Incompatible Windows systems
Genymotion Desktop does not support Windows XP.
Genymotion Desktop does not support Windows 7.
Genymotion Desktop does not support Windows 8.
Genymotion Desktop does not support Windows 8.1.
Genymotion Desktop does not support Windows IoT.
Genymotion Desktop does not support Windows Server systems.
Please use a supported Windows system.
You are using a VPN and/or Firewall
If you are using a VPN, refer to Genymotion Desktop and VPN.
If you are using a firewall, refer to Genymotion Desktop and firewalls.
Reboot your PC
If VirtualBox was installed alongside Genymotion, reboot your PC before launching Genymotion.
Verify your Windows security settings
Genymotion Desktop calls VirtualBox to perform several operations each time it starts.
These operations verify the availability of at least one VirtualBox Host-Only Ethernet Adapter.
These operations create a VirtualBox Host-Only Ethernet Adapter if the above verification fails.
These operations list all the deployed virtual devices.
These operations require administrator rights to be performed successfully.
If the Windows user account security settings are too tight, these operations will fail.
To avoid this, ensure that the Windows user account has Administrator rights.
To avoid this, ensure that the Windows security settings are not too tight.
Note: If many User Account Control (UAC) pop-ups prompt for Administrator permission, consider turning them off.
For instructions, refer to Enable or Disable User Account Control (UAC) in Windows.
Disable Hyper-V
If using Windows Pro or Enterprise, Hyper-V may interfere with VirtualBox.
We recommend disabling Hyper-V when using Genymotion Desktop.
If Hyper-V is still needed, you can switch to the QEMU hypervisor.
QEMU uses Hyper-V to access CPU virtualization technology.
QEMU support is still experimental on Windows systems and there are known issues.
QEMU requires Hyper-V, which is available on Windows Pro and Enterprise editions by default.
For Windows Home editions, Hyper-V must be installed manually.
See "Unable to start virtual device" when using QEMU (Windows only) for more details.
Fix VirtualBox Host-only adapter bugs
Genymotion creates and uses VirtualBox Host-only interfaces to communicate with VirtualBox.
There are known bugs on some Windows systems.
You will find several methods to solve them below.
Solution 1: Remove the excess VirtualBox Host-only interface
On some systems, VirtualBox creates many Host-only interfaces which confuses Genymotion.
To solve this, open VirtualBox.
Go to File > Tools > Network Manager.
In the Host-only Networks tab, remove all the VirtualBox Host-Only Ethernet Adapters.
Run Genymotion. You will probably get an error.
If so, reboot your PC.
You should now see only two or three VirtualBox Host-only interfaces.
If there are more, repeat steps 3 and 4.
If it still does not work, enable all the Host-only interfaces.
Go to Settings > Network & Internet > Change adapter options.
Enable any disabled VBox Host-only interface.
Note: On Windows 11, you can reach this page by typing “view network connections” in the Windows menu search box.
Solution 2: Disable and re-enable VirtualBox Host-only interface
If there is only one or two Host-only interfaces and you still get an error, try the following:
Open Windows Settings > Network & Internet > Change adapter options.
Right-click on VirtualBox Host-Only Ethernet Adapter.
Select Disable.
Right-click on the interface again and select Enable.
Switch to QEMU Hypervisor
On some rare hardware configurations, VirtualBox is unable to create viable Host-only interfaces. If none of the above solutions worked, you can try to switch to QEMU hypervisor.
Important
- QEMU support is still experimental on Windows systems and there are known issues. Check Genymotion Desktop release notes for more information.
- QEMU requires Hyper-V, which is available on Windows Pro and Enterprise editions by default. For Windows Home editions, you will need to install Hyper-V manually. See "Unable to start virtual device" when using QEMU (Windows only) for more details.
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