Low Resolution Mode in macOS Monterey

I routinely run Windows on Virtual Box on my iMac.

I have just updated to macOS Monterey, and have also updated Virtual Box.

When I started Windows this morning, I found that virtual machine uses full retina resolution on my iMac. In the past I could solve this by going to the virtual machine application in Finder, going to Get Info, and turning on the Always Run in Low Resolution setting.

This setting appears to have disappeared. How can I set an application to Low Resolution mode?

OK, I have found a temporary solution, which involves changing the info.plist file inside the application.

1. Using XCode, open up:

   /Applications/VirtualBox.app/Contents/Resources/VirtualBoxVM.app/Contents/Info.plist

2. Change High Resolution Capable to NO

3. Save

I found that I had to change the file permissions to allow the changes to be saved.

I’m not very familiar with the PListBuddy shell program, but the following also seems to work:

This displays the current settings:

sudo /usr/libexec/PlistBuddy \
    -c 'print NSHighResolutionCapable' \
    /Applications/VirtualBox.app/Contents/Resources/VirtualBoxVM.app/Contents/Info.plist

This changes the setting:

sudo /usr/libexec/PlistBuddy \
    -c 'set NSHighResolutionCapable false' \
    /Applications/VirtualBox.app/Contents/Resources/VirtualBoxVM.app/Contents/Info.plist

• The sudo is required to grant permissions to make changes.
• The \ at the end of each line allows it to be continued on the next.
• The -c ' … ' part is the actual command, which you could also use interactively.

As you see, the application is VirtualBoxVM.app, which is unusual in that it is an app within an app. The normal location for the Info.plist file is something like /Applications/something.app/Contents/Info.plist .

I had to re-install Virtual Box, so I had to try this in earnest, and it worked for me.

I’m still looking for a better solution, though.