System service for updating VirtualBox?

[loosus]

In my environment, we have many people using VirtualBox on a daily or weekly basis, but nobody in my environment has administrator rights to their Windows computers.

The IT support folks do not mind performing the initial installation for VirtualBox, but it's really annoying to get support calls for installing updates. When we install a program on a user's computer, we are basically saying, "We approve of this program and all of its updates."

Is it possible that VirtualBox could have an update service included that runs as SYSTEM so that updates occur automatically? This would make it where users still do not need administrator rights to install updates.

Already, programs like Chrome, Firefox, Adobe Acrobat Reader, etc. update using an included service that runs as SYSTEM, so I would think it shouldn't too big of a deal to add one to VirtualBox.

[socratis]

Suggestions is usually a sub-forum where you can see the craziest and extremely limited-use cases suggestions. But your suggestion actually is one that makes sense. So +1 from me. I don't have a personal need for this, but I can definitely see the merits of such an approach.

I did some search on your past posts (like I do for everyone) and I remembered our discussion, "Where is the preferences file(s) located in Windows?", from a couple of months back. In there you were talking about the "<ExtraDataItem name="GUI/UpdateDate" value="never"/>" setting, which is a per-user one. This "service" idea definitely improves upon the scenario.

[Martin]

Do you have a centralized software management when the normal users don't have admin rights on their systems?
Virtualbox uses a standard MSI installation which can be easily automated.
In many companies the software admns don't really like applications updating themselves automatically because that way they don't have full control about the versions in use.

[scottgus1]

Also, Virtualbox occasionally has a glitch creep in on the newest version, which wouldn't be good to push out to the production hosts. It's somewhat rare but it does happen. It is better to maintain an "If it ain't broke don't fix it" paradigm, and have IT push a new version per Martin's suggestion when you've tested it in the lab and you're sure it will work right on everyone's PC. The lab's test PC would be the right place for constant new version downloading.