Hiding VM from VirtualBox Manager Screen

[PeteyBrown]

Hi,

I have several work related VM's for different companies I work for on my lappy but the other day when I was at lunch someone was able to run of the other companies VM's as they all appear in the VirtualBox Manager Screen.

I have been looking for a way to run these VM's without them appearing in the VirtualBox Manager Screen.
I can run the VM's via the command line.
"C:\Program Files\Oracle\VirtualBox\VBoxManage.exe" startvm "GeneralMotorsGateway"
but this does require the VM to be in the VirtualBox Manager Screen.

I have found that I can just double click the GeneralMotorsGateway.vbox and this will import the VM into the VirtualBox Manager Screen however I have to remember to REMOVE the entry from the VirtualBox Manager Screen after I close down which is a PITA

Is there a way to automatically delete the entry in the VirtualBox Manager Screen via cmd line?


OR more importantly is there a way to avoid the VirtualBox Manager Screen completely and run (without importing into the VirtualBox Manager Screen) the VM and thus not having to REMOVE the entry later.

[Perryg]

There is no function to do what you want other than the one available to you on your host pc. Lock the PC so others can not use it while you are away.

[socratis]

I can run the VM's via the command line ... but this does require the VM to be in the VirtualBox Manager Screen.

Slight correction. The only requirement is for the VM to be registered and you can do that from the command line. The VirtualBox Manager simply shows you the registered VMs and makes it easier to do some tasks compared to VBoxManage CLI, like create, register and run a new VM.

Now, you could either rename, delete, or restrict access to "VirtualBox.exe" (aka VirtualBox Manager) and keep on working solely with "VBoxManage.exe" from the command line. It's not that easy, but definitely, unequivocally doable. But that's security through obscurity and not a true solution. I'm just throwing it out there because you asked if there was such a solution. I don't even know the implications of such an action.

I would definitely follow mpack's Perry's advice and lock your computer.

[PeteyBrown]

Thank you for your replies.

I have managed to do what I would like from the command line to register the VM and start it up and also to unregister it all.

Thanks

[socratis]

I have managed to do what I would like from the command line to register the VM and start it up and also to unregister it all.

For anyone looking for the answer: viewtopic.php?f=6&t=78642