[FIX] Uninstall Virtualbox to update Windows 10

Published March 13, 2021 · Updated October 7, 2021

In some cases, if a user tries to update Windows 10 to a new release like Windows 10 20H2 or Windows 11, the setup would ask you to uninstall Virtualbox. This article helps you to correct the same error and proceed with Updating Windows 10.

A user being asked to uninstall Virtualbox

Background

The setup error is very generic, and it does not help much to root the issue. What happens is, Virtualbox is a virtualization software; that is, it allows running an Operating System on top of Windows(called as emulation), like Android, a Windows Install, etc. Under the hood, Virtualbox is used by a variety of applications. Hence, in reality, though you may not have Virtualbox installed, some other application is likely be using it in the background, which is installed on your computer. So if you remove the software, the error would no longer be. Alongside this, if the Software developer has updated his software with the new version of Virtualbox, you should not see the message.

Virtualbox Uninstall this App now because it isn’t compatible with Windows 10 error

To fix the Virtualbox blocking Windows 10 update to a new version, please go through the steps below.

Right-click the Start button and Choose Apps and features.
In the list of apps, locate the app(s) which may be using virtualization. Examples Include Bluestacks, LD Player, Android Studio, etc. If you have Virtualbox software itself, remove that as it may have older traces. For example, Virtualbox is used by LD Player and is located in the path C:\Program Files\dnplayerext2, and C:\Program Files\ldplayerbox. You need to manually delete both of these folders. In addition, they may be hidden so show the files beforehand.
Restart your computer and try again.

Applies To: Windows 10

These steps would help you to remove Virtualbox so that you can update Windows 10 to the latest release.

Install Windows 11 manually or offline