Win 8.1 - Can't Install Any Version of VirtualBox

[VickersNick]

I got an old computer and loaded Win 8.1 32 bit. Loaded VirtualBox 4.3.14 and it worked fine for a few days. I then installed AVG 2014 & ZoneAlarm afterwhich VirtualBox stopped working. When I looked at the thread dedicated to 4.3.14 it suggested that people try 4.3.15 which I did but the installation froze in the middle and never completed. Now it seems that I can't install any version of VB, I've tried:
4.3.12
4.3.10
4.2.26

They all freeze at varying points into the installation process. I've uninstalled it completely and tried installing the various versions with AV & firewall disabled with the same result. Short of uninstalling my AV & firewall, which I didn't think was a problem with earlier versions, is there something I can do to get this thing back up and running (any version)? I'm guessing some registry entry from one of the failed installations is hanging out there that's hosing the process.

[mpack]

I suspect there's a driver which won't unload. If you unstall VirtualBox completely, do you continue to find mention of it in the registry?

Also, I don't think it's relevant to 32bit Win8.1 hosts, but you might like to Google "Driver Signature Enforcement".

Installing in safe mode might be another possibility.

[VickersNick]

Checked registry, searched on VirtualBox and found one entry in an error file. Searched for Vbox and found one instance of a dll which I deleted. Installation still froze.

Tried rebooting into safemode and installing from there. Apparently this is not allowed:

Installation Denied

safemode.png (8.66 KiB) Viewed 1622 times

I also tried disabling Driver Signature Enforcement with the same results.

At this point I'm going to try to simply do a System Restore to the point before I installed AVG. I'll check back in with results.

[HilltopsGM]

upgrading to Version 4.3.14 completely HOSED my working 4.3.12 installation.
I couldn't start ANY of my VM's.
I tried Downgrading to 4.3.12 by removing the extension pack and running THAT executable again . . . didn't work. For the life of me, I could not get it running again.

The ONLY way I was able to recover control of VirtualBox and my VM's was doing a "System Restore" back to BEFORE I installed 4.3.14
After reading all the issues 4.3.14 is giving people, wouldn't it be better to REMOVE the download so it doesn't cause others issues?

I think that is going to be your best bet >>> system restore to prior having issues.

Good Luck

[VickersNick]

Well, it was painful but I got it 4.3.12 working.

I kept getting an error when I tried to do a system restore, Windows kept complaining that an anti-virus had locked some file, even after I completely uninstalled AVG. Looking online, this appears to be a somewhat well known problem without a clear solution. I tried repeatedly with the same result. I ended up doing a system refresh with my Win 8.1 DVD and was then able to reinstall 4.3.12.

After reading all the issues 4.3.14 is giving people, wouldn't it be better to REMOVE the download so it doesn't cause others issues?

I too find it curious that the download is still up.

[mpack]

upgrading to Version 4.3.14 completely HOSED my working 4.3.12 installation.
I tried Downgrading to 4.3.12 by removing the extension pack and running THAT executable again . . . didn't work.

"Didn't work" isn't of much diagnostic value.

4.3.14 has well documented problems, and the reason it isn't being withdrawn is because the devs want the problems to be exposed, they don't want to hide under the table.

4.3.14 has new "hardening" features which make it reject any foreign apps attempts to inject DLLs into the VBox execution space. If you have such an app installed on your host then 4.3.14 won't run any VMs. 4.3.15 might. I can't think of any reason for this to make it impossible to uninstall 4.3.14 - and none of the many complaints about 4.3.14 have included this aspect, so I expect you're seeing patterns that aren't there. You had a problem with 4.3.14, and you had a separate problem with the windows MSI installer (which is what VBox uses to get installed on a Windows host).

Incidentally, we already have a very long thread discussing 4.3.14 issues on Windows hosts, in addition to the general 4.3.14 discussion thread (all hosts), so I won't be allowing another one.

[VickersNick]

4.3.14 has new "hardening" features which make it reject any foreign apps attempts to inject DLLs into the VBox execution space. If you have such an app installed on your host then 4.3.14 won't run any VMs. 4.3.15 might. I can't think of any reason for this to make it impossible to uninstall 4.3.14 - and none of the many complaints about 4.3.14 have included this aspect, so I expect you're seeing patterns that aren't there. You had a problem with 4.3.14, and you had a separate problem with the windows MSI installer (which is what VBox uses to get installed on a Windows host).

To be clear, I didn't have a problem uninstalling 14, my problems started when I tried to install 15 on top of 14.

Whatever happened to my system during that failed 4.3.15 installation appeared to affect the installation of any version of VB - maybe, as you suggested, installation of any software period. (I had to pull out my Win 8 disc to get the refresh and restore to work correctly.) I was focused on getting VB back; it would have been a good data point to try installing some different application.

I'm tempted to try 4.3.15 again but I figured I'd probably just have to update it again once the official version becomes available. Anyway, thanks for the suggestions. I was trying to avoid the refresh/restore approach but it turned out to be unavoidable.