Windows 10: Virtualization suddenly gone? 64bit guest / 64bit host (VirtualBox)

Hopefully somebody here can help me. I've looked around everywhere to find a solution for this issue, but this problem differs from all the threads you can find in many forums around there: it already worked well for me *Sleepy

My problem:
I want to run a 64-bit virtual machine with VirtualBox on my 64-bit host OS (Win 10 Home).
When I created the VM, there was already an option for 64-bit guests in VirtualBox settings, so I installed Windows 64-bit and everything was fine.

Now, apparently after uninstalling McAfee Internet Security with the official Removal Tool, I can't start my 64-bit VM anymore. (but I can't find any McAfee related solutions on Google as well) Instead, I get errors that say the 64-bit guest 'will not be able to boot', Hyper-V virtualization errors, etc. - no wonder, the 64-bit option is suddenly completely gone, when I take a look at the VirtualBox settings. Therefore I can't create or use any 64-bit VM anymore.

After searching for solutions for many hours I have to add the following:

There was never an option for Hyper-V under 'programs and features', I guess because I use the Home edition of Win10 which doesn't include Hyper-V.

In my BIOS there is no option with virtualization, VT,... or any similar option. I googled and it seems like my Acer notebook would enable it by default but locks the option to disable it in the BIOS (like I said, it already worked perfectly)

I can't even get my files from the virtual disk image, because only a 64-bit guest OS can boot with it - afaik. If I could get the files out of there, I would just create a new VM with 32-bit and restore my files there to use it in 32 bit mode.

any more ideas? *Sad


edit: I use avast security now, but I don't think this is the problem.

:)

 

Installing Windows as a guest on a Virtual system (VirtualBox)

Hi,

Which version of Windows 10 professional or Windows 10 Home is best suited to be installed as a guest operating system on a Virtual system ?

The host operating system will be Mac OS (El Capitan) running on a Macbook Pro laptop.

I will be using VirtualBox software for this. I need to know which version of Windows 10, Home or Professional can be installed as the guest OS ?

thanks

a

 

Running Backyard Baseball 2003

Apparently this is a 16bit game (released in '02 which was right at the end of 16bit era ).

The main problem here is with the installer. 16bit installers don't work on 64bit Windows,

but they do work on 32bit Windows.

There is a chance the game will run on 64bit Windows if copied to the 64bit Windows machine after

first installing it to a 32bit machine.

- Failing that you would need to use a Virtual Machine similar to the one below to run the game through.

VirtualBox Overview

- Vintage games that are downloaded from sites such as Good Old Games would have other issues,

as they have been updated to suit modern Windows, but the generally install and run without problems.

.

 

Hi, just next to your post is mine, where on my new custom PC I found the Acceleration tab in Virtualbox greyed out.

I could not install Win 8 as a VM, and got an error about VT-X....... a setting which is under the Acceleration tab.

Like you, I found my UEFI offered no Virtualisation setting.. a dumbed down set of options.
The supplier immediately understood my problem, and said that Virtualisation was normally enabled on their PCs (on many in general it is not). So I sent mine back- they have another identical model where it's working.

What surprises me from your report is that you got as far as installing Win 10 as a VM if that was true in your case. If you also ran it, and the Acceleration tab is not greyed out, that suggests Virtualisation technologies are enabled on your PC. I'm not clear if you got that far.

On that basis looking for Hyper-V will not help (and it's not available in Home as you say).

 

Which antivirus are you using? In my case a different one solved the problem, because avast blocks the virtualization by default.

 

No it doesn't (exactly). The first program that tries to grab it can. If you activate Hyper-V then this will grab it even before the OS loads.

VirtualBox will let you run a 32 bit OS even if Hyper-V is installed as 32bit VM don't require VTx. You can therefore have Hyper-V activated and run a VM at the same time as long as it isn't 64 bit guest. Alternatively you can turn it on and off every boot which is easier than installing/uninstalling Switch easily between VirtualBox and Hyper-V with a BCDEdit boot Entry in Windows 8.1 - Scott Hanselman

If you decide to install some AV (which loads early) it could theoretically take control of the VTx in the same way. The answer is quite simply not to. Run WD (or nothing) on your host.

If you are doing something dodgy in a VM and think installing Norton or McAfee or whatever would give you better protection do it there in the VM.

I run WD on my host (just the default) and nothing on VMs (to make them quicker) but it depends what you do really. I've been considering disabling WD on host but don't need the performance gain yet so I've not.

 

That could be it indeed.. I do have Avast installed. Hmm, I wonder if they'll pick that up? Shame I didn't know that-- it's just arrived there today. That's definitely not an obvious thing to think of. I suppose logically I should have tried it with a clean boot etc.. but having taken several hours to understand the issue everything was suggesting BIOS/UEFI vs Virtualbox.

But I didn't have both Hyper-V and VirtualBox installed.. and couldn't get as far as completing Windows installation in my VM. Thanks.

 

Your problem was different I think.

You said the supplier made the firmware wrong and couldn't change it.

You can check your cpu with coreinfo. After that it is Firmware (BIOS) or system state programs (kernel, drivers and so on, not user programs) that can change it.

 

Interesting then that I configured my VM as 32 bits and tried to install Win 8 32 bits and got a VT-x..... error.

 

I did check- The CPU does and the PC should support virtualisation, confirmed as you suggest and one at the supplier definitely does. At present it's an unproven assumption by me and tech guy at the supplier that the BIOS setting is somehow wrong, which would suggest an inconsistency in motherboards.

So we'll see what they say!

 

I don't know what you did exactly - perhaps you had VTx turned on in VBox settings.

You definitely can however run 32 bit VM on VBox with Hyper-V enabled whereas a 64 bit you can not.

This is going on a tangent though from the OP's question though - I thought your problem was with firmware and you were being sent a new laptop.

 

Avast & virtualisation:
Avast 2015 BLOCKS Hardware-Assisted Virtualization !!! Yes it does !!!
= yes it does block it according to that.

However, post is 2014, so maybe things have moved on...?

I couldn't access the VT-x setting in Virtualbox 'cos the Acceleration tab was greyed out.. it's under that, and greyed out 'cos hardware assisted virtualisation was not enabled/blocked by Avast.

 

Hi there

I've long said on these Forums that most AV (if not all) software is NOT NECESSARY for Windows 10 --the built in security is more than good enough these days. 3rd party AV software tends to make the machine run slow - or even break it. - You are much more likely to fall victims to SCAMS on the Internet these days(no AV program can prevent you being a victim to those) than get a serious virus on your machine.

Actually it's still possible to run a 64 bit GUEST even on a 32 bit HOST provided the VT feature is enabled - which it usually is on most decently recent systems. Restriction of course is that GUEST and HOST together can't use more than 4GB RAM.

I tested out a Windows 7 x-64 ultimate VM a while ago running on an XP machine which I hadn't upgraded --Intel VT was enabled --worked fine !!!! --Using VMware workstation but the same conditions should apply to VBOX.

Cheers
jimbo

 

Just a quick O.T.: Antivirus clearly use CPU time in a way or another but it is my understanding that Windows 10 Windows Defender could not be able to handle sophisticated Ransomware. Since also AV often cannot detect them heuristically, at least using Cryptoprevent in the Default -Set and Forget mode (if you do not want troubles), and some other free anti-ransomware and anti-exploits could be a smart choice (e.g. Bitdefender Anti-Ransomware and Malwarebytes Anti-Exploit). Clearly all the usual suggestions to update your Java 8.xx and Flash apply. Just my 2 cents of this off topic...

Aside that, I had the same experience with 32 bit Host and 64 Guests running VMWare Workstations and I agree with jimbo.