Virtualbox obstructing closure of Windws10

Discussions related to using VirtualBox on Windows hosts.
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Broytsch
Posts: 39
Joined: 22. May 2021, 12:19

Virtualbox obstructing closure of Windws10

Post by Broytsch »

There is no regular pattern here, and the fault is to some extent intermittent:-

1. I complete a session with VirtualBox started and running and with Windows XP as VM. When I am ready to finish, and switch off the PC, nothing is still running on it. The printer (which the VB takes over when it is running) is off, and any USB memory sticks have been unplugged.

Sometimes I switch off my broadband router before switching of the PC, sometimes I switch it off after the PC has turned off. Whichever is the case seems to make no difference to whether the problem occurs, or not.

2. Now the problem. Instead of simply turning off, the PC displays a message stating that Oracle VirtualBox has active connections. It warns me that work may be lost if I proceed with switching off the PC, but does not offer any usable alternative.

3. So I click on Cancel, and the PC turns off, apparently normally.

4. The next time I turn the PC on, it starts normally. But, sometimes (not always), if I try to run the VM, the VM shortcut does not work. It is as if the program which the shortcut is trying to run is absent (which, fortunately, is not the case).

I have not found any reliable way of avoiding this. Sometimes, re-starting the PC resolves it, sometimes not, and I then have to do more than one restart of the PC.

I have Googled this problem ad nauseam, but can find little exceptrecommendations about Blue Stacks. According to Google, this app is for gaming, and interferes with closing the VB. I don't do gaming. Nothing called Blue Stacks, or with a similar name, is installed on this computer.

Another piece of advice is to uninstall the VM and then reinstall it with the latest version. My VM is 6.1.22 r/44080 (Qt 5.6.2).

Mine is obviously not the latest version, but it runs my sole VM (Windows XP) very well indeed. I use three old software programs which will run only within XP and on which I am very dependent for my work. So I would be very reluctant indeed to install a new version of VirtualBox in case it no longer allowed the XP to run, or would not itself run.

I remember exchanges on this Forum about Microsoft having included features in Windows 11 which prevented Oracle's VirtualBox from being installed successfully. My Windows 10 has had a lot of updates since I installed the VB and VM. Possibly these updates make a transition to Windows 11 less of a culture shock for the PC's operator, so I wonder if one of these is the cause of the present problem.

Alternatively, it seems possible that the VB is sometimes/somehow working invisibly and undetectably after it is switched off. So it appears to the Windows switch-off routine to be running (to have "active connections"). When I next switch the computer on, the VB reverts to the same behaviour. This prevents if from running normally when the shortcut is used.

Please advise how to deal with this bug!

"Broytsch"
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