Install guest additions without privileges

[Luke99999]

Hello. I've an OS (Windows 10) which I load from an USB drive. I need to install guest additions in order to improve the screen resolution, but I do not have permissions since my account is not the administrator. Is the any change to install the guest additions without admin privileges?

[socratis]

I do not have permissions since my account is not the administrator

You do not have administrator permission in the guest? Because that's where you're supposed to install the Guest Additions, in the guest.

[socratis]

Thank you for your answer. Someone installed the OS in the USB drive, then I created a new virtual machine which boots from the usb drive. For this reason I cannot log on as an administrator in the OS.

[socratis]

Someone installed the OS in the USB drive

OS? What OS? Are you booting your host from the USB drive?

then I created a new virtual machine which boots from the usb drive

If *you* created the VM, then you should know the administrator password for the VM.

For this reason I cannot log on as an administrator in the OS.

You do not need to log in as an administrator in the host, only in the guest. You install the Guest Additions in the Guest, the VM. Since you created the guest (VM) you should know the administrator password.

I'm not an administrator on the computer I use, I'm a simple user. But on my VMs, the ones that I created, I am an administrator.

[Luke99999]

Someone installed the OS in the USB drive

OS? What OS? Are you booting your host from the USB drive?

Windows 10. Yes, I'm booting the guest from the USB. The OS was installed by someone in the USB drive, so how could I be the administrator user of the OS?

[socratis]

You sound like a fairly new user to VirtualBox. Since you are expected to know some basic terms before we engage in a meaningful discussion, I would suggest to start by reading three small chapters from the User Manual:

• 1.2. Some terminology,
• 1.8. Creating your first virtual machine and
• 1.9. Running your virtual machine.

Or even better, read the whole chapter 1. First steps.

Then we can talk more appropriately about what a "host" is and what a "guest" is. What is a VM, what is an OS, since both host and guest are on an OS. Because right now I honestly can't understand what you're talking about.

[Luke99999]

The host has a macOS Mojave OS. I need to load an OS installed in an USB drive (the guest). So I've created a vdmk disk from the USB drive.

Then, I've opened Virtualbox, I've created a new VM and I've chosen the vdmk which I created. The OS installed in the USB drive is loaded correctly.

The next step that I'd like to follow is to install the "guest additions" in order to improve screen resolution. I click "Insert guest additionals CD image" which I sees correctly.

However, I need administrator privileges in the guest in order to install them, but I don't have these privileges. So I was wondering if there is another way to install them.

[socratis]

Much clearer description! Now we're talking...

The answer is: No. You need admin rights on the guest OS. If you didn't install the guest OS and you don't know the administrator password, there's not that much you can do, except to ask whoever installed the guest OS for the password.

[socratis]

sure? Are there some magic that can I do in the guest machine? Or copy manually the stuff that guest additions copy somewhere?

[socratis]

Absolutely sure. What makes you think that just because an OS is running inside a VM that it's going to have different security protocols? And what makes you think that VirtualBox would be able to bypass these security protocols? VirtualBox is a hardware emulator, with some additional goodies in software for the guest. Those goodies require you to be an administrator on the guest OS.

The "manual copy" and "registration" is the part that requires the administrator access, since it installs drivers in the system directory.

[Luke99999]

I see I can extract drivers by calling the exe, and I can do it without admin privileges. Then, where can I put what I've extracted in order to be loaded when OS is actually loaded?

[mpack]

You need to copy the drivers to the appropriate system folder, and create the system registry entries that load the drivers.

... which is precisely the installation steps that Windows won't let you do unless you have admin rights.