Removing/Uninstalling "Host-only Network" and "Bridged Networking Driver" that I Originally Selected

[spaceman]

Hi all


The Host machine that this thread is about, is based on Windows XP SP3.
I am currently in the process of tidying it up.

Years ago, I installed VirtualBox on it,
the version that is still running (very well) on it is v4.2.6.

Originally, when installing, I chose to include the 2 Networking Items:
- Host-only Network
- Bridged Networking Driver

And indeed they were installed.

In reality, I never use those 2 Networking types.


So I would like to Remove them.

My question is:
One simple way to remove them, would've been:
1) Uninstall VirtualBox
2) Reinstall VirtualBox, this time Deselecting the above 2 Networking types.

But because this is a Windows XP host, I don't know If I should do an Uninstall + Install on it,
who knows what might happen.. I don't want to ruin anything.

So before I go that route, maybe there's another way to safely and cleanly remove those 2, without an Uninstall+Reinstall?


Thank you very much

[scottgus1]

In reality, I never use those 2 Networking types.

If it aint broke, don't fix it. Your computer will not suffer for having these features that you don't use. You'll suffer when you one day want or need them.

One simple way to remove them, would've been:
1) Uninstall VirtualBox
2) Reinstall VirtualBox, this time Deselecting the above 2 Networking types.

This is the only safe way.

who knows what might happen.. I don't want to ruin anything.

A 3rd-party host disk image, tested to be restorable, will help protect against this and a litany of other problems on the old PC. Macrium Reflect Free is good on Windows, and you may be able to download an older version (5 or 6) for your XP host PC.

[spaceman]

This is the only safe way.

Wow, OK..
So I'll do it this way.

A 3rd-party host disk image, tested to be restorable, will help protect against this and a litany of other problems on the old PC.

Of course.

I use Norton Ghost..
And I did plan to make a Ghost Image before doing anything, of course.

OK so Uninstall + Install of VirtualBox.


Thank you very much

BTW, since I Uninstall and then Reinstall, should I also install the latest version of VirtualBox for Windows XP SP3?
(I asked what is the latest version for XP, in another thread)

[scottgus1]

I'm not sure when XP stopped being a supported host OS. You could try loading the PDF of the manual:

https://download.virtualbox.org/virtual ... Manual.pdf

Change the "6.1.28" to versions that were earlier, like 5.2.44, 4.3.40, etc. and look at section 1.4 for supported host OS.s for that version.

Since you were running 4.2.6 on this host, you haven't faced Virtualbox hardening, which started implementation in 4.3.14. 4.3.12 was the last version that was not hardened, and supports XP hosts.

[spaceman]

I'm not sure when XP stopped being a supported host OS. You could try loading the PDF of the manual:
Change the "6.1.28" to versions that were earlier, like 5.2.44, 4.3.40, etc. and look at section 1.4 for supported host OSes for that version.

Thank you, good idea.

Since you were running 4.2.6 on this host, you haven't faced Virtualbox hardening, which started implementation in 4.3.14.
4.3.12 was the last version that was not hardened, and supports XP hosts.

I see..

Maybe since the difference between my version (v4.2.6) and the last non-hardened one (v4.3.12) isn't huge,
then maybe I should not even update.

I will read the Version History just in case, to see if there's a really useful feature that is worth it.


Thank you very much,
will prepare the Ghost Image and then try Uninstalling+Reinstalling.

[scottgus1]

Hardening took several versions to pin down, and it finally settled on looking at the injecting dlls' security certificates. Based on pulling up manuals, the last XP-host-supporting version is 4.3.40, though later versions may work. You could try a version later than 4.3.12 and you might not have hardening issue. If you do, you could go back to 4.3.12.

[mpack]

Based on pulling up manuals, the last XP-host-supporting version is 4.3.40, though later versions may work.

XP host support was officially withdrawn with the introduction of 5.0.x, but I had an XP host at that time so I know that 5.0.x did in fact work. However, soon after I upgraded to Win7-64bit because I was finding the memory limitations of a 32bit host a bit of a problem for VMs and 3D CAD: so I can't tell you how long unofficial XP host support lasted for.

I believe 6.0.0 is when 32bit versions of VirtualBox were discontinued, so definitely no possibility of running v6 on a normal XP host.