Windows Guest Additions

Note: All following modifications need Administrator rights in the guest VM! Also, this guide assumes that the directory C:\Temp exists on the guest.

Open the registry editor (regedit.exe) and add the key:

HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\VBoxGuest\LoggingEnabled = 0xFF (REG_DWORD)

There currently is no common / generic way of enabling logging for all guest-side components, e.g. for the auto-logon components (VBoxGINA and VBoxCredProv) there are registry keys which must be used in conjunction with the key above:

Auto-Logon (Windows)

HKLM\SOFTWARE\Oracle\VirtualBox Guest Additions\AutoLogon\LoggingEnabled = 0xFF (REG_DWORD)
HKLM\SOFTWARE\Oracle\VirtualBox Guest Additions\AutoLogon\LoggingLevel = 0xFF (REG_DWORD)

VBoxTray

Set the following system-wide environment variables:

VBOXTRAY_RELEASE_LOG_DEST=file=C:\Temp\VBoxTray.log
VBOXTRAY_RELEASE_LOG=all.e.l.l2.l3.f

Note: The destination path needs to exist and has to be writable (in the above case it's the directory "C:\Temp"). When using a different path using spaces, this needs to be quoted properly (e.g. "C:\Temp\This\Path\Contains two Spaces").

After setting these variables the guest needs to be restarted.

VBoxService

To enable logging for VBoxService on the Windows guest a registry value needs to be modified.

In the guest, open regedit.exe as Administrator and add/edit the following key:

HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\VBoxService\ImagePath

from

"system32\VBoxService.exe"

to

"system32\VBoxService.exe -vvvv --logfile C:\Temp\VBoxService.log"

Make sure that the directory "C:\Temp" exists.

After the registry modifications were made the guest needs to be restarted. Then, after the issue re-appeared, provide

1. *all* VBoxService.log file(s) (will be written to C:\Temp on the guest) and
2. the appropriate VBox.log file from the host

in a zipped archive then.

Miscellaneous

For the other components (like Shared Folders) it should be sufficient to enable the guest driver registry key in order to let through the guest's debug logging into the VBox.log on the host.

Note: The host limits the number of guest log entries by default (per log group). To enable unlimited logging of all components the host environment variable

VBOX_RELEASE_LOG="-all.restrict"

must be set. Otherwise we have a limit of 32k entries per logging group.