Changing the UUID on VM (XP host & guest)

[Foxy1]

How do I find the place to input the necessary commands to change the UUID on an XP guest (also XP host)? How do I change it?

[mpack]

A VM has several UUIDs, and the procedure varies for each one. Which UUID do you want to change, and why?

Changing the UUID of the host? You'll have to explain that too.

[Foxy1]

Thankyou mpack.
I want to load several new programs onto a VM(s) so that I can move them again later to another host (e.g. Ubuntu) without having to re-register them with the supplier. I do not know which UUIDs to change (I guess all of them), or how to do so starting from the C:. Would this procedure differ using Win7 (guest &/or host). The programs only run on Windows. I may have to change the UUIDs of the host because I downloaded the programs on a work computer.

[mpack]

Hosts don't have a UUID that I know of. Also, most UUIDs used by the VirtualBox on the host are for the benefit of the VirtualBox host application and are not visible to the guest. The only exception is the machine UUID which defaults to being the same as the VM UUID, and is reflected into the guest using DMI. You can override this using "VBoxManage modifyvm --hardwareuuid" - you can Google for previous discussions of this feature (use "site:forums.virtualbox.org").

That all said, if I can address the implicit assumption in your question that these UUIDs form the machine signature that a software installer relies on - that is unlikely to be true IMHO. A machine signature is typically (in my experience) taken from CPU type, hd controller type and disk size, onboard NIC type, MAC address etc. Some of these can't be faked - and CPU type is directly visible to the guest. Further, if the application specifically wants to test for being in a VM then it can do that too, and again it can't be faked.

[Foxy1]

Where do Ifind VBoxManage? I am not trained & this is a steep learning curve.

Re: Para.2: Yes that was the implicit assumption.

[mpack]

VBoxManage is a command line tool. VBoxManage.exe can be found in the same folder as the other VirtualBox executables, i.e. C:\Program Files\Oracle\VirtualBox. Section 10.1 of the user manual describes where data files are stored.

[Foxy1]

OK, I followed you to the location of the VBox Manage files. I then typed modifyvm . After that I got nowhere with my attempts, and have tried many permutations. I looked at the forum but could not work out the commands to use.I also checked the manual, but did not find it helpful. When I get to VBoxManage modifyvm, what do I type in next? The objective is to change the uuid in the vm.

[mpack]

I already gave you the command to use - "modifyvm --hardwareuuid". Of course you also need to identify the VM to be modified, so the full command is:

Code: Select all

VBoxManage modifyvm "VM name here" --hardwareuuid "{new uuid here}"

I still don't know what you expect to achieve by doing this.

[Foxy1]

Thank you. The detailed explanation you last posted worked as I was able to follow it.