virtualbox.org

You guys at developing virtualbox!!! Why Is so difficult for you to delete old drivers when a new version is installed and stuff left over in the system.
Just bloating it with more and more files as the times flows. It is not about the space taken by the files it is just about the software and its installer
does not so its work. i have yet to try and uninstall vbox to see if there are traces left after its done my guess is that there are things left behind.
WHY CAN'T YOU DO THIS? You could at lest put a checkbox with "Delete all traces" as an option. WHY IS THAT SO HARD TO DO????

Why do i have to get external software to be able to do this because this is not a tool included in windows !!!

Moving out of Suggestions because you're going to need to provide evidence to support your assertion, and attachments can't be posted in Suggestions.

Virtualbox does leave its data files behind (the global config files and the VMs). These need to stay behind to allow updating Virtualbox without killing off the VMs and other setup, or for logging the old version's operation vs the new installation.

Some of the five .sys files from Virtualbox that get installed in "C:\Windows\System32\drivers" may be held onto by Windows so strongly that Virtualbox cannot delete or overwrite them during an uninstall or update.

Please post screenshots or directory listings of the files that you find being 'left behind'.

I attached a screenshot where there are leftover of old driver in a folder after every upgrade it just keeps piling on

also another suggestion is for vbox to remember where it was installed and use the same folder for the upgrade and it soes not

i can understad the where the created files like vm's and vdi's because these file are known places by the user and can easily be deleted

you can at least give the option to delete files when it is uninstalled leave it unchecked so i can put it there if wanted

howcome others software can delete old drivers and not yours , to me it looks you dont care about it because you know whats best for me.

is it like it was long time ago we are software engineers and we know how it supposed to work, made by engineers for enginners and not the users
if a storm blows up u might listen to the users

I do not have an extra computer at the moment so i could check what is left over after an uninstall but i bet the drivers would still be there

That definitely is a lot of leftover drivers! I can understand how you'd be frustrated.

The names of the files show me you are referring to the Guest Additions. I also discover in my tests that repeated installs of Guest Additions will leave these driver files behind. However, I am not sure if this is Virtualbox behavior or Windows behavior. Yes, other softwares may be able to delete things out of this folder, but there could be a reason why Virtualbox cannot, or it could be an oversight or a bug. I've never heard of this problem in my years of being on the forum. The forum gurus may have some thoughts on it.

However, I'd like to tell you something and ask you to do something:

We are not the devs here on the forum. We are fellow Virtualbox users who volunteer our time to help fellow Virtualbox users like you. So we do not deserve the vitriolic snot you've been spouting above, while describing the problem you've seen. It is definite with me that I have never heard about your problem. The devs may not know about it either. And the devs certainly have no desire to overrule your interests in your own computer or lack care about your computer's health.

Please read https://xkcd.com/1216/ , realize that your words are not harmless, and engage with us in a calm peaceful manner, and we will continue to do so too. And we'll help you solve your problem.

Come at us again with the personal attacks, and I'll ban you. This is your only and final warning: profit from it.

i was never accusing any of you here at the forum let me clearify that

i was just wondering how this could have passed then by not noticing these things for so long
if these issues are in the 6.1.xx versions they most like exist in the earlier versions as well.
i cant tell about the because i wa using other virtulization soft.

also one other is the installation folder how vbox does not remember where is was installed, so
every update it has to be told where to install i cant be the only one who want a different install folder.

there is an app called "DriverStore Explorer" which does delete the old versions of installed drivers
it is not a native app of win32 it uses .net. so i am not keen on installing . .net i am not sure on how heavy
it is on the megabytes just to delete half of that it sort of a stupid idea

so there are ways to delete old drivers. on xp there is no tool delete drivers like on w7 where pnputil exists
though i never used it because i learned about it recently, i would guess "DriverStore Explorer" works on w8
but i am not a user of that so much on w10 it works good and w11 i cant tell because i am no user of it but i
would guess it works there as well

so it cant be done is sort not an excuse because its being done with this app, i dont know if other apps exist
they could very vell do that.

sorry about missing commas and big letters.

i figured this one lately i have had a w10 guest with 1600x900 and stated it twice from sleep and it had a tiny
window from start thats kinda interesting running on a screen 1920x1080 SORRY i forgot to mention that this is from a saved session

i am also developping a clipboard recorder app and when i have used guest with w10 and host to guest clipboard
while using my app it kind of steals my copied clipboards making them not to appear

i am attaching full source and a x64 binary to try with it is made visual studio 2022

This appears to have been standard Windows behaviour ever since the release of Windows Vista, rather than a problem with VirtualBox, or any other software. See: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/window ... iver-store especially the last paragraph which states:

Once files are staged to the Driver Store, they should not be removed or modified in any way....

well windows doesnt not suprise me at all when it comes to stuff like this to just put stuff on the pile and let it be there.

i just wonder what to do if a a driver is installed thats causing issues (bluescreen) and being uninstallable
is the only way to reinstall windows then, the stupidity just puzzles me with this.

p.s.
i have had issues with this
i did a clean install of w10 and every time it downloaded nvidia whcih caused bluescreen when it started to get a bit heavyish use
i think i did at 7-10 clean installs before i thought i just need to download latest driver and install that one
and after that laptop is very stable even under heavy processor use and hard disk use

sphinxios wrote:i was never accusing any of you here at the forum let me clearify that

That's really appreciated. But keep in mind that the devs don't deserve to be accused of anything either. There is no evidence that anyone on Earth knows about this issue except you and me yet. It is wise to avoid judging motive until all the evidence is in.


The way to tell the devs about this bug/oversight is by posting on the Bugtracker. I think an MSI log of the Guest Additions installer run, attached to the Bugtracker ticket, will help the devs figure out what happened. Could simply be a glitch in the installer script.

There is a logging switch /I that is supposed to turn on logging in the Guest Additions installer, but I couldn't get it to work, I'm probably not doing something right. The usual MSI logging that can be enabled in Windows may give some logs through Guest Additions installs that might help the devs pin this down.

Enabling Windows Installer logging:
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-US/troubl ... er-logging

i guess i a out of luck on the one that bothers me the most with drivers piling on
since Microsoft says do not touch the files in drvstore

i reported 3 issues so far

i cant imagine the after using Virtualbox for less then 2 months i found these issues amongst the whole bunch of users.
am i the white crow among the black ones. my guess would be that dont bother to report it, its free so dont complain.