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Dear VirtualBox Power Users --

Please help.

I am wondering-- How can one tell if Guest Additions are installed correctly?

I suspect they are not installed correctly (or not at all) because certain features are not working as it seems they should, such as clipboard-sharing, shared-folders, and seamless-mode.

Here is what I have done so far.

- Got the file "VBoxGuestAdditions_5.0.2.iso" and put it in "C:\Save\" on the VM and made sure that version matches the version of VirtualBox that I am running.

- Note that the VM is Windows 8.1 64bit and the Host is Windows 10 64bit.

- On the VM, I went to "Windows Explorer" and right-clicked on the ISO file, choose "Mount", and ran the installer for 64bit.

- I let the installer run, it finished without apparent error, and I reboot as it required.

- The VM now looks (and behaves) the same.

So my main question here is-- How can one tell if Guest Additions are installed correctly?

Please advise.

Thanks.

-- Mark Kamoski

mkamoski wrote: Here is what I have done so far.

- Got the file "VBoxGuestAdditions_5.0.2.iso" and put it in "C:\Save\" on the VM and made sure that version matches the version of VirtualBox that I am running.

I don't know why you did that. The GAs are bundled with the normal software installation. Details of how to install are given in great detail in the user manual (section 4.2). All you have to do is, while the VM is running, choose Device|Insert Guest Additions CD.... If the guest OS does autorun then the GAs installer will launch as soon as the CD is mounted. Otherwise you have to manually start the installer (Win7 and later does not enable autorun by default, so you have to manually execute <cd>:\VBoxWindowsAdditions.exe).

You can tell that the GAs are installed in the guest because a little icon on the guest taskbar notification area tells you so. If you hover the mouse cursor over this icon it will tell you the GAs version number. Unlike the extension pack it is not vital that VirtualBox and GAs version numbers match, however it is usually a bad idea to have GAs version newer than the host VirtualBox version.

I just discovered that if you attempt to install them again, you'll get a message telling you that they have been installed, and further explanation. Perhaps that is "good enough" to indicate they've been installed correctly?

Yes, if moving the mouse over the status bar is too hard, that should certainly work

All --

FYI, it seems that I have found the issue that was causing VirtualBox Guest Additions to not work on Windows 8.1 for me, which was causing Seamless Mode to be unavailable and was causing clipboard sharing to not work, and etc.

While investigating something else, I happened to launch the Windows 8.1 Task Manager, and I was browsing the Startup tab there, and I noticed this...

VirtualBox Guest Additions Tray Application with Status = Disabled

...well, I had not seen that item until now, so I definitely did not set it to Disabled manually, so maybe Windows was being "safe" and installed it but did not enable it, or something, but...

...the happy news is that I simply Enabled that Tray Application and rebooted the VM and now everything works just fine.

Thanks for all your helps and hints and etc.

-- Mark Kamoski

mpack wrote:You can tell that the GAs are installed in the guest because a little icon on the guest taskbar notification area tells you so.

mpack --

Regarding the little icon that you mention, it was not there.

Apparently, the Tray App itself was installed but initialized to "disabled".

See my post above for details.

Regardless, thanks for your information because that got me onto the question-- Why isn't there a tray icon for the VirtualBox Guest Additions?

As it is, the problem is solved, as I note above, etc.

Thanks.

-- Mark Kamoski

TexARC wrote:I just discovered that if you attempt to install them again, you'll get a message telling you that they have been installed, and further explanation. Perhaps that is "good enough" to indicate they've been installed correctly?

TexARC --

That is an interesting report.

However, for me, the experience has been different.

If I try to reinstall the VirtualBox Guest Additions, the installer simply lets me continue and repeat the install as if it were the 1st time ever being installed, and it installs without any warning or hint that it is a re-install or already installed, and when it completes it reports that the installation was successful.

However, the culprit, apparently, was actually that the VB GA Tray App itself, which was installed but it was initialized to a "disabled" state.

See my post above for details.

Regardless, thanks for your information because that got me onto the question-- Why can I repeat the install of the VirtualBox Guest Additions without getting any message from the installer stating that they are already installed?

As it is, the problem is solved, as I note above, etc, Guest Additions are installed and working well.

Thanks.

-- Mark Kamoski