VirtualBox installation fails, says fatal error occurred, but gives no indication what the error is.

[xzlhqed]

Installing on Windows 10 64-bit, screenshots attached. Have tried installing as administrator.

Any help as to figuring out what's happening would be greatly appreciated.

EDIT: Just noticed the pictures are in reverse order

EDIT 2: Thought I should also mention that virtualbox was running perfectly fine until yesterday. I treid booting up my work machine and it gave the error "failed to open a session for the virtual machine" and nothing else. I tried reinstalling virtualbox and that is when this happened.

[mpack]

Actually, VirtualBox doesn't give you any messages at all during installation on Windows hosts, because VirtualBox isn't even running - the standard Windows installer is (MSI).

I don't have the link handy, but you should Google for how to enable MSI logging, and how to view the logs.

As to what the error might be, well I'd guess that the most common install error is due to not having sufficient priviliges to install device drivers. Try using "Run as administrator".

If the system was working fine until yesterday then I'm puzzled as to why the question concerns installation?

[socratis]

1. Log on as a local Administrator
   • This has absolutely nothing to do with the installation of VirtualBox, it has to do with logging the installation. It is doable but way more convoluted if you want to do it as a simple user.
2. Uninstall VirtualBox (if installed)
3. Enable MSI logging
   • Copy-paste the following to a text file and save it as "LogEnable.reg".

     Code: Select all

     Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
     
     [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\Installer]
     "Logging"="voicewarmupx" 
     "Debug"=dword:00000007
     
     [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\WindowsUpdate\Trace]
     "Flags"=dword:00000016
     "Level"=dword:00000004
     

   • Double-click on the file to merge the information in the registry. Accept the warnings.
   • The last message should be a successful merge information box.
4. Install VirtualBox
   • Right-click on "VirtualBox-5.y.z-#####-Win.exe" and select "Run as Administrator". Even if you are the Administrator. There is a huge difference in Windows between being an Administrator and using "Run as Administrator".
   • Proceed with the full installation.
   • The installation will be slower because we're logging everything.
5. Examine the logs
   • Go to Start, Run..., enter "%temp%". It will open an Explorer window on your Temp directory.
   • There will be a file called "MSI#####.log". It would be easier to find if you sort them by Date. It's the newest one.
   • Copy it to your Desktop for safekeeping. ZIP it and attach it to your response.
6. Disable MSI logging
   • MSI logs are big and they slow down the installation. So, we'll disable MSI logging.
   • Copy-paste the following to a text file and save it as "LogDisable.reg".

     Code: Select all

     Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
     
     [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\Installer]
     "Logging"=-
     "Debug"=-
     
     [-HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\WindowsUpdate\Trace]
     

   • Double-click on the file to merge the information in the registry. Accept the warnings.
   • The last message should be a successful merge information box.

[socratis]

Oh, and another thing. As mpack said, the VirtualBox installer is a standard MSI install file. You should check to see if you have any corrupted MSI database files:

• Repair MSI (Windows Installer) 2.8.8.
• Windows Repair 4.0.0 includes the above but with more tools for general Windows repairs.