virtualbox.org

I have completed my very first VirtualBox installation with out problems.
When I click Start I get a critical error

Failed to create the VirtualBox COM object

The application will now terminate

Errorin C:\Documents an settings\main/VirtualBox\virtualBox.xml (line 3) -- Cannot handle settings '1.2- winows[/b]'.

D:\tinderbox\win-3.2\src\vBox\Main\VirtalBoxImpl.cpp[535] (VirtualBox::init).

The details window says

Resullt Code : E_Fail (0x80004005)
Component: Virtual Box
Interface: IVirtualBox {3f36e024-7fed-4f20-a02c-9158a82b44e6}

I don't know what it is exactly, but try to fix line 3 of your VirtualBox.xml (at first, write windows instead of winows:). If this won't help, try to remove VirtualBox, delete VirtualBox.xml and reinstall.

Sorry - winows was my typo. I will tray the second solution.
Thanks

You say "VirtualBox fails to start", but I assume you really mean that a guest VM failed to start.

As gaga says, it seems you have hosed your VirtualBox.xml file somehow. Did you actually install an operating system into a VM? I.e. does any VM contain enough work to make it worth some effort to preserve?

If you do not want to preserve any existing VM, then after uninstalling VirtualBox you should delete your <User>\.VirtualBox folder as well. That ensures that all errant xml files are gone, which a simple VBox uninstall/reinstall will not do.

If you want to preserve a VM, and that VM does not use snapshots, then do as above, but copy the .VDI files to safety before you start. Later you will recreate the VMs from scratch, but when it comes to the disk creation step you select "Use existing" and select your old VDI file.

If you want to preserve a VM, and that VM uses snapshots - then you are out of luck. I don't know of a practical solution that anyone not an expert could use. However if people have any sense they won't have used snapshots anyway, so we don't need to worry about this scenario...

I changed the name of VirtualBox.xml so that start up would not recognise it and everything worked up until installation of Ubuntu I will report if this works OK

Windows Xp does not seem so when it is installed on the primary partition. Make sure you have a copy of winload Xp.exe in the \ windows \ system32 \ winload Xp.exe in each partition. Thats what I had to do to circumvent the problem itself.

Thanks for your reply.

My solution "I changed the name of VirtualBox.xml so that start up would not recognise it and everything worked up until installation of Ubuntu I will report if this works OK"

I have since used Virtual box successfully and have had it up and running.