Menu bar

The menu bar located at the top of the 86Box window provides controls for the emulated machine as a whole, its display, and the 86Box user interface.

Important

On macOS, the Exit (Quit), Preferences and About 86Box options are found in the 86Box application menu instead of the locations outlined here.

Action

• Keyboard requires capture: require the mouse to be captured for keypresses to be forwarded to the emulated machine. Enabling this option allows the use of keyboard combinations (such as Alt+Tab) on the host system while the 86Box window is focused.

• Right CTRL is left ALT: let the right Ctrl key act as a left Alt key, to simulate some special keyboards where the Alt key is located on the right side of the space bar.

• Update mouse every CPU frame: force the emulated mouse to send movements as fast as possible, ignoring any polling rate set by the emulated operating system.

• Auto-pause on focus loss: automatically pause emulation while the 86Box window is not focused.

• Pause / Resume: pause emulation of the machine. Select this option again to resume emulation. You can alternatively press Ctrl+Alt+F1 (customizable) to pause or resume emulation.

• Fullscreen: enter full screen mode. You can press Ctrl+Alt+Page Up (customizable) to enter full screen mode or go back to windowed mode. The menu bar, toolbar and status bar are hidden by default in full screen mode; press Ctrl+Alt+Page Down (also customizable) to show or hide them.

• Fast forward: run the emulated machine at the highest speed your host system can handle. Uncheck this option to return to normal speed. You can alternatively press Ctrl+Alt+F (customizable) to control this option.

• Force interpretation / Allow recompilation: temporarily disable the dynamic recompiler. Uncheck this option to reenable the recompiler. You can alternatively press Ctrl+Alt+I (customizable) to control this option.

• Hard Reset: force a reset of the emulated machine. Requires confirmation, which can be disabled by checking the Don’t show this message again box. You can alternatively press Ctrl+Alt+F12 (customizable) to hard reset.

• Ctrl+Alt+Del: send a Ctrl+Alt+Del key combination to the emulated machine. You can alternatively press Ctrl+F12 (customizable) to send that combination.

• Ctrl+Alt+Esc: send a Ctrl+Alt+Esc key combination to the emulated machine. You can alternatively press Ctrl+F10 (customizable) to send that combination.

• ACPI shutdown: send a power button press to the emulated machine. Only available on machines with ACPI soft power off support.

• Exit: quit 86Box. Requires confirmation, which can be disabled by checking the Don’t show this message again box.

View

• Hide toolbar: hides the toolbar below the menu bar.

• Hide status bar: hides the status bar at the bottom of the window.

• Show non-primary monitors: shows or hides the secondary display window if a secondary video card is configured.

• Resizeable window: allow the 86Box window to be freely resized. Unchecking this option will also return the window to its normal size.

• Remember size & position: automatically save the 86Box window’s size and position for this emulated machine.

• Specify dimensions: open a window where an exact size (in pixels) for the emulated display can be set. If checked, the Lock to this size box prevents changes in the emulated display’s resolution from overriding the specified size.

• Force 4:3 display ratio: stretch the emulated display to a 4:3 aspect ratio, independently of the emulated machine’s screen resolution.

• Fullscreen stretch mode: select the picture mode to use when in full screen mode.

  • Full screen stretch: stretch the emulated display to completely fill the host display.

  • 4:3: stretch the emulated display to a 4:3 aspect ratio, then scale it to fit the host display.

  • Square pixels (keep ratio): scale the emulated display to fit the host display, without changing the aspect ratio.

  • Integer scale: scale the emulated display to the largest integer scale factor to fit the host display. This provides the highest possible picture quality, at the cost of black bars if the host display’s resolution is not divisible by the emulated display’s resolution.

  • 4:3 integer scale: stretch the emulated display to a 4:3 aspect ratio, then scale it to the largest integer scale factor to fit the host display.

• Apply fullscreen stretch mode when maximized: apply the picture mode selected above in windowed mode if Resizeable window is enabled and the window is maximized.

• CGA composite settings: adjust the picture’s hue, saturation, brightness, contrast and sharpness. Only available when emulating a composite CGA monitor.

• Window scale factor: scale the emulated display to half (0.5x), normal (1x), 50% larger (1.5x), double (2x) or larger (up to 8x) sizes.

• HiDPI scaling: automatically scale the emulated display to real size if your host system has a HiDPI display. This option can be used alongside Window scale factor above.

Note

If HiDPI scaling is disabled on a host with a HiDPI display, the emulated display’s size may be off by one pixel due to an integer scaling limitation.

• Filter method: select the filtering method (Nearest or Linear) to be used when scaling the emulated display.

• Renderer: select a graphical renderer for the emulated display.

  • Qt (Software) is recommended in most cases.

  • Qt (OpenGL) and Vulkan are known to perform better on some host systems. Try these if your system is struggling to maintain 100% emulation speed. Vulkan may not be available if the host GPU is not Vulkan-capable.

  • OpenGL (3.0 Core) allows for shader effects to be applied to the emulated display, however, it is not compatible with older integrated GPUs.

• Renderer options: open a window to configure the OpenGL (3.0 Core) renderer. This option will be available if that renderer is selected.

  • Synchronize with video: update the emulated display at its current refresh rate.

  • Use target framerate: update the emulated display at the selected refresh rate.

  • VSync: enable vertical sync. Recommended if tearing artifacts are observed.

  • Add: add a .glsl or .glslp file to the list of shaders to apply on the emulated display.

  • Remove: remove the selected shader from the list.

  • Configure: open a window to configure parameters on the selected shader.

  • Move up/down: move the selected shader up or down in the processing order.

Note

• Many shaders are available for simulating CRT displays, VHS tapes and other aesthetics; the RetroArch glsl-shaders repository is a good place to start.

• .cg and .cgp shaders are not supported, as these formats are long deprecated.

• OpenGL input stretch mode: select the picture mode to use for the raw image data fed into the applied OpenGL shader(s). Refer to Fullscreen stretch mode below for the available options.

• OpenGL input scale: scale the raw image data fed into the applied OpenGL shader(s) to half (0.5x), normal (1x), 50% larger (1.5x), double (2x) or larger (up to 8x) sizes.

Media

This menu lists all storage drives and network cards attached to the emulated machine, and provides the same options that are accessible by clicking the respective device’s icon on the status bar.

The Clear image history option empties the list of recently-loaded images on all storage drives.

Tools

• Settings: open the Settings window to configure the emulated machine.

• Update status bar icons: enable the activity lights on status bar icons. Unchecking this option may improve emulation performance on low-end host systems.

• Enable Discord integration: enable Discord Rich Presence. 86Box shares the emulated machine’s name, model and CPU with other Discord users.

Note

Integration requires the Discord desktop app, running on Windows (x64 only), Linux (x86_64 only) or macOS. Discord does not provide integration support for other operating systems / architectures or the browser app. Additionally, integration will not be available on Windows if the included discord_game_sdk.dll file is missing from the 86Box directory.

• Take screenshot: take a screenshot of the emulated display and save it as a .png image in the screenshots subdirectory found in the emulated machine’s directory, which can be opened with the Open screenshots folder option below. You can alternatively press Ctrl+F11 (customizable) to take a screenshot.

• Take raw screenshot: same as Take screenshot above, but making a pixel-perfect capture of the machine’s video output instead, without any processing such as scaling and shaders.

• Copy screenshot: take a screenshot of the emulated display and copy it to the host system’s clipboard.

• Copy raw screenshot: same as Copy screenshot above, but making a pixel-perfect capture of the machine’s video output instead, without any processing such as scaling and shaders.

• Sound: provides the same options that are accessible by clicking the sound icon on the status bar.

• Preferences: open the Preferences window window to configure options related to 86Box as a whole.

• MCA devices: open the MCA devices window, which lists the IDs and required Adapter Definition Files of all Micro Channel devices installed on the emulated machine. This option will only be available when emulating a Micro Channel Architecture-based machine.

• Open printer tray: open the host system’s file browser on the directory where documents printed by emulated printers are saved.

• Open screenshots folder: open the host system’s file browser on the directory where screenshots of this emulated machine are saved. Screenshots can also be viewed through the VM manager.

Help

• Documentation: open the very documentation you’re reading.

• About 86Box: show credits, license and build information about 86Box.