VirtualBox: Cannot access the kernel driver

Question

When I try to launch VM in Oracle VirtualBox on Windows 10 it says "Cannot access the kernel driver". I tried complete reinstall (remove everything and install), repair installation (repair in the installer) and installing 2 drivers manually (VBoxUSBMon and VBoxDrv). Nothing worked. I'm using VirtualBox 4.3.12 because I was not able to launch newer version on Windows 10 for some reason.

Answer 1

The problem is with the installer. The new location of the driver is at C:\Program Files\Oracle\VirtualBox\drivers\vboxdrv\VBoxDrv.sys. However the installer points to the old driver location of C:\Program Files\Oracle\VirtualBox\VBoxDrv.sys.

To fix the problem you need to point the registry value to the new location. Step to do that:

1. Close VirtualBox
2. Open regedit.exe from the Start Menu
3. Navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\system\currentcontrolset\services\vboxdrv
4. Double click the name ImagePath
5. Change the value from \??\C:\Program Files\Oracle\VirtualBox\VBoxDrv.sys to \??\C:\Program Files\Oracle\VirtualBox\drivers\vboxdrv\VBoxDrv.sys
6. Restart VirtualBox

I found this answer in the VirtualBox Forum

Answer 2

Downgrade to VirtualBox 4.3.10.