Mouse not working/I'm locked inside the VirtualBox

[Huntsman]

Hi,
I've not had problems before with using the mouse in the VB or out of the VB, so I must have messed this one up ;(

The VirtualBox is one converted from an XP Virtual Machine (vmc) that ran ok on Windows 7 host. Windows 10 does not support vmc's anymore in Windows 10 and I cannot use hyper-v because my processor does not support hyper-v

Integrations seem to be loaded ok.
When I press the right control key I see the down arrow (that I thought meant switching between host mouse and VB mouse) changes from black to green.



I have attached my log file.
Windows XP VB on a Windows 10 64bit host.

[mpack]

Your processor would support Hyper-v just fine. Except that Hyper-v is the name of a Microsoft software package, not a processor feature. The processor feature required is called VT-x, and your processor has it.

Just to clear up some additional terminology: the term for a VM is a VM, not a VB or a vmc. Getting these terms wrong makes statements such as "Windows 10 does not support vmc's anymore in Windows 10" harder to understand. A VM is also sometimes referred to as the guest, though IMHO that term properly refers to the guest OS rather than the VM.

Anyhoo. XP mode tools don't work in any other VM platform, which would explain why the mouse isn't working. You need to eliminate these before installing the VirtualBox GAs.

In fact you have a larger problem, which is that the XP image you are trying to use was only licensed for the Win7 host it originally came from. In my experience (from past discussions on these forums) these images will eventually give an activation warning and then fail to activate. If this had already happened then hopefully this would be obvious. You may be able to fix this by installing a new product key - Google since XP didn't make this easy.

Frankly, I think you'd be better off installing XP from scratch. Genuine and legal XP SP2 install CDs are not hard to get on eBay. But avoid branded (HP and Dell), and upgrade packages.

[Huntsman]

would support Hyper-v just fine. Except that Hyper-v is the name of a Microsoft software package, not a processor feature. The processor feature required is called VT-x, and your processor has it.

Just to clear up some additional terminology: the term for a VM is a VM, not a VB or a vmc. Getting these terms wrong makes statements such as "Windows 10 does not support vmc's anymore in Windows 10" harder to understand. A VM is also sometimes referred to as the guest, though IMHO that term properly refers to the guest OS rather than the VM.

Anyhoo. XP mode tools don't work in any other VM platform, which would explain why the mouse isn't working. You need to eliminate these before installing the VirtualBox GAs.

In fact you have a larger problem, which is that the XP image you are trying to use was only licensed for the Win7 host it originally came from. In my experience (from past discussions on these forums) these images will eventually give an activation warning and then fail to activate. If this had already happened then hopefully this would be obvious. You may be able to fix this by installed a new product key - Google since XP didn't make this easy.

Frankly, I think you'd be better off installing XP from scratch. Genuine and legal XP SP2 install CDs are not hard to get on eBay. But avoid branded (HP and Dell), and upgrade packages.

Hmm, I take your point about terminology; however, I was trying to differentiate between.
VM (Virtual Machine) Windows 7 style with vmc
VM VMware Player.
VM Virtualbox.

Thanks for the comment about VT-x since enabling Hyper-V disables VT-x according to (I was going to post a link/it has been blocked.)

As for starting from scratch that would defeat the object of having a VM since VM's are used create an unchanging environment.
I'm sure I've got round the moan about activation when a VM is moved, otherwise we would not have been able to move test system around.

To conclude I'm looking for a way of getting many old useful VM's working with a windows 10 host using any VM system

[mpack]

Thanks for the comment about VT-x since enabling Hyper-V disables VT-x according to (I was going to post a link/it has been blocked.)

Hyper-v doesn't disable VT-x, it just makes it unavailable for other software to use, because it wants to keep the feature entirely to itself.

As for starting from scratch that would defeat the object of having a VM since VM's are used create an unchanging environment.

That may be your object, but Win7 XP Mode wasn't designed to do that, it was purely designed to get XP laggards to install Win7. Once you've installed Win7 then MS doesn't care about the XP bit afterwards. A classic bait and switch. If you doubt this then by all means go ask MS how to bring your (their) VMs with you, see what they say. Actually I know what they'll say: some low level serf will express sympathy, and then nothing concrete will happen.

To conclude I'm looking for a way of getting many old useful VM's working with a windows 10 host using any VM system

AIUI, XP mode uses a licensing system similar to node locking. I.e. the XP guest expects to find XP Mode as the underlying "BIOS", otherwise it isn't activated. At one time VirtualBox supported the XP mode indentification system but of course accurately reported the credentials of the Win7 host. I don't know if this feature is still in place, but in any case it won't help you move the VM to a unlicensed PC.

[Huntsman]

AIUI, XP mode uses a licensing system similar to node locking. I.e. the XP guest expects to find XP Mode as the underlying "BIOS", otherwise it isn't activated. At one time VirtualBox supported the XP mode indentification system but of course accurately reported the credentials of the Win7 host. I don't know if this feature is still in place, but in any case it won't help you move the VM to a unlicensed PC.

Very informative stuff.
I thought XP mode was a user thing and the MS utility we used was a proper VM creator with a VM manager.

" it won't help you move the VM to a unlicensed PC."
The VMs will not be on a unlicensed PC (host). I'm not trying to crack anything I just want to run my useful stuff on a licensed windows 10 host.

" it won't help you move the VM to a unlicensed PC." or have I misunderstood that comment?

[socratis]

it won't help you move the VM to a unlicensed PC.

I'm not trying to crack anything I just want to run my useful stuff on a licensed windows 10 host.

Well, unfortunately, this process involves getting an XP license. With Windows 7, Microsoft gave you one for "free". Not with Windows 10.