How to disable time sync with Windows 7 as host OS in VirtualBox?

Question

I have a 64 bit Windows 7 with VirtualBox running the same 64 bit Windows 7 as a guest OS.

When I set a specific date and time, it will always revert to the host OS’s date and time on startup. How can I disable this?

Solution 1

1. Find the location where your Virtual Machine is stored. You can do this by right clicking on the machine from the list in the VirtualBox Manager and selecting Show in Explorer

2. Backup the file called yourVMname.vbox

3. Open the file in a text editor and navigate to the <ExtraData> element which should contain a list of ExtraDataItem elements

4. Add the following item to the list: <ExtraDataItem name="VBoxInternal/Devices/VMMDev/0/Config/GetHostTimeDisabled" value="1"/>

5. The final section should look something like this:

source

Solution 2

The command to disable time synchronization between host and guest in Virtualbox is:

VBoxManage setextradata "VM name" "VBoxInternal/Devices/VMMDev/0/Config/GetHostTimeDisabled" 1

See the Virtualbox manual, section 9.14, especially 9.14.4.

Note that in a Windows host your command window's default directory must be in the directory where Vboxmanage.exe exists (default: C:\Program Files\Oracle\Virtualbox) or you have to type the full path to Vboxmanage.exe.

Comments

[Hareen Laks]

Vbox show me issue with first quotation mark you have used. After I type it manually it worked.

[AnthonyB]

I did it on Mac, it worked. I just replaces VBoxInternal by VBoxInternal2.

[Alex78191]

VirtualBox should be restarted.

[Cees Timmerman]

Also vagrant reload after running that set command.

[Z4-tier]

This did not work for me on MacOS:Mojave using Vbox 6.0.6. After editing and saving the .vbox file, starting the VM would revert to the previous state without my changes. The answer by @Triple_Fault did the trick.

[Ameen]

This is better than modifying the .vbox directly.

[Li Jinyao]

This worked for me on macOS Catalina

[DaveTheMinion]

On Windows, you can also add your VirtualBox installation directory to your PATH environment variable. This will let you use VBoxManage without needing to be in the installation directory or to use the executable's full path.

[JustAMartin]

To avoid VBox from restoring changes, close all VirtualBox windows and delete .vbox-prev file, which usually is located together with .vbox file.