VMplayer - how to have full screen portrait-layout display of guest?

Question

Is anybody using VMware player with their monitor in a portrait/vertical orientation? Is there a configuration that allows the guest OS to use all of the vertical space available?

I switched the host OS (Win XP) to portrait mode and guest OS is in portrait mode as well. However, while I can maximize the VMplayer window the guest OS window is not using the available screen real estate.

There doesn't seem to be guest display settings that will use the full screen. The biggest guest screen I can get is a by setting the resolution to "auto" and then I get a square display only using half of the physical screen.

I am using XP as a host and VMplayer 5.02, with VMware Tools up to date. I've been using various window and display managers on an Ubuntu 12.04 guest OS on VMplayer without a problem for some time (i.e., I don't have other config problems right now and everything is up to date).