virtualbox.org

Does anyone have any experience of losing Windows 7 validation due to Vbox updates.

In December 2013 I installed Win 7 guest on Win 7 host and had to validate the installation by phone which then reported the Guest as genuine, this worked thro 2014, however for some reason since Christmas the Guest reported that the installation was not genuine. I have just re-validated the Win 7 Guest installation by phone again and all is fine. VirtualBox has been upgraded two or three times during this period which is why I am asking the question regarding Vbox upgrades and Windows validation. Unfortunately my attention was on Linux and Win 10 Guests and did not use the Win 7 Guest until at least two Vbox upgrades had been installed.

At the moment I am running the latest version 4.3.22 with latest extensions but the Guest additions are at 4.3.20, I am a bit nervous of applying Guest additions 4.3.22 to the Win 7 Guest.

Not as a matter of policy, but sometimes there are bugs which can affect hardware signatures visible to the guest. Typically this would be fixed on the next maintenance release after many loud yelps are heard. I'm not aware of any such problem recently.

It would help if you could be specific about what changed: there are tools for XP that can tell you how your hardware has changed. I don't know if similar tools are available for Win7, but it would be worth a Google search.

I take it that guest and host are using separate licenses, because otherwise the two incompatible signatures will compete for activation rights.

Have you made any other changes recently? E.g. changed hosts, or ran Windows Update on the host?

I have not changed Hosts, the Windows 7 Host has been automatically updated as and when MS updates are issued.
In respect to the VBox installation this has also been upgraded as new releases become available including extension packs and guest additions.
Unfortunately I cannot relate the validation issue to a specific change, therefore, now that I am aware of the problem, I will pay more attention to check for any adverse changes.