[Solved] Running VirtualBox under a new Win 7 user

[aardvark_65]

I am running VirtualBox version 5.2.8 on Windows 7 SP1 64 bit. I set it up, created a virtual machine and have been running it under the Windows 7 Administrator user, since I am the only user of my PC.

Now, for various reasons, I need to run VirtualBox under a new user, and I am finding it difficult to work out how to do that. When I started the VirtualBox manager under the new user, it said I had didn’t have any virtual machines set up, which was somewhat disconcerting…. I found that the “default machine folder” in Preferences, general was now wrong, so I fixed that, ended the VirtualBox manager and restarted it, but it still said I didn’t have any virtual machines.

I looked on the forum, and found posts about people wanting to share the VM between different users, or wanting to move all the VMs to a different PC. I don’t want to do any of that – all I want to do is start using VirtualBox under the new user, and not use it under the Administrator user any more.

Is there a way to do that without having to redefine the VM and set it all up again?

Tim

[socratis]

The idea is the same as the "Moving a VM" one. Except in your case you won't be moving the VM between computers, but between user accounts, with the new location being the new user's data folder.

[aardvark_65]

In fact I didn't want to move the VM to a different folder. I don't create files (VirtualBox or otherwise) in the data folders belonging to individual users. But the key for me in the "Moving a VM" post was the Machine, add menu item. I ran that while logged in as the new user, and I can now see my VM.

Perhaps I didn't look hard enough, but I couldn't find a description of machine, add in the user manual.

Thanks for your help.

[socratis]

If you have the VM in a Shared Folder where the users have read-write access, then that would absolutely work as well.
Glad you got it going. Marking as [Solved].