VirtualBox on Windows 10 leaks hostonlyifs, turning them into bridgedifs which cannot be removed

[rezroo]

It has happened twice now on my machine. The first time I lost hostonlyif 1 through 5 after an Vbox upgrade - searched a while for a solution, but gave up and created new ones "VirtualBox Host-Only Ethernet Adapter #6" through #12. That was more than 6 months ago.

Last week I noticed that my host only interfaces were gone again. Not sure on which upgrade, but I was on a 5.0 version. Upgraded to the latest, and some cleanup and reboots, and the problem is still there. Did not try an uninstall and reinstall because that didn't help the last time.

The current state is as follows:

I can create and delete host only interfaces, but the starting number is "VirtualBox Host-Only Ethernet Adapter #13" "VBoxManage.exe list -l bridgedifs" returns a list with all my lost host only interfaces - but I cannot find a command to delete the bridged interfaces. I can find these in the windows registry by searching the GUID, and also by name in Computer/HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/SYSTEM/Setup/Upgrade/NetworkDriveBackup/Control/Class but hesitate to mess with the registry manually, because there are too many references to clean up by hand. Searched for a powershell utility that could clean and free them up, but didn't find one. Looking for help. Partial output of "VBoxManage.exe list -l bridgedifs" looks like this - as you can see by the name they used to all be host only ifs:

PS C:\WINDOWS\system32> VBoxManage.exe list -l bridgedifs

Name: VirtualBox Host-Only Ethernet Adapter #8 GUID: ef9a148d-dbbd-4eac-a072-bae5f0aae49b DHCP: Disabled IPAddress: 0.0.0.0 NetworkMask: 0.0.0.0 IPV6Address: IPV6NetworkMaskPrefixLength: 0 HardwareAddress: 00:00:00:00:00:00 MediumType: Ethernet Status: Down VBoxNetworkName: HostInterfaceNetworking-VirtualBox Host-Only Ethernet Adapter #8

Name: VirtualBox Host-Only Ethernet Adapter #3 GUID: 873d770d-328c-4af6-a0e8-900433a03cf6 DHCP: Disabled IPAddress: 0.0.0.0 NetworkMask: 0.0.0.0 IPV6Address: IPV6NetworkMaskPrefixLength: 0 HardwareAddress: 00:00:00:00:00:00 MediumType: Ethernet Status: Down VBoxNetworkName: HostInterfaceNetworking-VirtualBox Host-Only Ethernet Adapter #3

Name: Microsoft Virtual WiFi Miniport Adapter GUID: a35fb3ad-bb85-4bfc-b9c1-05ce81d512cb DHCP: Disabled IPAddress: 0.0.0.0 NetworkMask: 0.0.0.0 IPV6Address: IPV6NetworkMaskPrefixLength: 0 HardwareAddress: 00:00:00:00:00:00 MediumType: Ethernet Status: Down VBoxNetworkName: HostInterfaceNetworking-Microsoft Virtual WiFi Miniport Adapter

Name: VirtualBox Host-Only Ethernet Adapter #10 GUID: 1e88234f-d548-4b03-a2c2-b7c73f1016b1 DHCP: Disabled IPAddress: 0.0.0.0 NetworkMask: 0.0.0.0 IPV6Address: IPV6NetworkMaskPrefixLength: 0 HardwareAddress: 00:00:00:00:00:00 MediumType: Ethernet Status: Down VBoxNetworkName: HostInterfaceNetworking-VirtualBox Host-Only Ethernet Adapter #10

Name: VirtualBox Host-Only Ethernet Adapter #6 GUID: fed303cd-386b-4f60-8419-1c71b53fa90a DHCP: Disabled IPAddress: 0.0.0.0 NetworkMask: 0.0.0.0 IPV6Address: IPV6NetworkMaskPrefixLength: 0 HardwareAddress: 00:00:00:00:00:00 MediumType: Ethernet Status: Down VBoxNetworkName: HostInterfaceNetworking-VirtualBox Host-Only Ethernet Adapter #6

Name: VirtualBox Host-Only Ethernet Adapter #2 GUID: f6d1349b-82f4-4ce2-ae42-e7fb19f7fdf4 DHCP: Disabled IPAddress: 0.0.0.0 NetworkMask: 0.0.0.0 IPV6Address: IPV6NetworkMaskPrefixLength: 0 HardwareAddress: 00:00:00:00:00:00 MediumType: Ethernet Status: Down VBoxNetworkName: HostInterfaceNetworking-VirtualBox Host-Only Ethernet Adapter #2