Errors starting IE7 app in guest XP (host=Win7)

[pcorchary]

Configuration:
HostOS=Windows 7 SP1 (32bit)
GuestOS=WinXP SP3 (32 bit)
VirtualBox=4.04r70122

Problem
trying to start the guest (XP) version of Internet Explorer (v7) from the Host OS using the following command:

Code: Select all

"F:\Program Files\Oracle\VirtualBox\VBoxManage.exe" guestcontrol execute "WinXP3-IE7"  "C:\Program Files\Internet Explorer\iexplore.exe"  --username myname --arguments "myurl.tld.com"

when I do this, IE7 in the guest open properly, BUT the URL is munged as below

"http://files/Internet%20Explorer/iexplo ... rl.tld.com"

After a lot of time fiddling with this, I tried making a copy of IE in the guest at the root-level of "C:\", and they using the URL as below.
THIS WORKS PERFECTLY.

Code: Select all

"F:\Program Files\Oracle\VirtualBox\VBoxManage.exe" guestcontrol execute "WinXP3-IE7"  "C:\iexplore.exe"  --username myname --arguments "myurl.tld.com"

Conclusion
... there is 'something' weird about how VB is passing the command to the guest that puts part (and only part) of the command passed onto the URL bar for IE.

Does anyone have any thoughts about this, or suggest a way to fix it?

[odyniec]

Same problem here. I have a shell script that I use to run Internet Explorer on VB from host command line, and after the last VB update it stopped passing arguments to IE (so it ignored the URL in the script and always started with the homepage). Looking for an explanation, I found this ticket: http://www.virtualbox.org/ticket/8010, which says the problem has been fixed in a recent Guest Additions release. So I updated the Guest Additions to the latest version, and now I'm having the exact same problem as you.

It appears the program path is parsed incorrectly, and everything following the first space is passed as program arguments -- so if the program path is "C:\Program Files\Internet Explorer\iexplore.exe", IE gets "Files\Internet Explorer\iexplore.exe" as arguments, and tries to use that as the URL.

Apparently that issue wasn't fixed properly -- I'm going to file another ticket. Until this gets fixed, I guess we're stuck with the workaround that you suggested, i.e. copying the executable to a location that doesn't require spaces in the path.

[pcorchary]

That's good information, thanks! Glad to know I'm not nutty . If you happen to get notified when your bug is worked, please update here.

[odyniec]

This is the bug report that I filed: http://www.virtualbox.org/ticket/8501

[vbox4me2]

What if you use 8.3 naming?

[jorgensen]

What if you use 8.3 naming?

Auugh what is that - OK - at the command prompt write dir /x to get folder name.
Could be something like C:\PROGRAM~1\INTERN~1\IEXPLORE.EXE

[odyniec]

Just checked -- 8.3 naming works. So that's a better workaround, as it doesn't require copying the executable.