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Only Fang edited this page Jan 12, 2023 · 5 revisions

The open source virtualization software VirtualBox was lacking an option to run virtual machines as a Windows service entity. VBoxVmService does the trick!

Known Issues:

  1. VboxVmService calls VirtualBox by COM API interface. Due to compatibility changes in VirtualBox SDKs, each VBoxVmService is only compatible with VirtualBox versions that use the same API interface. More specifically,

    • VboxVmService 3.0 will only work on VirtualBox 4.0.X and 4.1.X;
    • VboxVmService 3.1 and 4.0 will only work on VirtualBox 4.2.X;
    • VboxVmService 4.1 will only work on VirtualBox 4.3.0 and later.
    • VboxVmService 5.0 will only work on VirtualBox 5.0.0 and later.
    • VboxVmService 5.1 will only work on VirtualBox 5.1.0 and later.
    • VboxVmService 5.2 will only work on VirtualBox 5.2.0 and later.
    • VboxVmService 6.0 will only work on VirtualBox 6.0.0 and later.
    • VboxVmService 6.1 will only work on VirtualBox 6.1.0 and later.
    • VboxVmService 7.0 will only work on VirtualBox 7.0.0 and later.
  2. VirtualBox GUI and VBoxVmService can't run together. If you need to start VirtualBox GUI while VBoxVmService is running, refer to Runing VirtualBox GUI together with VBoxVmService.

  3. VBoxVmService, and all the VMs it started, are run as LOCAL SYSTEM user by default installation. This default setting should just work "out of box". If for some reason, you need to run it with other account, you can change the user it run as at Computer Management Console.

    If the user you use is not in Administrator group, you will need to make sure it has enough privilege to access DCOM Component.

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