Unable to easily move vitrtual machine files

[awesome14]

Virtualbox is way behind the scenes in comparison to VMware Workstation, which has always permitted VMs to be freely and easily moved and copied by just moving or copying the related files.

Virtualbox creates a fiasco over what should be a simple operation. There is no reason the path to the virtual machine files needs to be constant, and that the machine should fail if it changes. A notification would be sufficient.

In my case, I had to reactivate Windows 7 and create a new user. And my user-installed programs vanished! There is no reason the guest should even be aware the VM-related files have been moved!

Virtualbox fails if the path to the VM-related files changes, because the UUIDs remain the same. Even if the original path no longer exists, it fails! Again, this serves no good purpose. It just makes life more difficult. A notification would be sufficient.

There is also no reason the machine should fail if it can't find a shared directory. A warning would be sufficient.

Virtualbox fails on so many inconsequential things it seems senseless. The VMs should be portable; totally self-contained! The rigmarole serves no purpose but to make things difficult, and perhaps to generate the need for paid support!

But if the latter is the case, we might as well use VMware!

[Klaus Espenlaub]

Constructive criticism is welcome. VirtualBox is constantly being improved (but it will never follow certain principles which VMware follows). Many of the things you're talking about are planned, without knowing when it will reach the public.

Closing because it's not possible to work on such a conglomerate bug report sensibly.

[Socratis]

If it were up to me, that would be the end of that "constructive criticism". But, let's analyze your points one by one:

1. "Virtualbox is way behind the scenes in comparison to VMware Workstation". Is there a competition that I missed?

2. "Virtualbox creates a fiasco over what should be a simple operation." The Spectre/Meltdown is a fiasco. The ability to "move freely" what you think should be moved freely, is not even close. And going behind a program's back to do what you think is the appropriate way, that's not hard evidence. Just try to move a file outside of iTunes' knowledge (for example) and tell me how it feels about it.

3. "There is no reason the path to the virtual machine files needs to be constant, and that the machine should fail if it changes." So, you're expecting to find a file at a certain location, that location doesn't exist, and you expect everything to be peachy? How's that even remotely possible?

4. "A notification would be sufficient." That's exactly what an error message is! A notification! In a not-so-loving tone!

5. "In my case, I had to reactivate Windows 7 and create a new user. And my user-installed programs vanished!" Reactivate Win7? For improperly moving a VM's virtual HD? For real now? What did you move and how? Sorry, but it doesn't compute! Not by a long stretch of the imagination!!!

6. "There is no reason the guest should even be aware the VM-related files have been moved!" And it doesn't! I move VMs left and right all the time. The guest has absolutely no clue. Sometimes I run them locally, sometimes from a USB drive, sometimes even from the network. The guest couldn't care less. I don't know what you've done, but most certainly something's wrong with the way that you understand how things are supposed to work.

7. "Virtualbox fails if the path to the VM-related files changes, because the UUIDs remain the same." What? Citation/example needed...

8. "Even if the original path no longer exists, it fails!" That's actually expected behavior. If you promise a program that the path is such-and-such, and that path doesn't exist, yeah, it better fail!

9. "A notification would be sufficient." See above #4.

10. "Virtualbox fails on so many inconsequential things it seems senseless." So does almost everything else. No one is perfect! ;)

11. "The VMs should be portable; totally self-contained!" And they are. Since 4.0.0. See User Manual, ch. "10.1. Where VirtualBox stores its files" and ​"Moving a VM".

12. "The rigmarole serves no purpose but to make things difficult" Funny that you used the word "rigmarole", which has the definition: a long, rambling story or statement.