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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?

Giacomo1968
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rovyko
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2 Answers2

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  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

Find Machine Source Path

  1. Backup the file called yourVMname.vbox

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

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

  4. The final section should look something like this:

Final Edited VM Configuration

source

Journeyman Geek
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rovyko
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    Vbox show me issue with first quotation mark you have used. After I type it manually it worked. – Hareen Laks Nov 11 '16 at 13:04
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    I did it on Mac, it worked. I just replaces VBoxInternal by VBoxInternal2. – Anthony Apr 24 '17 at 15:23
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    VirtualBox should be restarted. – Alex78191 Jul 17 '17 at 08:27
  • 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. – Z4-tier Oct 13 '19 at 16:14
  • To avoid VBox from restoring changes, close all VirtualBox windows and delete .vbox-prev file, which usually is located together with .vbox file. – JustAMartin Mar 26 '21 at 13:12
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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.

Triple_Fault
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