Windows - Unable to start the Virtual Device

1. You are trying to run Genymotion Desktop in a virtual machine, a server or a Cloud instance (AWS, GCP, Azure, ...)

Genymotion Desktop has been designed to run in a physical environment, not in a virtual machine. For this reason, Genymotion Desktop will not work if run in a Windows VM, a Windows server nor a Windows Cloud instance.

For more details, please refer to these articles:

• Can Genymotion Desktop run in a virtual machine?
• Can Genymotion Desktop run on a server?
• Can Genymotion Desktop run in a Cloud service (AWS, Google Cloud, MS Azure, Alibaba, etc.)?

2. Reboot your PC

Rebooting your PC after having launched Genymotion Desktop for the first time often fixes this error.

3. Your hardware does not meet Genymotion Desktop requirements

Make sure that your hardware meets Genymotion Desktop requirements. See What are Genymotion Desktop requirements?

4. Your Windows version is not supported

Genymotion Desktop no longer supports Windows XP, Vista and 7.

Also, we no longer provide any builds for Windows 32 bit.

5. You upgraded to Windows 11

You need to use VirtualBox 6.1.30 or above. See Does Genymotion Desktop work on Windows 11?

6. Other issues

Windows standard user account

There are known issues when running Genymotion Desktop in a non-admin Windows user account.

If it is not possible for you to use an account with full admin rights, please see Can Genymotion Desktop run in a standard user account? for possible solutions.

Fix possible VirtualBox issues

Every time Genymotion Desktop is run, it calls VirtualBox to verify the availability of at least one VirtualBox Host-Only Ethernet Adapter. If none is available, it tries to create a new one. Unfortunately, this operation fails on some Windows configurations.

To fix this, try the following solutions:

a. Solution 1

1. Open Windows Settings > Network & Internet > Change adapter options
2. Right-click on VirtualBox Host-Only Ethernet Adapter
3. Select Disable
4. Right-click on the VirtualBox Host-Only Ethernet Adapter again and Select Enable

b. Solution 2

1. Open Settings > Network & Internet > Change adapter options
2. Right-click on VirtualBox Host-Only Ethernet Adapter
3. Click on Properties and then Configure
4. Click on the Driver tab
5. Click on Update Driver
6. Select Browse my computer for drivers. Now choose Let me pick from a list of available drivers on my computer
7. Select VirtualBox Host-Only Ethernet Adapter from the list and click on Next
8. Click Close to finish the update

c. Solution 3

1. Open VirtualBox
2. Go to File > Host Network Manager...
3. Remove all the VirtualBox Host-Only Ethernet Adapter

d. Solution 4

Try to remove and re-install VirtualBox 6.1.14:

1. Remove VirtualBox
2. Download VirtualBox 6.1.14 for Windows hosts here
3. Right-click on the installer and select Run As Administrator, even if your account has admin rights.
4. Reboot your PC

e. Solution 5

Upgrade to VirtualBox 6.1.34:

1. Remove VirtualBox
2. Download VirtualBox 6.1.34 for Windows hest from https://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/Downloads
3. Right-click on the installer and select Run As Administrator, even if your account has admin rights.
4. Reboot your PC

Windows Defender

The Memory Integrity Core Isolation feature of Windows Defender is known to cause this type of errors. You may need to disable it before using Genymotion Desktop. For more information, please refer to How to disable Memory integrity in Windows 10?

Windows security settings

Every time Genymotion Desktop is started, it calls VirtualBox to perform several operations:

• verify the availability of at least one VirtualBox Host-Only Ethernet Adapter
• create a VirtualBox Host-Only Ethernet Adapter if the above fails
• list all the deployed virtual devices

These operations require administrator rights to be performed successfully.

To avoid this, we recommend running Genymotion Desktop on a Windows account with Administrator rights (i.e. it is a member of the Administrators group) and lower you Windows security settings.