Minishift Error creating directory when trying to Use VirtualBox Temporarily

Question

In git-cmd.exe, when I run the following inside my Minishift folder:

Use VirtualBox Temporarily

The error I receive is:

Error creating directory: C:\windows\system32\.minishift

Answer 1

Minishift creates its directory (.minishift) in home directory of current user. From the fact that Minishift tries to create its home directory in C:\windows\system32.minishift it seems to me that you run git-cmd.exe as an Administrator. And there might be problems with write permissions in C:\windows\system32.

To resolve this issue you can force Minishift to use another directory by setting up MINISHIFT_HOME environmental variable:

set MINISHIFT_HOME=C:/<some-path>/.minishift
minishift start --vm-driver virtualbox

Another solution might be to run the commands from non-privileged terminal as normal user. Home directory of that user then would be "C:/Users/<-username->" and Minishift will create its home directory in "C:/Users/<-username->/.minishift" which should not cause the problem.