VirtualBox only allowing 32 bit OS

When I start VirtualBox, I only have 32 bit operating systems available. After some research I followed the steps on another post but to no avail. My host OS is 64 bit, Intel Virtualization Technology and VT-d are both enabled in the BIOS, and Hyper-V platform is disabled in the Windows Feature list, yet I still only am presented 32 bit operating systems.

I find these same instructions in many places and they seem to solve the problem for everyone, but not for me.

I also tried repairing the installation without luck. How can I fix this to run a 64 bit Linux OS in VB?

EDIT I also have the latest version of BIOS.

Edit: This question is not a duplicate of this other question as I state that the solution to that question did not solve this problem.

Jon Deaton

Posted 2017-08-17T19:00:30.357

Reputation: 199

Okay, that makes sense given what I've read so far. I was under the impression that disabling Hyper-V would take care of that. If that's not the case though, do you have any idea about which application would be using the feature or how to find out which is using it? – Jon Deaton – 2017-08-17T19:05:25.793

Try this command as admin bcdedit /set hypervisorlaunchtype off and reboot. – Biswapriyo – 2017-08-17T19:28:46.203

@Biswa unfortunately that did not work – Jon Deaton – 2017-08-17T19:46:53.050

Did you install that VirtualBox properly? Because in x64, it needs extra DLLs to be registered by regsvr32. – Biswapriyo – 2017-08-17T20:31:40.893

@Biswa I'm not sure how I would know if I had not installed it improperly if I did. It will boot 32 images just fine. How can I confirm that it has extra DLLS registered by regsvr32. – Jon Deaton – 2017-08-17T20:38:05.707

@Ramhound I have been rather unsuccessful at finding which other programs might be using Hyper-V. Do you have any suggestions on how I can figure that out? – Jon Deaton – 2017-08-17T20:39:06.147

Alright, I'm sorry. I'll be honest I don't know a whole lot about this subject matter but I'm trying to learn and find out - so I apologize for using the wrong term. After learning some more I understand better now why what i said was wrong. Anyways, any ideas how to figure out which program if any is using VT-x then? – Jon Deaton – 2017-08-17T23:22:40.027

2@JonDeaton it is difficult to say for certain but several Antivirus vendors are known to block VT-x – Mokubai – 2017-08-18T15:49:31.433

What is your computer exact model and are you using its latest BIOS version? Which VirtualBox version? One hack I know of is to run again the VirtualBox installer and choose the Repair option (even though already installed) and reboot, and if still no go then in C:Program Files\Oracle\VirtualBox manually launch virtualbox.exe (for verification of the icon). – harrymc – 2017-08-22T07:08:16.713

The model is Dell Precision 5510 with Intel Core i7-6820HQ 4 cores 8 logical, BIOS version is 1.2.21 (2/17/2017). Virtual box version is 5.1.26. I did already try the repair and reboot procedure without any luck, and trying it from the file location didn't work. – Jon Deaton – 2017-08-22T16:27:45.183

There seems to be a new BIOS version 1.2.29 from 01 Aug 2017. Be careful with the update.

– harrymc – 2017-08-22T18:42:25.403

Once the BIOS is updated, repeat the repair and reboot procedure. – harrymc – 2017-08-23T13:56:57.440

I updated the BIOS, repeated the repair and reboot procedure and am still only presented with 32 bit options. – Jon Deaton – 2017-08-24T23:00:08.240

did you check this? some Android VMs also make use of VT-x

– phuclv – 2017-08-26T04:33:16.727

Possible duplicate of Why does virtualbox only have 32-bit option, no 64-bit option on Windows 7?

– LWC – 2019-03-20T22:37:59.823

@Ramhound because that answer didn’t work. This question is specifically “how do you fix this when that other solution doesn’t fix it” – Jon Deaton – 2019-03-24T03:17:51.473

Answers

The VirtualBox Support article I have a 64bit host, but can't install 64bit guests lists the following conditions for 64-bit guests:

You need to enable VT-x/AMD-v in the host PC BIOS.
Microsoft's Hyper-v must be uninstalled (Run OptionalFeatures.exe to check)
Avoid system level debuggers, other VM platforms, and some resident anti-virus applications.
Uninstall DeviceGuard or CredentialGuard if installed.

Check again the above conditions and especially if DeviceGuard or CredentialGuard were preinstalled by Dell. You may also try to disable your anti-virus and reboot.

If all conditions are met, then instead of the Repair of VirtualBox, try to uninstall it, reboot, install, reboot. If necessary, repeat this while booting in Safe mode.

If this still does not work, then some installed product conflicts with VirtualBox, which you will need to find. Autoruns is very useful in examining, disabling and re-enabling startup programs.

harrymc

Posted 2017-08-17T19:00:30.357

Reputation: 306 093

If nothing works for you, then for some reason VirtualBox is incompatible with your hardware. Hyper-V can probably sill work and is after all as good as VirtualBox, just different. – harrymc – 2017-08-26T10:36:10.990

1If you're wondering, I got this issue resolved after completely wiping my laptop, re-installing windows, and VB 5.1.28. – Jon Deaton – 2017-09-22T16:30:27.047

Probably this way you got rid of a conflicting product or reinitialized VB in a forceful manner. – harrymc – 2017-09-22T19:44:01.320

I got stuck for a bit on the DeviceGuard step ("set Turn on Virtualization Based Security to Disabled"). I thought that when it isn't set at all, I wouldn't have to do anything. Wrong - you have to explicitly disable it even when it's not explicitly enabled. – Jakub – 2018-05-16T11:14:20.363

One possible problem I found which fixed it for me: Windows Defender => Device Security => Core isolation => Memory integrity must be DISABLED. (Had enabled it at some point in the past for some reason...)

deemon

Posted 2017-08-17T19:00:30.357

Reputation: 91

64-bit versions will not show up in the list if you are running Hyper-V, also if you are running Windows 10 Home, it's called Windows Hypervisor Platform having this enabled will also keep the 64 bit versions from appearing in the type list when creating a virtual machine.

James

Posted 2017-08-17T19:00:30.357

Reputation: 9

Make sure Virtualbox is up to date! This fixed it for me- I was on v5.2 and had followed all other advice on this thread. Then I upgraded to 6.0 and 64-bit options became available.

Willman

Posted 2017-08-17T19:00:30.357

Reputation: 71

That means you have Hyper-V enabled. Vbox 6 added Hyper-V support so it can run on Hyper-V, but on prior versions you must disable it – phuclv – 2019-11-07T20:51:57.920

-1

Make sure that you run VirtualBox as an administrator and make sure you have the latest version of BIOS. Try updating BIOS and checking all the settings.

Gig A Byte

Posted 2017-08-17T19:00:30.357

Reputation: 11

I updated the bios and repaired VirtualBox but it did not work. – Jon Deaton – 2017-08-26T01:15:51.267

I don't know why this answer got downvoted. Running VirtualBox in administrator mode was the only thing that worked in my case. +1 for that. – Ciprian Stoica – 2018-08-21T08:35:49.053

-1

Finally, I also had the same experience that none of the solutions available seemed to work, until I noticed this option was turned off. Enabled Windows Hypervisor Platform, and 64-bit in VB is now available!

user1595003

Posted 2017-08-17T19:00:30.357

Reputation: 1