virtualbox.org

I am running some Legacy apps (MSAccess 97, Act 4.0, and dos-based Managing Your Money) in a Virtual Machine Windows XP Pro SP 3 using VirtualBox vs 6.0 .22. I know that there are new versions of VirtualBox (6.1.18) available. My existing VB 6.0.22 does most everything I want to do with XP Pro. It allows me to synchronize Act 4.0 files between my Windows 10 laptop running VB and my Windows XP Pro desktop machines. The only thing that it doesn't do that I would like is to be able to print from within the VirtualBox virtual machine XP Pro.

My situation is as follows, I've tried installing 6.1.12 and 6.1.18 and they both crash and fail to load Windows XP Pro with the error message details for information below. I can go back to 6.0.22 and successfully run my Windows XP Pro. However, if there's an overriding reason for upgrading I would like to know that, and then I can decide whether or not to proceed with troubleshooting why 6.1.18 is crashing.

For information only at this time. I’m not asking for help with this problem until I know what I might gain from updating to 6.1.18 from 6.0.22:

Failed to open a session for the virtual machine Windows XP Pro SP3.
Not in a hypervisor partition (HVP=0) (VERR_NEM_NOT_AVAILABLE).
VT-x is disabled in the BIOS for all CPU modes (VERR_VMX_MSR_ALL_VMX_DISABLED).
Result Code: E_FAIL (0x80004005)
Component: ConsoleWrap
Interface: IConsole {872da645-4a9b-1727-bee2-5585105b9eed}

Many thanks for your time and expertise,
Gary S

That error means either your computer's "virtualization technology" (VT-x / AMD-V / SVM) is not on in the BIOS or Hyper-V is active. Go through everything in:

I have a 64bit host, but can't install 64bit guests

6.0.x could get by without "virtualization technology", but 6.1.x requires it, which is probably why upgrading to 6.1.x fails on your PC.

There wouldn't be any major reason to upgrade Virtualbox unless a new feature is needed, a security hole is found, or the host OS forces it. You can watch the change log if you want, to see how things develop.

A printer can be shared over a Bridged or Host-Only network between the host OS and the VM. The printer also needs drivers for the VM's OS. Alternatively, print to PDF and pass the PDF to the host OS.