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Failed to acquire the VirtualBox COM object. The application will now terminate.

Posted: 1. Mar 2021, 13:39
by lonardd
Hi there,
tried to install the 6.1.18 from the installer VirtualBox-6.1.18-142142-Win.exe, but the problem I've got pops up at the very end with any version of Oracle virtualBox I'm trying to install. I tried the 6.1.16 and the 6.1.12, same problem...
The installation on my Win10 Laptop says is OK up to the end. When I click on the last OK button, an error dialog pops up with the message below.
There was a similar error on one entry of the forum of 6 years ago but to me, it was unclear how it was solved.
Thanks
David

Failed to acquire the VirtualBox COM object.

The application will now terminate.



Error in C:\Users\lonardd\.VirtualBox\VirtualBox.xml (line 31) -- UUID "{00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000}" has zero format.

F:\tinderbox\win-6.1\src\VBox\Main\src-server\VirtualBoxImpl.cpp[740] (long __cdecl VirtualBox::init(void)).

Result Code: E_FAIL (0x80004005)
Component: VirtualBoxWrap
Interface: IVirtualBox {d0a0163f-e254-4e5b-a1f2-011cf991c38d}
Callee: IVirtualBoxClient {d2937a8e-cb8d-4382-90ba-b7da78a74573}

Re: Failed to acquire the VirtualBox COM object. The application will now terminate.

Posted: 1. Mar 2021, 16:34
by mpack
... Means that VirtualBox is not installed, or not installed for the current user. Do not install as the "Administrator" user. Install as the intended user, but use "Run as administrator" to obtain temporary elevated rights.

Re: Failed to acquire the VirtualBox COM object. The application will now terminate.

Posted: 4. Mar 2021, 15:23
by lonardd
My current user has admin rights. Either I install it clicking "Run as Administrator" o not, I get the same error...

Re: Failed to acquire the VirtualBox COM object. The application will now terminate.

Posted: 4. Mar 2021, 23:11
by RubyTheGreat
I am having the exact same problem with Windows 10. I was running for 2 weeks, shut down VB tried to restart and got the same error. tried uninstalling reinstalling and then running. Installed and run as administrator the second time. No luck.

Re: Failed to acquire the VirtualBox COM object. The application will now terminate.

Posted: 5. Mar 2021, 21:31
by RubyTheGreat
I solved this by deleting the directory "C:\Users\{username}\.VirtualBox" before reinstalling VirtualBox. I am backing up this directory after everything is setup as I like it. This will possibly allow me to recover if I get this error again without having to uninstall and then reinstall.

Re: Failed to acquire the VirtualBox COM object. The application will now terminate.

Posted: 6. Mar 2021, 11:26
by mpack
That folder only contains user settings, e.g. the VirtualBox.xml file with the list of registered VMs. Nothing installation or software related.

However, if you delete that folder then VirtualBox will automatically recreate it, which does serve to clean out any crud that might have accumulated there - though I don't see why that crud should result in the error message of the topic title. A normal install doesn't do this because it doesn't overwrite your data.

Re: Failed to acquire the VirtualBox COM object. The application will now terminate.

Posted: 8. Mar 2021, 16:52
by RubyTheGreat
This message was displayed after I had been running the Ubuntu image for a few weeks after I restarted by computer upon launch of the program. So it was obviously not due to permissions. So I searched the file that was referenced in the error. That is why I deleted the whole directory and then reinstalled. Possibly it would have worked if I had just deleted this directory.

Re: Failed to acquire the VirtualBox COM object. The application will now terminate.

Posted: 20. Mar 2024, 04:44
by TboneStils
RubyTheGreat wrote: 5. Mar 2021, 21:31 I solved this by deleting the directory "C:\Users\{username}\.VirtualBox" before reinstalling VirtualBox. I am backing up this directory after everything is setup as I like it. This will possibly allow me to recover if I get this error again without having to uninstall and then reinstall.
Thank you Ruby !!! I used Vbox recently to pass my sec plus but did not open correctly after reinstall. This worked like a charm