virtualbox.org

OS: Win 8.1 Pro x64


I had been putting off updating VirtualBox to 4.3.26 for some time now and decided to do it this morning. After the update I first noticed that my network connection had stopped working. I was connected to my home network, but could not access the internet. After attempting to repair this issue for about a half hour (without making any other changes to my system) I restarted and that was when everything stopped working. It took much longer than usual to log in to my account and when my desktop finally loaded, it was completely empty except for the background image. I could see the little Windows icon in the bottom left, but I could not click anything or bring up a prompt. My task bar (which is muddled with icons) was blank and opaque. Eventually my icon tray loaded, but all I could see was my disconnected network icon. Every so often a dialog box saying Windows has stopped working popped up. I clicked to end the process and a while later it would happen again. The mouse was stuck as an hourglass.

After many restarts and an hour of waiting and trying to repair my system I managed to complete a system restore.

I am a student programmer and I need a virtual machine so I can program in different OS environments. I have used VirtualBox at school for a little less than a year now (never had an issue, so not familiar with "fixing" VirtualBox problems), but it is on Windows 7 computers. I have to admit I am afraid of continuing my use of VirtualBox at this point on my home computer. Should I continue to ignore the update and go about my business as usual?

Any thoughts on this issue will be appreciated! Let me know if you need anymore information.

Here: viewtopic.php?f=1&t=66656 a few folks reported a similar issue with 4.3.26 and Windows 8.1

Try disabling your antivirus and installing again. Or use 4.3.12 on machines you really need to have running. 4.3.12 is the last non-security-hardening version, and will run up to Windows 10 and all but the most recent versions of Linux that came out in the last few months. Caveat: there is no security hardening, so be sure your host hasn't got any malware and remains free of it if you go with 4.3.12.