djinncoyote

After much effort, I finally got VirtualBox version 7.0.18 successfully installed on Windows 8.1.
Here are pertinent notes.

Use "Run as administrator" when installing VirtualBox.

If you leave the option selected for installing the Python Bindings, you may get an error about "Missing Dependencies" for "Python Core / win32api". If you don't plan to run Python scripts, you can deselect that option.

The rest of the notes below are about how to fix these errors which give no clue as to what is causing the problem:
"Oracle VM VirtualBox 7.0.18 Setup Wizard ended prematurely because of an error. Your system has not been modified." and "Installation failed! Error: Fatal error during installation."

You can try deselecting the option to install Bridged Networking, to see if that prevents the error.
In my case I still got the error even with both the Bridged and Host-Only networking options deselected.
Disabling my antivirus also did not prevent the error.

Some pages suggest adding (or updating if it already exists) a "MaxFilters" registry value of 20 under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\ControlSet001\Control\Network.
Some pages indicate the name should be "MaxNumFilters" rather than "MaxFilters".
I added both, but still got the same error.

I extracted the .msi installer file with this command (it extracts the msi file to your Temp folder):
VirtualBox-7.0.18-162988-Win.exe -extract

I ran this command to generate a log file for the installation:
msiexec /i VirtualBox-7.0.18-162988.msi /l*v log.log

The log.log file showed these errors, which still didn't indicate what was causing the problem but at least showed which driver it was failing on:
DIFXAPP: ERROR: encountered while installing driver package 'C:\Program Files\Oracle\VirtualBox\drivers\USB\device\VBoxUSB.inf'
DIFXAPP: ERROR: InstallDriverPackages failed with error 0xE0000247


This page shows how to enable logging of the installation:
https://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/MSI_Logging

In my case, I didn't have to enable any additional logging. I found that the following file already existed with timestamped output from each of my failed install attempts. Each attempt had gotten this error while installing the VBoxUSB driver:
C:\Windows\Inf\setupapi.dev.log:
Error 0x800b0109: A certificate chain processed, but terminated in a root certificate which is not trusted by the trust provider.

I tried the installation again with the USB Support option deselected. This way, the installation finished without an error. But the setupapi.dev.log file showed that the other drivers (VBoxNetAdp6 and VBoxNetLwf) now got the same "not trusted by the trust provider" error, even though it didn't cause the install to fail like before. So most likely, neither USB nor networking would work (as mentioned by the last post in this forum thread).

When I ran VirtualBox, it displayed this error:
Can't enumerate USB devices...
Failed to enumerate host USB devices.
Could not load the Host USB Proxy Service (VERR_FILE_NOT_FOUND). The service might not be installed on the host computer.


https://forums.virtualbox.org/viewtopic.php?t=93367

Yes unselecting the usb option is the only way to install without failing. But i have been able to install the usb manually from extracting the the stock exe and then after that is done, I have extracted the 64bit msi using 7zip. All this goes to the %TEMP% folder btw.
Then cd to the newly created msi extraction directory and run powershell from within that directory with this command
"Dir | Rename-Item -NewName { $_.name -replace "file_","" }" without the quotes.
It removes the "file_" from all the files that have that name.
Then from there to make it easier to work with delete everything that is not a .inf, .cat, or a .sys file.
If you dont need to delete the files then just rename "VBoxUSB_W10.cat" to "VBoxUSB.cat" and "VBoxUSBMon_W10.cat" to "VBoxUSBMon.cat".
After that just right click on every .inf file and click install.
This is most likely not needed but i was also have trouble with the network adapter and this fixed it as well.
For just the usb to work you just need to right click and install from these two files. "VBoxUSB.inf" and "VBoxUSBMon.inf"

Per the above, I used 7zip to unzip the install exe. (I also unzipped the msi; both contained the same set of files.)
I copied the File_VboxUSB* files to a separate folder.
I removed the "File_" prefix from the file names.
As my computer is Windows 8.1 (pre-Windows 10), I renamed VBoxUSB_PreW10.cat to VBoxUSB.cat.
I right-clicked VBoxUSB.inf and selected to install it.
It gave this error: A problem was encountered while attempting to add the driver to the store.
C:\Windows\Inf\setupapi.dev.log again showed this error:
Error 0x800b0109: A certificate chain processed, but terminated in a root certificate which is not trusted by the trust provider.

See:
https://forums.virtualbox.org/viewtopic.php?t=104557
https://www.virtualbox.org/ticket/20692#no1

https://www.virtualbox.org/changeset/94160/vbox

Additions: Windows: Use the same approach as with the host driver for .cat files, i.e. create 2 copies, one for Windows versions before 10, and one for 10 and later (which in UEFI Secure Boot mode modified the trusted root list, requiring Attestation Signing). The NSIS installer will deliver the appropriate file.

https://www.virtualbox.org/changeset/72004/vbox

Installer/win,HostDrivers/*/win: Ship two different .cat files, one for W10 w/ MS blessing and a pre-W10 that we created+signed during build.

https://mywindowshub.com/check-secure-boot-enabled-disabled-windows-8-1/

Steps to Check if Secure Boot is Enabled or Disabled in Windows 8 and 8.1
1. Press Windows+R to open Run Window. Type msinfo32 and press Enter.
2. Find out System Summary and in the right pane select Secure Boot State and check its state.

Secure Boot is turned "On" for me. Considering the above, maybe that means I need to use the Windows 10 versions of the drivers even though the computer is Windows 8.1.

I renamed VBoxUSB.cat back to VBoxUSB_PreW10.cat.
I renamed VBoxUSB_W10.cat to VBoxUSB.cat.
I right-clicked VBoxUSB.inf and selected to install it.
It gave this error:
The software was tested for compliance with Windows Logo requirements on a different version of Windows, and may not be compatible with this version.


https://forums.virtualbox.org/viewtopic.php?t=104928

During the installation of the VirtualBox Guest Additions, the installation of the Windows drivers fails with error 0xE0000244 (ERROR_SIGNATURE_OSATTRIBUTE_MISMATCH: The software was tested for compliance with Windows Logo requirements on a different version of Windows, and may not be compatible with this version). AFAIU, due to Microsoft requirements, the driver signing for Windows 10 was changed, and is now incompatible to Windows 8.1. The VirtualBox devs are aware of it, but the issue hasn't been solved yet. Some deep technical background can be found in Downlevel Driver Enabler

This page shows how to get around the version error when installing Windows 10 drivers on Windows 8.1:
https://git.zx2c4.com/downlevel-driver-enabler/about/
It requires compiling a C file into a DLL (I may create a separate post on how I did that later), and temporarily updating a registry key to point to the new DLL.
So I compiled the C file to create the DLL and updated this registry key to point to it:
HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Cryptography\Providers\Trust\FinalPolicy\{F750E6C3-38EE-11D1-85E5-00C04FC295EE}\$DLL


Then I was able to successfully install VBoxUSB.inf!
I followed the same method to install the other W10 drivers:
VBoxUSBMon.inf
VBoxNetAdp6.inf
VBoxNetLwf.inf

(VBoxUSBMon.inf seemed to have a problem - a popup box displayed for a split second rather than the success message. But the below driverquery command showed that it was installed ok.)

To check if the drivers installed ok, two commands can be run from the command line:
driverquery > driverquery.txt
pnputil -e > driverlist.txt

The driverquery output only includes entries for "VBoxSup" and "VBoxUSBMon", not the other VBox drivers.

The pnputil -e output shows entries for the other drivers, however they are listed under different names like oem##.inf.
It is best to run the pnputil -e command both before and after the installs (change the output file name each time), so you can compare the output files to see what got added.

The setupapi.dev.log file shows how the oem## names match up to the VBox*** names. For example:
Installed catalag 'VBoxUSB.cat' as 'oem70.cat'
Installed catalag 'VBoxNetAdp6.cat' as 'oem73.cat'
Installed catalag 'VBoxNetLwf.cat' as 'oem74.cat'


After successfully installing the drivers and running VirtualBox, I initially still got the "Can't enumerate USB devices..." error. But then after restarting the computer, that error went away.

The below command generates a battery report, showing when the laptop switched between running on outlet power versus battery power. It also shows when the laptop was turned on or woken up from sleep mode.

This was helpful in determining exactly what time a power outage started, as I had my laptop turned on and plugged into the AC outlet at the time it happened, and the outage caused it to switch to battery power.

The log also shows other interesting info, including the change in the battery's full charge capacity over time. Mine was initially 62,160 mWh, 3 years ago. Now it is down to 54,690 mWh.

From: https://superuser.com/questions/1165322/how-can-i-find-out-when-my-laptop-was-last-unplugged-in-windows-10


Open a Command Prompt as Administrator.
Type in powercfg /batteryreport /output "C:\batteryreport.html" and hit Enter.
Open the report file using a web browser.

I've used KatMouse for many years on Windows 7 computers. It lets you scroll whichever window your mouse pointer is over, using your mouse-wheel. The window doesn't need to have focus - you can scroll a window without having clicked it first.

It's especially useful for Windows Explorer. You can scroll through the left pane to find the folder you're interested in, click that folder so that its files are displayed in the right pane, and then immediately scroll down through the files in the right pane without another click.

Whenever I use a computer without this functionality, it feels tedious and awkward having to click before being able to scroll. So naturally, on my newer Win8.1 computer, I installed KatMouse as well. At first it worked fine. But later on, it was intermittently not working. So I searched for a fix.

In doing so, I discovered that Windows 10 has the same functionality built-in and enabled by default. Even better, Windows 8 has this functionality too, although it requires a registry tweak to enable it:
  
   HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop
   Set the MouseWheelRouting value to 3 to turn it on, or 1 to turn it off
   Logout and back in

The built-in functionality even works on some windows, such as Task Manager, which KatMouse didn't work on.

I was curious whether the registry tweak would work in Windows 7 too, so I tried it out. Windows 7 did not have the MouseWheelRouting key by default, so added it. However, it did not work on Windows 7. This only works on Windows 8 +.

I have a laptop set up with a docking station and dual monitors. One monitor is connected to the docking station's VGA port, and the other to the DVI port. The monitors are configured to both duplicate the laptop's desktop. I generally only use one monitor at a time and leave the other one turned off. One is on a desk for use while sitting down, the other is on a shelf higher for use from a standing position.

One morning, after placing the laptop on the docking station and waking it from sleep, the main monitor on the desk would not display the desktop like usual. After showing some of the wake-up/startup screens, the monitor simply went dark as if it wasn't getting any signal. When I opened the laptop to press the function key for switching between the dual monitor modes, the laptop locked up (for a still unknown reason) and even the laptop screen went dark. This happened several times in succession after force-rebooting the laptop.

I eventually found that while the bottom monitor wouldn't turn on to begin with, that the top one would. Whenever this happens again (which it did again today), I simply need to bring up the "Screen Resolution" window on the top monitor, and set it back to the "Duplicate" display mode. Somehow the settings are getting changed to only display the desktop on the top monitor, and I just need to change them back. Opening the laptop is not necessary for this.

Update: After posting the above, there were a couple of times after waking the laptop from sleep when neither monitor nor the laptop screen would display anything, and so I still had to force a reboot.

I discovered some hot-keys, which I'll try if the problem happens again.
Windows key + P: brings up the window for switching between the computer and projector displays. Keep holding down the Windows key while pressing P one or more times to cycle through the options. Then release both keys to switch to that option.

Ctrl + Alt + F1 or F3 or F4 (etc): switches the display to the laptop, VGA monitor, or digital monitor. The specific hot-key combinations can be found by right-clicking the desktop, selecting "Graphics Properties...", and then selecting the item for "Options and Support".

Here's a Windows trick I recently learned:

In Windows Explorer, if you click Shift+Right/Alt-Click on a file, the context menu that is shown will include the option "Copy as path". Selecting this will copy the full path + filename, surrounded by double-quotes, to to the clipboard.

That's much easier than what I've been doing up till now: selecting the path, copying it, pasting it, appending a slash, right-clicking the file and clicking Rename in order to select and copy it, and then pasting it after the path.

This is news to me.

Windows has for many years had a feature called "alternate data streams" whereby one or more files can in effect be hidden within another file or folder. These alternate data streams aren't regular hidden files and aren't displayed in Windows Explorer. One way of seeing them is to use the "dir" command with the "/r" switch, in a command window.

More details here: Hide sensitive files with Alternate Data Streams.

Why questionable downloads use rar archives - Len Boyette explains that when malware is hidden by means of alternate data streams within WinRar archives, many anti-virus programs are not able to detect it.


via andrewducker