Unable to install Guest Additions

[DocBrown]

Hello, I have a Windows 11 Pro guest. I was working on an OS problem and uninstalled apps to troubleshoot the issue. While uninstalling Guest Additions, The display became corrupted. I waited awhile and then was forced to reset the VM. When I rebooted Guest Additions appeared to be uninstalled.

When I then installed Guest Additions, the install appeared to work, but after a reboot Guest additions wasn't functional. Guest Additions was listed in Settings > Apps list. But there was no icon in the Taskbar tray. I tried another uninstall which appeared to succeed. This time I deleted the folder D:\Program Files\Oricle\VirtualBox Guest Additions.

The reinstall still was not successful. What can I do to fix it at this point?

All other VM are working fine.

VirtualBox version 7.1.4
Host: Windows 11 Pro.

[multiOS]

From the location of he file you say you deleated, that would be the Guest Additions iso installaer, so, obviously, you will no longer be able to install/update Guest Additions in any VMs without that file, but existing VM installations will be unaffected. You could download the missing Guest Additions iso and place it in the correct location, but the most straightforward 'repair' should be to simply rerun the VirtualBox installer.

FYI: Uninstalling the Guest Additions from within a running VM will cause the screen "corruption" you experienced because the process involves uninstalling the enhanced video drivers currently in use.

[DocBrown]

Thanks for the reply. I wasn't clear about the folder I deleted. I'm attempting to repair the guest. My host installation is fine. The guest is able to install and uninstall the GA.

I'm only having issues with one VM. I'm trying to recover from the botched uninstall of Guest Additions on the VM (something else that I did that trashed the VM).

When I first encountered this the symptoms were no mouse integration and the display window had blank bars on the sides, like the resolution was off. After disabling the graphics driver the black bars went away. Then when I reinstalled the GA, now mouse integration is working, but I am unable to change the display resolution. The setting is greyed out and stuck at 1024 x 768. After reboot, the graphics driver is re-enabled.

Here are some steps I've taken:

• I've run sfc /scannow which found issue that it corrected. now a sfc finds no errors.
  I've run dism /online /cleanup-image /scanhealth. No errors found.
  I've uninstalled and reinstalled Guest Additions from Safe Mode.
  I've performed a Repair Install of Win 11 24 H2. Then installed GA, No change.
  I've uninstalled the Graphics Driver and GA and rebooted, then reinstalled GA. Still no change.
  I've used Revo Uninstaller to uninstall GA and reinstalled. Still unable to change display resolution.

On a VM that has the correct display resolutions, the Display Adapter has the driver: VirtualBox Graphics Adapter (WDDM) installed but the one not working is: Microsoft Basic Display Adapter. So that is the issue but I have been unable to get the correct VB driver to install.

I have knowledge of how to install drivers. But it's late, late I'll pick this up in the morning.