Oracle VirtualBox VM is one of the best Virtual Machines. It is free and maintained by Oracle. However, recently, many Windows users have reported that the VirtualBox VM fails to start on their System. Therefore, in this article, we will see troubleshooting tips for when the VirtualBox VM is not opening or starting in Windows 11/10.
Lately, after one of the Windows updates, users started noticing that they could not make or run any virtual machines. The exact reason is uncanny, as only Microsoft’s developers know, but missing Hyper-V, driver conflict, etc, can be some of the reasons. That’s why, in this article, we have covered every possible issue fix.
Fix VirtualBox VM is not opening or starting in Windows 11/10
Before looking at the possible fixes, update VirtualBox VM from virtualbox.org and update your Windows. If doing this doesn’t fix the issue, continue reading.
These are the things you can do to fix Virtual Box VM is not opening or starting in Windows 11/10.
- Start Hyper-V
- Disable Driver Enforcement
- Set Paravirtualization Interface to KVM
Let us talk about them in detail.
1] Start Hyper-V
If you are facing this error after an update then chances are the Hyper-V is disabled. So, enable it to fix the error. To enable Hyper-V, you can follow the given steps.
- Launch Control Panel from the Start Menu.
- Go to Programs & Features > Turn Windows features on or off.
- Look for Hyper-V, select it, and click Ok.
This will take some time, so, wait for the process to complete and check if it fixes the error.
Read: Failed to open a session for the virtual machine, The Virtual Machine has terminated unexpectedly during startup with exit code 1 (0x1).
2] Disable Driver Signature Enforcement
As mentioned earlier, the error can be caused by conflicting drivers. Driver Signature Enforcement forbids poorly written and malicious drivers from installing on your computer, and since Virtualbox VM installs its own driver, it can mistake it for a malicious driver.
You can disable Driver Signature Enforcement temporarily to let the application install required drivers. To do that, launch Command Prompt as an administrator and run the following command.
bcdedit.exe /set nointegritychecks on
Now, install the required driver.
To restart the service, run the following command in the Elevated Command Prompt.
bcdedit.exe /set nointegritychecks off
Hopefully, this will fix the error.
You need to know that Driver Signing is a security feature that protects your system and you should consider re-enabling it as soon as it is possible.
Read: VirtualBox Failed to open session for the virtual machine, VT-x is not available (VERR_VMX_MO_VMX), E_FAIL (0x80004005)
3] Set Paravirtualization Interface to KVM
Paravirtualization allows the VM to have a Software Interface. We can try changing it to a Kernel-based Virtual Machine (KVM) and see if it does the trick. So, follow the given step to set the Paravirtualization Interface to KVM.
- Launch Virtualbox VM from the Start Menu.
- Click Settings > System > Acceleration.
- Now, step to set Paravirtualization Interface to KVM and click Ok.
Now, restart your VM and check if it fixes the issue.
Hopefully, you will be able to fix the Virtualbox VM error with the help of these solutions.
Read Next: VirtualBox Failed to open session for the virtual machine.
