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I have a system that is dual boot Windows/Linux, and VirtualBox installed so that I can also boot Linux in a VM under Windows.

As VirtualBox requires direct access to the Linux partition for this to work, I have to run it with administrator privileges, which I'd rather avoid. Is there a way to grant VirtualBox access to the partition without elevating it?

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To do this, you would have to essentially turn off the Session manager, which is part of the kernel. – surfasb Jan 27 at 0:08
From a naïve point of view, I can do this easily under Linux, by changing the permissions on the device "file". I am fairly certain there should be a mechanism to do something similar in Windows. – Simon Richter Jan 27 at 8:16
@SimonRichter: Windows does have "device files", only in a different namespace (e.g. \\?\Device\Harddisk0\Partition2); they can be viewed using WinObj which unfortunately cannot modify the ACLs, only display them. It's certainly possible to change the ACLs, though; I'm looking for an apropriate tool. – grawity Jan 30 at 12:26
@surfasb: Why would that require turning off smss? – grawity Jan 30 at 12:26
@grawity: That's because it doesn't :) I always confuse the Session manager with the Object manager for some reason. My initial thoughts were also to change the ACLs, but I felt it would introduce too many unknowns. Then again, you know the system better than I do. – surfasb Jan 31 at 5:45
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