virtualbox.org

Hi

since 4.3.22 to 4.3.28 changes to vbox settings are not saved to the home directory anymore (c:\Users\[username]\.VirtualBox) but only in a special case as i will describe (it did work well in 4.3.20)
i suspect the problem is related to:

"Settings: on Windows host, do not use environment variable HOME at all, the settings location is derived from the user profile directory (bug #7689)"
https://www.virtualbox.org/ticket/7689
and
https://www.virtualbox.org/ticket/4742

in my case, if i open the VBox GUI or if i issue a VboxManage from a cmd window, the settings will be saved to c:\Users\[username]\.VirtualBox
but i have an installer program (wix) that run a console app that issue various VBoxManage commands, such as registering a machine (adding a .vbox file), starting a machine (headless), powering off a machine, etc..
when i look in my installer log file i can see that all VboxManage commands runs successfully, but when the installer finish, no settings appear in c:\Users\[username]\.VirtualBox, so all my "changes" are gone.
i've tried to remove the settings folder, and when the installer is done, no settings file is created at all.

it seems that VboxManage commands runs fine, but the settings are not persistent to the settings folder (maybe VBoxSvc??? to blame, or the state/permissions the installer is running which 4.3.22 ignore somehow)
if i run my installer against VBox 4.3.20 all is good (and it was tested on a few thousands machines)

i do have HOMEDRIVE & HOMEPATH variables defined on my machine

please advice.

Update: 23/6/15:
After enabling release logs, i found out that the logs & settings are now saved in the system profile account folder (C:\Windows\system32\config\systemprofile\.VirtualBox).
i can only guess that my wix installer custom action is running under the LocalSystem account which results in the settings & logs to be saved to this folder.
then, the main Vbox ui when opened is looking into the user profile settings folder and don't see these changes.

this behavior was different until 4.3.20, and it seems very drastic for a minor release

is there anyway i can still direct my settings to be saved into the user folder? maybe allow the previous behavior to be optional?

This is all related to the user context under which you run the program. If you run the program in an UAC-enabled Windows and you accept the elevation right prompt, or simply be right clicking and "Running as Administor", then yes all these changes will end up in the system profile. That's also true if you run as a service, or via some remote command, or anything of the like.

If you want to ensure all the settings end up in your personal VirtualBox config, set the VBOX_USER_HOME env variable as described in the User Manual.

i've run my installer custom action which runs the VBoxManage commands with impersonation to the current user and it did the work fine (all settings are now save to the current user).
however, in case this makes issues, using VBOX_USER_HOME might help

Thanks for the help