VirtualBox 7.6.2 on Windows issue after update

I’ve now run into the same VirtualBox issue twice, so it’s clearly worth documenting.

The pattern is always the same:

1. VirtualBox receives an update.

2. I install it on Windows.

3. During installation, a couple of minor issues appear (driver warnings, permission prompts, etc.), but those are usually resolved by re-running the installer or starting VirtualBox as Administrator.

4. VirtualBox and the Extension Pack install successfully.

5. Existing Linux guest VMs refuse to start.

The last time, the error looked like this:

“VBoxManage.exe: error: Details: code E_FAIL (0x80004005), component MachineWrap, interface IMachine”

Googling (and LLM-ing) this error is mostly useless. The advice is vague, repetitive, and usually boils down to “reinstall VirtualBox” or “check permissions”. Rolling back VirtualBox to the previous version didn’t help either.

The actual root cause

What finally cracked the case was noticing the state of the VM before the update.

Before installing the update, my guest VM was in an Aborted state. It had frozen at some point, and I killed it instead of shutting it down cleanly. Without restarting the VM, I went ahead and updated VirtualBox.

In that situation, VirtualBox creates and keeps a file here:

C:\Users\<USER>\.VirtualBox\VirtualBox.xml-prev

After the update, this file prevents the new VirtualBox version from starting the VM at all.

Deleting that file immediately fixed the issue. The VM started normally again.

One more file to watch out for

In addition, I also found a file with a .pre extension in the VM directory:

C:\Users\<USER>\VirtualBox VMs\<VM NAME>\<VM NAME>\

I deleted this file as well. I’m not 100% certain whether it must be removed to fix the problem, because I deleted it first and it didn’t help on its own. Only after removing VirtualBox.xml-prev did everything start working.

Still, it’s worth checking and cleaning up both.

Takeaway

If you update VirtualBox on Windows and suddenly your existing VM refuses to start:

• Check whether the VM was in Aborted state before the update

• Delete:

  • C:\Users\<USER>\.VirtualBox\VirtualBox.xml-prev

  • Any suspicious .pre files in the VM directory

• Then start VirtualBox again

This is one of those issues where everything looks broken, error messages are meaningless, and the fix turns out to be deleting a single leftover state file.

I have a lot of respect for the guys behind VirtualBox.
But honestly… God damn.