Tutorial for upgrading Virtualbox under Windows?

[selden]

Is there an up-to-date step-by-step tutorial anywhere for upgrading Virtualbox and its prerequisites under Windows? (Windows 10 Pro 22H2 is what I'm currently running.)

I ask because Alma Linux 9.3 is no longer happy running under VB 7.0.8, which is what I currently have. (See the screengrabs below.)

After a recent update Alma 9.3 complains while booting that it's running under an unsupported hypervisor with unsupported graphics. If I let it sit long enough, it does start and the XFCE GUI seems to run OK , but the wait time is close to a minute.

I'm rashly assuming that a recent update to VB (14? 16?) fixes this problem. Does it?

I had to search the Web to find out how to upgrade Virtualbox (since I haven't had to do it before), but the page I found was woefully out of date. (It talked about updating from VB 5 to VB 6.)

Following its advice, though, I found the update option in the Files menu. (I had been looking in the Help menu.)

When I ran the VB 7.0.14 install/update program, it complained that I didn't have compatible versions of Python or of the shared windows runtime library.

When I downloaded the currently available VB user's manual, I found that it was woefully out of date, mentioning very old versions of Python2 and 3.

At that point, I gave up, having other things I needed to do. *sigh*

alma_93.png (6.55 KiB) Viewed 559 times

virtualbox.jpg (137.98 KiB) Viewed 559 times

[BillG]

The upgrade process is pretty straight forward. It uses the normal Windows installer and rarely gives me any trouble.

You can ignore the warning about Python unless you actually need Python. If you don't need it, use the option in the installer to skip installing the Python code.

[selden]

Thanks!

Edited to add:

For what it's worth:

I currently have no need to use Python, however...
I installed the most recent version of Python (3.11.3) and installed Python's win32api using the command
pip install pywin32
and the Virtualbox installer for 7.0.14 still complained that they were missing.

pywin32.png (43.61 KiB) Viewed 403 times

[Stickybit]

There really isn't any tutorial .. as upgrading is just next, next, next.

I did however create a script using PSAppDeployToolkit, as I deploy VirtualBox to many users:

(installation section of script)

Code: Select all

# Stopping processes  
Stop-Process -Name "VirtualBox" -Force
Stop-Process -Name "VBoxService" -Force
Stop-Process -Name "VBoxSVC" -Force
Stop-Process -Name "VBoxTray" -Force
Stop-Process -Name "VirtualBoxVM" -Force
Stop-Process -Name "VBoxSDS" -Force

# Trusting Oracle certificate
Execute-Process -Path "certutil.exe" -Parameters "-f -addstore ROOT $DirFiles\Oracle.cer"
Execute-Process -Path "certutil.exe" -Parameters "-f -addstore TrustedPUblisher $DirFiles\Oracle.cer"
			
# Installing VirtualBox
Execute-MSI -Action 'Install' -Path "$DirFiles\VirtualBox-7.1.4.msi" -Transform "$DirFiles\VirtualBox-7.1.4.mst" -SecureParameters
			
# Installing extension pack
Execute-Process -Path "$($Env:Programfiles)\Oracle\VirtualBox\VBoxManage.exe" -Parameters "extpack cleanup" -IgnoreExitCodes '0,1'
Execute-Process -Path "$($Env:Programfiles)\Oracle\VirtualBox\VBoxManage.exe" -Parameters "extpack install --replace `"$DirFiles\Oracle_VM_VirtualBox_Extension_Pack-7.0.14.vbox-extpack`" --accept-license=481748374fkljsdkglj_TYPE_YOUR_OWN_lkgjskfdlg98459023"

# Disabling Credential Guard
$RegistryPath = "HKLM:\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\DeviceGuard";

If ( !(Test-Path $RegistryPath) ) { New-Item -Path $RegistryPath -Force; };
New-ItemProperty -Path $RegistryPath -Name "EnableVirtualizationBasedSecurity" -Value 0 -PropertyType DWORD -Force;
New-ItemProperty -Path $RegistryPath -Name "RequirePlatformSecurityFeatures" -Value 0 -PropertyType DWORD -Force;

$RegistryPath = "HKLM:\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\LSA";

If ( !(Test-Path $RegistryPath) ) { New-Item -Path $RegistryPath -Force; };
New-ItemProperty -Path $RegistryPath -Name "LsaCfgFlags" -Value 0 -PropertyType DWORD -Force;

# Disabling Windows features known to interfere with VirtualBox
$Features = @('Microsoft-Hyper-V-All', `
	'Microsoft-Hyper-V', `
	'Microsoft-Hyper-V-Tools-All', `
	'Microsoft-Hyper-V-Management-PowerShell', `
	'Microsoft-Hyper-V-Hypervisor', `
	'Microsoft-Hyper-V-Services', `
	'Microsoft-Hyper-V-Management-Clients', `
	'VirtualMachinePlatform', `
	'HypervisorPlatform')

foreach ($Feature in $Features) {

	Write-Log -Message "Chekking state of Windows Feature $($Feature)" -Source 'Windows features'
	$WindowsFeature = Get-WindowsOptionalFeature -online | Where-Object { $_.FeatureName -eq $Feature } | Select-Object -Property State, FeatureName

	if ($WindowsFeature.state -eq 'Enabled') {
		Write-Log -Message "Disabling Windows Feature $($WindowsFeature.FeatureName)" -Source 'Windows features' 
		Disable-WindowsOptionalFeature -Online -FeatureName $WindowsFeature.FeatureName -NoRestart
	}

}

VirtualBox-7.1.4.mst can be downloaded here: https://filebin.net/20en9rlak4n5bf13

[selden]

Thanks, that'll give me a place to start.

One thing I don't see in your script is the recompilation of the Extensions in the client O/S. Of course, I don't see how that could even be done while the script is running under Windows....hmm... maybe boot client, then use ssh somehow? I'm just thinking to myself. No need for anyone to explain that.