Windows 10 Build 1903 Vagrant/VirtualBox Vagrant Up Error

The Problem

After I upgraded Windows 10 to build 1903, I just couldn’t get my lab to start using vagrant up.

Every time I tried, I would see the VirtualBox icon appear on - then immediately disappear from - the taskbar 3 times, after which I would receive the following error in the console:

There was an error while executing `VBoxManage`, a CLI used by Vagrant
for controlling VirtualBox. The command and stderr is shown below.

Command: ["startvm", "45a55ebd-3932-449e-b364-dbd95354060b", "--type", "gui"]

Stderr: VBoxManage.exe: error: Call to WHvSetupPartition failed: ERROR_SUCCESS (Last=0xc000000d/87) (VERR_NEM_VM_CREATE_FAILED)
VBoxManage.exe: error: Details: code E_FAIL (0x80004005), component ConsoleWrap, interface IConsole

I tried removing/reinstalling Vagrant and VirtualBox, deleting all the base VMs and the .vagrant folder, then eventually, deleted all Boxes saved in the Vagrant folder.

None of which improved the situation.

How I Fixed It

Initially, all of my Googling led me to articles which suggested turning off Hyper-V components in Windows Optional Features.

Except…

Get-WindowsOptionalFeature -Online -FeatureName *hyper* | Format-Table DisplayName, State

DisplayName                              State
-----------                              -----
Windows Hypervisor Platform           Disabled
Hyper-V                               Disabled
Hyper-V Platform                      Disabled
Hyper-V Management Tools              Disabled
Hyper-V Module for Windows PowerShell Disabled
Hyper-V Hypervisor                    Disabled
Hyper-V Services                      Disabled
Hyper-V GUI Management Tools          Disabled

This was a head-scratcher, for sure.

Some gaming, coffee and some more intense Googling later, I ended up going page-by-page through the following article - eventually finding the solution, as below (SIC):

I am running Virtual Box Version 6.0.8 r130520 (Qt5.6.2) on Windows 10 Pro version 1903 (OS Build 18362.116).

I have Windows 7 and a Windows 10 Insider (20H1) virtual machines. Both were running without problems until yesterday when I turned on WIndows Sandbox. After doing so both VM’s gave the above error when I tried to power them up. Turning off Windows Sandbox didn’t solve the problem.

My hunch was that turning on Sandox activated some part of Hyper-V which was not deactivated when Sandbox was turned off so I installed Hyper-V (no Sandbox), rebooted and then immediately uninstalled Hyper-V and rebooted twice. No more error message. Both VM’s working as I expect them to.

fieldar

TL;DR - What Was the Answer, Steve

1. Uninstall Windows Sandbox, from Windows Features
2. Reboot
3. Install Hyper-V
4. Reboot
5. Uninstall Hyper-V
6. Reboot
7. Reboot again

Note: Below console output is edited for privacy and brevity.

vagrant up
Checking dependencies...
 - All dependencies already satisfied
Bringing machine 'dc01' up with 'virtualbox' provider...
...
...
...
==> dc01: Machine booted and ready!

That’s what I wanted to see :)