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Brand new to Virtualbox and it's amazing what it can do.

I created a Windows 7 guest under a Windows 7 Host. Everthing works... network, USB, Folders... except there was no COM port created. There's an LTP1 port, but nothing else.

When I first created the Guest I did not set up the serial port under settings for the guest... is that why there is no COM port?

The Host has a COM port.

Do I need to try creating a new guest?

I've tried to create a COM port in the guest but Windows 7 Professional displays an "Add Devices" screen and it just sits there looking for new stuff. There's no manual add available. Any ideas? Thanks.

I'll try to "Add a Legacy Device", but I thought I tried looking for that earlier today... couldn't see the COM port section. I'll have another look tomorrow and post back.

I've installed a com port, no conflicts, but I'm getting an exclamation on a yellow background.

Overall, should the com port have been created when the vm was created?

Went back into the guest, to the com port I installed and un-checked Automatic configuration and then selected configuration 0001. That set up the com port with no conflicts... I re-booted the guest and the port is now working properly.

The reason I did all this is as follows:

I have a USB Barcode Scanner for a fitness centre. It's on a PC that will used for allowing members to enter. However, that PC will also be used for other tasks. Because of the scanner... if I were writing an email, or in another program and someone scanned in, then that barcode would show up in the app. I was currently in. So, I created a VM and with Virtualbox takes control of the scanner so that it's input doesn't affect the host PC.

The scanner feeds it's input in a database I created. The data is verified by the database and if the member is active I send a signal to the PCs serial port to unlock a turnstile gate. That's why I needed the COM port to function.

VB has the USB and the COM port support required to do all this... excellent.