Install VirtualBox Using PowerShell

Problem

In this article, I will show you how to install VirtualBox using PowerShell.

The installation process consists of three parts:

Define download URL and installer location
Download VirtualBox installer
Install VirtualBox silently

You can directly apply the third step above if you already have the installer or download it manually. All solutions below share all the steps above. The only difference is on downloading part.

Using Invoke-WebRequest and Start-Process

Before installing VirtualBox, it is worth mentioning that we must install latest Microsoft Visual C++ Redistributable. Otherwise, we won’t be able to install VirtualBox manually or automatically.

Anyway, as the first step of installation, we need to define variables for download URL and installer location. Then, we use Invoke-WebRequest cmdlet to download the file and put it in the folder.


# Define download URL and installer location
$virtualBoxUrl = "https://download.virtualbox.org/virtualbox/7.0.14/VirtualBox-7.0.14-161095-Win.exe"
$installer = "$env:TEMP\VirtualBox-7.0.14-161095-Win.exe"

# Download VirtualBox installer
Invoke-WebRequest -Uri $virtualBoxUrl -OutFile $installer

# Install VirtualBox silently
Start-Process -FilePath $installer -ArgumentList "--silent --ignore-reboot" -Wait

# Remove installer
Remove-Item $installer

Next, we perform silent installation using Start-Process cmdlet. We add -Wait parameter to wait until installation process completely finished.

We pass silent argument which means we will perform silent installation; meanwhile, ignore-reboot argument means after the installation finished it won’t restart the computer.

Last, we will remove the installer using Remove-Item cmdlet, but this step is optional.

Using Invoke-RestMethod and Start-Process

Similar to previous solution, but in this one we will use Invoke-RestMethod cmdlet to download the file. We can use this cmdlet because the communication is using HTTP(S) that is supported by RESTful services.


# Define download URL and installer location
$virtualBoxUrl = "https://download.virtualbox.org/virtualbox/7.0.14/VirtualBox-7.0.14-161095-Win.exe"
$installer = "$env:TEMP\VirtualBox-7.0.14-161095-Win.exe"

# Download VirtualBox installer
Invoke-RestMethod -Uri $virtualBoxUrl -OutFile $installer

# Install VirtualBox silently
Start-Process -FilePath $installer -ArgumentList "--silent --ignore-reboot" -Wait

# Remove installer
Remove-Item $installer

Using WebClient and Start-Process

We can also use WebClient class from .NET Framework to download the file since PowerShell is deeply integrated with .NET Framework.


# Define download URL and installer location
$virtualBoxUrl = "https://download.virtualbox.org/virtualbox/7.0.14/VirtualBox-7.0.14-161095-Win.exe"
$installer = "$env:TEMP\VirtualBox-7.0.14-161095-Win.exe"

# Download VirtualBox installer
$WebClient = New-Object System.Net.WebClient
$webclient.DownloadFile($virtualBoxUrl, $installer)

# Install VirtualBox silently
Start-Process -FilePath $installer -ArgumentList "--silent --ignore-reboot" -Wait

# Remove installer
Remove-Item $installer

Using HttpClient and Start-Process

We can also use HttpClient from .NET Framework to download the installer, then install VirtualBox silently.

There are two flavors in using .NET Framework C# code from PowerShell. We can create the object using PowerShell syntax as in previous solution or we can also embed C# code in our script then invoke it.

In this case, we present both of the approaches.

Create C# object using PowerShell syntax

In this approach, we need to apply dispose pattern by enclosing each call to HttpClient constructor, GetStreamAsync and FileStream methods with try-finally block. It is optional to put catch block if we want to handle the exception specifically.

At finally block we close the connection after we have used disposable object. Otherwise, we won’t be able to perform silent installation because the process is still being used by another process.

A more concise way to apply dispose pattern in C# is to use using statement, but since PowerShell doesn’t have the syntax for the pattern we can use try-finally block as the alternative.


using namespace System.IO
using namespace System.Net.Http

# Define download URL and installer location
$virtualBoxUrl = "https://download.virtualbox.org/virtualbox/7.0.14/VirtualBox-7.0.14-161095-Win.exe"
$installer = "$env:TEMP\VirtualBox-7.0.14-161095-Win.exe"

# Download VirtualBox installer
try {
    $client = [HttpClient]::new()    
    try {
        $stream = $client.GetStreamAsync($virtualBoxUrl)
        try {
            $fileStream = [FileStream]::new($installer, [FileMode]::Create)
            $stream.GetAwaiter().GetResult().CopyTo($fileStream)       
        }
        finally {
            <#Do this after the try block regardless of whether an exception occurred or not#>
            $fileStream.Dispose()
        }         
    }
    finally {
        <#Do this after the try block regardless of whether an exception occurred or not#>
        $stream.Dispose()
    }    
}
finally {
    <#Do this after the try block regardless of whether an exception occurred or not#>
    $client.Dispose()
}

# Install VirtualBox silently
Start-Process -FilePath $installer -ArgumentList "--silent --ignore-reboot" -Wait

# Remove installer
Remove-Item $installer

Embed C# code then invoke it from PowerShell

In this approach, we copy and paste our C# code to PowerShell, then enclose it with Add-Type -TypeDefinition in order to add it to PowerShell session. Then, we will be able to invoke the method to download the file from PowerShell.


# Define download URL and installer location
$virtualBoxUrl = "https://download.virtualbox.org/virtualbox/7.0.14/VirtualBox-7.0.14-161095-Win.exe"
$installer = "$env:TEMP\VirtualBox-7.0.14-161095-Win.exe"

# Create C# Code to Download VirtualBox installer
Add-Type -TypeDefinition @"
    using System.IO;
    using System.Net.Http;

    public static class Downloader {
        public static void DownloadInstaller() {

            using (var client = new HttpClient())
            {
                using (var s = client.GetStreamAsync(@"$virtualBoxUrl"))
                {
                    using (var fs = new FileStream(@"$installer", FileMode.OpenOrCreate))
                    {
                        s.Result.CopyTo(fs);
                    }
                }
            }
        }
    }
"@
[Downloader]::DownloadInstaller()

# Install VirtualBox silently
Start-Process -FilePath $installer -ArgumentList "--silent --ignore-reboot" -Wait

# Remove installer
Remove-Item $installer

Conclusion

Before installing VirtualBox, we must install latest Microsoft Visual C++ Redistributable.

Then, to install VirtualBox silently in PowerShell, we could download the file first and then perform silent installation. To download the file, there are some cmdlets we can use: using Invoke-WebRequest or Invoke-RestMethod. We can also use .NET Framework class like WebClient or HttpClient to download the installer.

If we already have the installer, we can perform silent installation directly. After installation process finished, we remove the installer using Remove-Item cmdlet, but this step is optional.

Install VirtualBox Using PowerShell

Problem#

Using Invoke-WebRequest and Start-Process#

Using Invoke-RestMethod and Start-Process#

Using WebClient and Start-Process#

Using HttpClient and Start-Process#

Create C# object using PowerShell syntax#

Embed C# code then invoke it from PowerShell#

Conclusion#