[Solved] Unable to reinstall VirtualBox after uninstalling older version

[BigalEE]

Good Day,

I know that I am new to the forum and some where this has been answered but I CANNOT install the latest version of VirtualBox on my laptop after I uninstalled a corrupted version of my last version which was 5.2.12 AMD64. I keep getting a Fatal Error when I try to install. I have tried as Admin, I have tried after a restart and a shutdown. I have looked in the forum and cannot find an answer to this exact problem. I am in desperate need of resolving this issue because this is my work laptop and all the software we use is on VM's. Can someone please point me in the right direction.

The exact message I get is "Installation failed! Error: Fatal error during installation."

I know that someone is going to probably suggest that it is a Windows Installer issue but I do I fix that? I am running Windows 10 64 bit Pro. I had no problems installing before.

Thanks in advance for the help.

[socratis]

I know that someone is going to probably suggest that it is a Windows Installer issue but I do I fix that?

That's a question for a Windows forum, as you suspected. We can offer basic know-how unfortunately. But here's a list of steps that I keep around for cases like that. Mind step #4:

1. Uninstall VirtualBox. Your VMs are going to be untouched. Reboot.
2. You may want to clean up your registry and/or filesystem at this point. CCleaner is a freeware utility that could help you. Mind the installation, it comes with "offers" from 3rd parties, known as "bundleware". Also, check out Device Cleanup program that helps you to remove any unused devices from your computer, mainly multiple "Host-Only Adapter #n".
3. Download (if you haven't already) the latest VirtualBox and its matching ExtPack. Store them in a common location, i.e. not on "Desktop", or "Documents", but to "Public/Downloads" for example.
4. Uninstall (don't simply disable) all 3rd party antivirus. If you're afraid about your computer being vulnerable, pull the Ethernet plug, disconnect your WiFi, don't go browsing around.
5. Locate the downloaded file in Windows Explorer. Right-click on the installer and select "Run-as-Administrator", even if you are the administrator. At the end of the installation, choose to "Start Oracle VM VirtualBox". Do not worry if your VMs do not show up.
6. If you're going to install the ExtPack, go to File » Preferences » Extensions. Click on the icon with the orange, down-pointing arrow on the right. Select the ExtPack from the previous steps.
7. Quit VirtualBox. Re-start VirtualBox as you would normally, i.e. from the Desktop shortcut or the Start menu.
8. Update the Guest Additions (GAs) in your guest(s), if the GAs are available for a specific guest.

[BigalEE]

Socratis,

Thank you for the reply. I was hoping that you would answer because, reading through the forum, you seemed to be very knowledgeable. I will try your steps again. Particularly the CCleaner. I don't want to call Microsoft unless I absolutely have to because they are always a nightmare to deal with.

Thanks again.

[BigalEE]

Socratis,

Did everything that you suggested and either part of the old install is hidden somewhere, because when I try to install the latest version, it stalls. It sits at about 2/3 of the way does not go any further. Any suggestions? Thanks

[BigalEE]

Tried everything and one last reboot and now I get an error "Installation failed! Error: Fatal error during installation." Can someone please help. I cannot do my job with VBox installed. Thanks.

[mhanor]

Start the setup with the -l command line parameter (from Command Prompt or from Start -> Run). Adjust the path.

Code: Select all

C:\Users\username\Download\VirtualBox-5.2.14-123301-Win.exe -l

Try to install it, close the failed installer, then retrieve the C:\Users\username\Appdata\Local\Temp\VirtualBox\VBoxInstallLog.txt, compress it and attach it here. If it's too big, put it on Google Drive/Microsoft OneDrive and share the link.

[BigalEE]

I want to give a big THANK YOU to everyone that helped me out. I finally kept going through Socratis suggestions and kept trying to do an install with a fresh download and finally this morning, I was able to get it installed and load my VM's. I sure do appreciate the the forum and the users that support it. I will mark it solved.

I suggest that anyone that stumbles across this, socratis was very valuable. And persistence is the key. I had to delete items multiple times that kept popping up.

Thanks,

BigalEE

[poshcodebear]

I was having the same problem just running the update. Usually when I install the latest version, it offers to close the running copy if I've forgotten, but this time it asked me to do it myself. I did, and after a couple of tries it did proceed, but then just got stuck so I had to force it closed. When I tried again, all I would get is the failure to install as listed above. When I looked, the old version was totally gone.

I tried a few things, but I noticed when I watched the directory during install, it got populated until the install bar reached a certain mark, then it backed out and removed everything. It always did it after going through the registry changes, so I figured it might actually be installing successfully but thinking it had failed for some reason. I thought that maybe if I could at least salvage the files on disk, I might be able to get it running. So, I popped open an admin PowerShell window, made a temp directory for everything, typed up a command to move all of the files to that directory and waited until right around when the installer got just passed the registry changes to hit enter. Not only did it pull everything out without issue, for whatever reason it also completed the install (so it didn't reverse the registry changes; there were no files to remove at that point). I copied the files back and it launched just fine.

I kind of feel like this is an installer bug, but I couldn't pinpoint the exact steps to replicate the issue, and at this point I'm not going to break my working install after just getting it back.