Okay, so I just got Win XP installed on my Mint 11 machine via VBox and a few questions.

1. The window size is really small and even when I try to resize it, it just becomes a bigger version of the small image. Is there a way to resize it so it's more like a regular size screen? I've tried fullscreen and scale modes, but it doesn't help.
Regular:


Scaled:


2. How do you install something in the VM? Every time I try to download anything, it goes to the page but I never get a prompt for downloading.

3. Is there a way to see a USB in the VM? Whenever I pop in my flash drive, it never shows up in the VM, just my desktop.

You need to install Guest Additions onto Windows XP to be able to resize desktop correctly and share USB devices and disk.

Just to be clear on how to install Guest Additions - with your Windows VM running go to 'Devices' in your VirtualBox menu -> 'Install Guest Additions'. The rest is done from within VM - just click 'Next, next, next...' and ignore any 'unsigned' warnings Windows may throw up.

A-ha! Thank you! I'm able to resize the desktop now.
It's still not seeing the USB, though, or installing anything.

You need to plug in a USB device, then go to VirtualBox menu for devices and assign that device to your VM - mind you, not all USB devices work.

With regards to installing software within the VM - that's got nothing to do with VirtualBox, it's the problem inside the VM's environment.

Hmmm, when I go to Devices>USB it shows my flaash drive but I can't select it (Kingston).
Is there a way to install software within the VM, then?

Presumably the reason you can't select it is because it's already been auto-mounted by your real OS (Mint)

You install software within the VM just as you would normally on a 'real' machine - there is no difference whatsoever, operating system does not care if it's running on real or virtual hardware.

Why don't I get a download or install option when I try? After I click download (tried Firefox, Chrome and iTunes so far) it goes to the "Thanks for downloading" page but there's never anything downloaded. No prompt to Save or Run ever comes up.

As I said in #5 - that's nothing to do with virtualization, VirtualBox or Linux.

Maybe the site where you are downloading from is malfunctioning, maybe you have NoScript blocking JavaScript and that prevents downloads from commencing, who knows.

Could it be because the browser is IE 6? I know it's not supported anymore and that's why I'm trying to use a different one in there.

Problem solved! I had to go into Administration>Users and Groups>Manage Groups, select vboxusers, click Properties, put a check mark next to my username, then just log out and back in and start VirtualBox and I was able to install programs (and use my USB drive, too). ;D