What permissions required to install VB Host-Only adapter?

[Mitch Kent]

Hi,

I am trying to install a VirtualBox VM on all of my colleagues machines, one of which is giving weird problems - The VirtualBox installer doesn't seem to have installed it's network adapter/services.

It turns out, he doesn't have a certain access permission that the rest of us do, and it is preventing VirtualBox from programmatically allowing adapter installation. It also manifests itself as not allowing us to manually install a network service on his machine. He has, according to our sysadmin, the same user profile as the rest of the team, which gives admin rights.

Following the steps below, I am able to install a service to a network adapter (or at least open the selection window):

Control Panel > By Category > Network and Internet: View network status and tasks > Change adapter settings > Local Area Connection: Right click to properties > Install > Select "Service" > Click "Add" ... ... ...

On my machine, I have a window pop up "Select network service" On my colleague's machine, He has an access denied error message.

I can supply screenshots if required (or logs if there is a specified location), but I am not currently at his machine.

So, my question: How do I find out where this permission is set, and change it? Are there any areas on the filesystem or in the registry that may affect permissions here?

Many thanks, Mitch.

NB: This is duplicated on the SuperUser Stack Exchange site here, however as a new member I can not post links...: {superusersite}/questions/748514/where-to-find-the-permission-or-policy-to-allow-installation-of-network-adapter

[Perryg]

I'd say you have a lazy system admin. If you are receiving permission issues it is the host that is denying request and that is where you must look for the cure.

[Mitch Kent]

Ha - well I watched him work on it for a while, he certainly wasn't lazy and all the permissions we know of that allow it are set the same as mine... But yes, I know it's definitely a host issue and not a VB issue, but I figured it was maybe something someone else had come across. Was just asking in hope...

[mpack]

As far as I can tell, you haven't yet said what the host OS is. 32bit and 64bit Windows have very different permissions issues, and Win8 is very different from Win7 or Vista or XP.

[Mitch Kent]

As far as I can tell, you haven't yet said what the host OS is. 32bit and 64bit Windows have very different permissions issues, and Win8 is very different from Win7 or Vista or XP.

Apologies mpack - I had attempted to write it in the subject, but ran out of letters, and then forgot to include it below. It is Win7 64b.

[mpack]

To install VirtualBox on a Win7+ 64bit host you should use "Run as adminstrator" to run the installer in the correct user account (don't switch to the "Admin" user account as that's a different user). There is also a separate feature called Driver Signature Enforcement which is independant of admin rights, you need to make sure that this is not set to silently discard non-Microsoft drivers (e.g. the host-only adapter driver). It should at the very least prompt you for permission to install.

[Mitch Kent]

...There is also a separate feature called Driver Signature Enforcement which is independant of admin rights....

Many thanks mpack - We tried running as the user Administrator after trying just running "Run as administrator" and neither has sufficed. The Driver Signature Enforcement you mention however is a separate entity which I haven't checked, and I have forwarded on to the sysadmin to see what he says. It is things like this that I'm guessing/hoping are to blame. Thanks for the suggestion.