Index: /trunk/src/VBox/Frontends/VBoxAutostart/VBoxAutostart.cpp
===================================================================
--- /trunk/src/VBox/Frontends/VBoxAutostart/VBoxAutostart.cpp	(revision 42385)
+++ /trunk/src/VBox/Frontends/VBoxAutostart/VBoxAutostart.cpp	(revision 42386)
@@ -51,5 +51,5 @@
 #include <iprt/time.h>
 #include <iprt/ctype.h>
-
+#include <iprt/dir.h>
 
 #include <algorithm>
@@ -882,4 +882,12 @@
         return RTMsgErrorExit(RTEXITCODE_FAILURE, "User is not allowed to autostart VMs");
 
+    /* Don't start if the VirtualBox settings directory does not exist. */
+    char szUserHomeDir[RTPATH_MAX];
+    rc = com::GetVBoxUserHomeDirectory(szUserHomeDir, sizeof(szUserHomeDir), false /* fCreateDir */);
+    if (RT_FAILURE(rc))
+        return RTMsgErrorExit(RTEXITCODE_FAILURE, "could not get base directory: %Rrc", rc);
+    else if (!RTDirExists(szUserHomeDir))
+        return RTEXITCODE_SUCCESS;
+
     /* create release logger, to stdout */
     char szError[RTPATH_MAX + 128];