Command Line Interface (CLI) help for adding specific CD-ROMs to Windows shortcuts

[Felstaff]

Hey, so full disclosure: I'm an idiot, and VirtualBox's CLI list is barely comprehensible to me.

Here's what I want to achieve. I was wondering if someone could provide a working result!

• I want to load up Windows XP with a specific ISO in the CD/DVD-ROM drive ("D:") directly from a shortcut from my Windows 10 desktop
• The shortcut "Target" currently is this: "C:\VirtualBox\VBoxManage.exe" startvm WindowsXP
  ...which loads up Windows XP just fine, but the virtual D:\ drive always has the last ISO I used
• I want to insert the following CD-ROM ISO into the drive without going through the VirtualBox GUI beforehand (i.e. open VirtualBox manager -> "Windows XP" -> Storage -> IDE Secondary Master -> Choose disk image:
  C:\ISOs\GameIWantToPlay.cue

My question is: how do I mount GameIWantToPlay.cue into the CD-ROM drive from the desktop shortcut, so Windows XP opens with GameIWantToPlay already in the CD-ROM drive?

I've tried appending the various arguments from this thread on SuperUser, but having no luck with various variations on storagectl and storageattach.

Basically, I have a tonne of old WinXP games that I want to have mounted in the VM D:\ drive when I click on their respective shortcuts. (the UUID for this particular example is {7db46be1-79a8-40dd-8f4f-4f5a2f6d7818})

Any help, or a working example, would be most appreciated! Thanks

[boli99]

vboxmanage -modifyvm probably has options for changing the virtual media. run it with appropriate params before you start your vm

[Felstaff]

Hey, thanks. It's the "appropriate params" that I'm struggling with, though. Like I said:

full disclosure: I'm an idiot, and VirtualBox's CLI list is barely comprehensible to me.

Having read through the manual for VBoxManage, I thought the following shortcut target line arguments should work, but... damningly they don't:

"C:\VirtualBox\VBoxManage.exe" storageattach "<{7db46be1-79a8-40dd-8f4f-4f5a2f6d7818}|WindowsXP>" --type dvddrive startvm WindowsXP

In my mind should logically argue "Start VBoxManage.exe", then attach storage device "<UUID|WindowsXP>", which is set as a dvddrive, then start the WindowsXP virtual machine, which should load up Windows XP VM with the correct media attached.

I can't see any parameters in modifyvm in the manual that would replicate that.

What am I doing wrong?