virtualbox.org

I have two user accounts on my XP host, let's call them "rob" and "fred", both with admin. access.

I installed VB under the "rob" login and proceeded to create a VM and successfully installed XP within it. All OK and love it!

When I login to my host as "fred" I run VB but cannot see the XP VM.
I changed the "home directory" to C:\Documents and Settings\Rob\.VirtualBox under the VB settings but still can't see the VM.
I see in the manual some mention of the VBOX_USER_HOME environment variable but don't know where to change that and I'm not even sure this will enable me to see the VM when logged in as "fred".
There's also a virtualbox.xml file in the home directory but I dare not change anything in it!

So ... can anybody help me so that I can run my VM from whatever host user account I use to login?

Many thanks

If you want to have the VMs available to both users, move the .VirtualBox folder to a common location, e.g. "C:\Virtual Machines". This must include the VirtualBox.xml file, because that's the file where all the VMs are registered. That's also the reason the other user doesn't see those VMs, he has an empty file.
Now, after you moved the folder, go to System Properties (hit Winkey + Pause/Break), go to advanced, then System Variables, or similar name. You have two options there. One changes User Environmental Variables, the other System Environmental Variables. Set the VBOX_USER_HOME in one of them, with the value of the new VM folder. If you set it as a UEV, don't forget to do the same for the other user.
Now start VB and enjoy your shared VMs.

Thanks Sasquatch but that (creating "C:\Virtual Machines") sounds like something I should have done BEFORE creating my XP VM. Am I right?

Can't I just change the UEV for user "fred" to: C:\Documents and Settings\Rob as you've described ?
("fred" also has admin rights)

No, that is not advised. You have a personal folder for a reason. And if you make it a 'personal' folder, it doesn't matter if you're admin or not, you won't be able to access it.

Changing it after you created a VM is not an issue. Just do it, and if you encounter any issues, change the paths in the VirtualBox.xml to full paths and try again. You might need to change the paths in the VM specific xml file, but nothing will be lost.