Installing VirtualBox Guest Additions in Windows 7 does nothing

[jceajcea]

NOTE: I already raised this issue in the forum. No luck, nevertheless. The thread is ​https://forums.virtualbox.org/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=84071&p=399327#p399327

My host is a 8GB Ubuntu 16.04 running VirtualBox 5.1.26. I have been running a Windows XP guest without problem for the last eight years.

I upgraded my host OS and I don't want to dual boot anymore (Ubuntu/Windows 7), so I copied the relevant harddisks partitions to a VDI image. After messing around a bit with "fdisk" and "grub", I am successfully booting Windows 7 as a guest. Slow running but Nice!. It is a Windows 7 x86-64 guest.

I proceed to uninstall most HP, Adobe, etc, crap, even the ATI video driver, the WIFI driver, etc. I reboot Windows 7 guest and everything works fine except sound (disabled) and network (drivers uninstalled). I insist that windows works fine, although harddisk performance is not stellar. I disabled Security Esencials and Windows Defender too.

After rebooting one more time, I install "VirtualBox Guest Additions" . Install finishes correctly and prompts to reboot. I reboot... and Windows 7 guest is working fine but... with no "VirtualBox Guest Additions", Nothing seems to happen. Host integration is not working and VirtualBox says that there are not guest additions running in the guest. I repeat install (it goes fine) and reboot. Same thing.

Checking the guest harddisk, I see "VirtualBox Guest Additions" directory with 19 files inside the "C:/Program files" directory. Everything seems ok. But the virtual machine is not enabling the Guest Additions.

I wonder if this is a Windows 7 32/64 issue but I lack the knowledge to debug this issue myself.

Please, Help!

Thanks in advance!.

[Frank Mehnert]

Please attach a VBox.log file of such a VM session. It will contain more information if the Guest Additions are installed or not.

[jceajcea]

Log attached.

Guest tool CD attached. Program run. I get prompted to authorize a couple of drivers, I can see the progress in the text window and, finally, I am prompted to reboot the system in order to activate the changes.

Nothing happens, nevertheless. The drivers are present in the guest harddisk, but no icons in the tray, no VBOX processes in the task manager and no guest additions detected in the host virtualbox process.

Maybe would be useful to post the installation text log, if it is accessible somewhere.

After rebooting:

1. There are NO icons related to VirtualBox in the system tray.

2. "control+alt+del" -> task manager. I don't see anything related to Virtualbox at all. I see unexpected processes, though, like an ATI process and several HP services. Unexpected because I supposedly deleted stale drivers from the physical/metal -> virtualbox transition of this windows install. They are not available in the "uninstall software" control panel, though.

[jceajcea]

Many tries, no luck. Instead of trying to virtualize a physical install, I finally did a new install inside virtualbox. Success. Guest tools OK. Let's move on.

Thanks.

[jceajcea]

Sorry, I don't know how to mark this issue as "work for me" or "outdated". Please, somebody "closes" this issue. Thanks.