virtualbox.org

I just installed latest version of VirtualBox VirtualBox-5.1.10-112026-Win
to my Windows 10 computer as Administrator.

Unfortunately, it fails to start with an error related to a COM component.
Message shown in the MessageBox:

Completely failed to instantiate CLSID_VirtualBox: CO_E_SERVER_EXEC_FAILURE.

Error code:
CO_E_SERVER_EXEC_FAILURE (0x80080005)
Component:
VirtualBoxClientWrap
Interface:
IVirtualBoxClient {d2937a8e-cb8d-4382-90ba-b7da78a74573}

I'm attaching snapshot of the message as well

Any Ideas how to fix that?

This looks like a failure to install VirtualBox properly, if at all. It should be installed as the user who intends to run it. E.g. you should install it using the "vgrechin" user account (not "Admin") if that is who will run it.

Use "Run as administrator" to ensure that the installer has adequate privileges under the chosen user account.

It was, actually installed with "Run as administrator" privileges.
And I may confirm it is installed, because I've managed to run VirtualBox under another user account on the same machine.

Virtualbox will run under different accounts than the one it was installed on, if it was installed correctly. Virtualbox defaults to storing its list of guests in a local account folder, not a public one, so when you switch accounts the list of guests will be different or empty. You can register old guests to run in a different account.

On the other account where you were able to run Virtualbox, were you able to make and run a guest? If you can run guests fine on one account but can't on another, then Virtualbox is working and the account has something bad with it. I have seen accounts go bad before. If the account is bad, there's no hope that I know of but to not use that account for Virtualbox, or to move all the account-specific data out and abandon the bad account.

Will it run under two different accounts at the same time?
If not you need to make sure that is other account is logged of and that you don't use fast user switching.

Yes, I'm able to run a guest on second account, so I'd be able, probably to create a PowerShell script to run VirtualBox with these credentials.
Just before destroying my good old bad account .

But I can't figure out where exactly VirtualBox stores list of guests in a local account folder?

The list on a Windows host is in C:\Users\{you}\.Virtualbox, in the file called VirtualBox.xml

There is a way using an environment variable VBOX_USER_HOME to make Virtualbox look in the folder set in the environment variable instead of the default location above. If you set the variable to a public folder on your host, then all accounts will see the same list of guests.

Se section 10.1 in the manual for more info.

Unfortunately I didn't have C:\Users\{you}\.Virtualbox in my bad account's home directory.
When I copied this from second account, I managed to run VirtualBox.

In that case it sounds like there was an element missing from the original problem description: I assume you must be launching the VM from a desktop shortcut, accessing a folder without the proper permissions.

If all you did was run VirtualBox while being logged in as the wrong user then it would have silently created the "Users/{you}/.VirtualBox" folder, created the files inside it, then the manager would run and show you an empty VM list with a "Welcome to VirtualBox!" panel on the right.

There would have been no error message.

Permissions for original user were properly set up by network administrator.

From my point of view VirtualBox failed to create configuration folder C:\Users\{you}\.Virtualbox and reported no error during install.

Run-time error, shown in the beginning of the topic is really weird and misguiding, giving no glue where the actual problem sits in.

And were you launching a VM using a desktop shortcut?

I can't comment on what your netadmin says he did.

I agree it certainly isn't the best of error messages, but it did in fact give a clue otherwise we wouldn't have homed in on a fix so quickly. The wording is just a little technical.

I had to modify .VirtualBox\VirtualBox.xml to point out correct disc location for VM storage first.
And now, yes I'm able to run VMs with desktop shortcut and using VBoxManage utility.

Identical problem here, on Windows 10 64-bit [Version 10.0.16299.192], after installing VirtualBox 5.2.6, the latest at the moment.
NONE of the answers given so far in this forum helped. I did try uninstalling/reinstalling many time, run as administrator, run in different compatibility modes (Windows 8, Windows 7...), tried editing VirtualBox.xml - none were found in .VirtualBox directory, so copied and edited from a "healthy" machine... Tried also built-in Windows 10 "Program Compatibility Troubleshooter", it said: "Issues found: Incompatible Program - Not fixed".

Any idea what else could be tried? Also, Hyper-V is disabled on this machine, VMware 10 works fine and runs virtual machines in it.

gregko wrote:Any idea what else could be tried?

Re-install Windows while preserving programs and accounts. See if that helps...

Indeed this helped! Downloaded MediaCreationTool.exe tool from Microsoft and effectively "upgraded" my Windows 10 to the "Fall Creators Update", despite the fact that it already was updated to it. Selected option to preserve all user data and apps, installed back VirtualBox and it starts fine.

Thank you!