How can I run a VirtualBox machine as a service?

Question

I have a VirtualBox machine with Windows XP on a Windows XP Host.

How can I start VirtualBox as a service, so I can get a virtual machine under the hood, and I don't have to start VirtualBox in order to access my virtual machine (via VNC from the network)?

I found that VirtualBox Manage might be the way to go, but since I'm a beginner with this, I don't know where to start.

Any ideas?

Answer 1

Create a Shortcut to C:\Program Files\innotek VirtualBox\VBoxManage.exe

After the quotation marks enter: startvm <your virtual machine name>

Example:

“C:\Program Files\innotek VirtualBox\VBoxManage.exe” startvm XP

Copy/Move the shortcut to your startup folder.

p.s.: if you want to delay the Virtual Machine until your system is fully booted, you can do this in XP via Startup Delayer.

Answer 2

Looks like the simplest answer at this point is VBoxVMService. I haven't tried it yet, I'll try to remember to come here and update the answer if/when I do.

Answer 3

Just offering this as another option:

Use the builtin Windows command 'sc' to create a service. Combine this with 'vboxheadless' will get you to where you want to be.

Untested with vboxheadless specifically, but I did create a test service that runs calc.exe. You should be doing something like this:

sc create servicenamehere start= auto binPath= "C:\path\to\vboxheadless.exe --startvm name"

Refer to the documentation for sc for more information. Note: Those spaces after the equal sign are intentional.

Answer 4

Note that the currently accepted answer (Molly7244) actually starts the VM when you login - not when you boot the machine. It is not, in other words, a service.

For an actual service that runs when the machine boots, I use this script in conjunction with cygwin (cygrunsrv). Makes use of the VBoxHeadless mode as mentioned elsewhere on this page.

Works great.