If you are getting the “This device cannot start. (Code 10)” error whenever you plug a USB flash drive on your VirtualBox Windows virtual machine, you most likely need to install the “VirtualBox Extension Pack“. VirtualBox USB support is essential and is is unfortunate that is not installed by default, however, this is the reality. The not so evident solution is installing the extension pack. This extension pack enables support for USB 2.0 devices, VirtualBox remote desktop (RDP) and PXE boot from network for Intel network cards. In this tutorial I will demonstrate how to install the VirtualBox Extension Pack.  I will be using VirtualBox 4.0, Ubuntu 10.10 as the host operating system and Windows 7 as the virtual machine. However, the Extension Pack installation file is the same for all operating systems.

How to Install

Download the Virtualbox Extension Pack on your host operating system.

Open VirtualBox, click on “File” and then on “Preferences“.

On the left hand side column of the preferences window, click on “Extensions“. Then on the right hand side of the window, click on the icon to add the extensions (see the picture down below).

Browse to the folder containing the Guest Additions you just downloaded; select them and click “Open” to add them to your virtual machines.

Click “Install“, read the license agreement and proceed with the installation.

VirtualBox Extension Pack has now been installed. Click “OK” to finish.

Now start your Windows virtual machine. Once it is up and running go to “Computer“; you should not be able to access all your USB devices.

Hope this tutorial was helpful, if you have any questions, feel free to ask.