu search box, and then browse down to the following key, creating it if it doesn’t exist:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System

On the right-hand side, create a new DWORD 32-bit value named DisableLockWorkstation and give it one of these values:

• 1 – Disable Lock Workstation
• 0 – Enable Lock Workstation

The changes should be immediate, no need to restart anything.

Solution 2:

Had exactly the same problem, deactivating the Auto-capture keyboard worked for me.

File > Preferences > Input > Auto-capture keyboard

Solution 3:

Win+L works in the guest for me under an XP host. However, with security being increased in Windows 7 I suspect that the "Lock Screen" and "Task Manager" hotkeys (Win+L and Ctrl+Shift+Esc) are given the same status as the Secure Attention Sequence (Ctrl+Alt+Del) and can't be overridden by an application. Presumably other non-security-critical hotkeys such as Win+E work in the guest not the host?