Windows 8.1 / latest vbox + vboxvmservice

[jakke]

I just installed VirtualBox (latest version, updated) and I installed a few virtual machines in there, all running on Windows 8.1 x64 Enterprise.
Some are fresh installs, some taken over from VMware workstation. All are/were working fine.

Then I installed vboxvmservice, latest stable version from sourceforge. I set the service up with a vboxuser (not my normal account), I edited the .ini file to start up 1 VM as a test. Initially there was a problem because the example VM in the ini file was not erased. After correcting it and rebooting again, the service started automatically and the machine was reachable via ssh.

Now I do have a problem because I can't start up VirtualBox anymore (the manager). I always get the error
Failed to create the VirtualBox COM object.
The application will now terminate.
Details:
Callee RC: CO_E_SERVER_EXEC_FAILURE
(0x80080005)

The only things I've changed with the install of vboxvmservice is the installation path, C:\Program Files\Oracle\vms (just to keep it together with VirtualBox) and the Windows shutdown time (both in .ini and the registry, according to the howto).
Is there any known cure for this problem?

VBoxVmService.log:
<snip>
01/08/2014, 20:53:49 - VBoxVmService stopped.
01/08/2014, 20:55:43 - C:\Program Files\Oracle\vms\VBoxVmService64.exe
01/08/2014, 20:55:43 - C:\Program Files\Oracle\vms\VBoxVmService.ini
01/08/2014, 20:55:43 - C:\Program Files\Oracle\vms\VBoxVmService.log
01/08/2014, 20:55:43 - VBoxVmService started.
01/08/2014, 20:55:50 - List all the VMs found by VBoxVmService
01/08/2014, 20:55:50 - VM0: CentOS-x64 is powered off.
01/08/2014, 20:55:56 - VM CentOS-x64 has been started up.

VboxVmService.ini:
[Settings]
VBOX_USER_HOME=C:\Users\jan\.VirtualBox
RunWebService=no
PauseShutdown=15000

[Vm0]
VmName=CentOS-x64
ShutdownMethod=acpipowerbutton
AutoStart=yes

[jakke]

There is a work-around for this problem I just found out...
shutting down the VM(s), disabling the service, rebooting and starting up the vbox manager, doing whatever needs to be done, re-enabling the service, rebooting and so on.
I can hardly imagine this is the way it's designed to be. Still looking for a solution

[socratis]

I can hardly imagine this is the way it's designed to be.

vboxvmservice is not a program designed/developed/supported by the VirtualBox developers.

[jakke]

Yes, thank you for your reply.
I do realize this, but there's a whole community on this forum. Can't I assume that someone may have a similar problem and know what to do about it?

[socratis]

I should have included this in my previous reply. There is a dedicated thread (about 25 pages long) that deals with VBoxVMService...

[christ2]

Also experiencing this error, Win8.1 host, latest version VBox

[noteirak]

There is a dedicated thread (about 25 pages long) that deals with VBoxVMService...

Also locking this topic as it is redundant.