System requirements for the virtual machine. Installing and configuring the VirtualBox virtual machine. Installing VirtualBox for Windows

Installing software on a computer, especially little-known software, is always associated with a certain risk. The program may contain errors that affect the stability of the system, built-in advertising or tracking modules, and other unwanted elements. In addition, any software leaves traces on the system that may not have the best effect on its operation. As for experiments with Windows, everything is even more risky here, because sometimes even a seemingly insignificant change in registry data or modification of system files can lead to the most unpleasant consequences.

Ask how to avoid them? It’s very simple, use virtualization systems, for example, the VirtualBox virtual machine - a special program that allows you to install, run and test different operating systems in an isolated environment. You can do anything with such virtual computers - install programs on them, configure them, modify system files, work with disks and partitions, in a word, perform any experiments. If the virtual OS is damaged, you can restore it from a snapshot or delete it altogether - this will not have any effect on the host system, that is, the main working system.

Installing VirtualBox for Windows

Perhaps all this may seem complicated to some, but in fact there is nothing in working with Virtualbox that a novice user cannot handle. So how to use VirtualBox? As usual, it all starts with installation. We go to the developer’s website www.oracle.com/virtualization/virtualbox/index.html and download the latest version of the program.

Installing VirtualBox on Windows 7/10 is almost no different from installing most other programs; you just need to follow the instructions of the wizard and do not change anything in its parameters. Upon completion of the procedure, you will receive a ready-made virtualization platform.

Creating and basic configuration of a virtual machine

Like installing VirtualBox, creating and configuring a virtual computer is not particularly difficult; the program automatically selects the best configuration depending on the operating system you are installing. User control, however, will not hurt.

Let's create a virtual machine for Windows 10 32-bit as an example. Launch VirtualBox and click the “Create” button on the toolbar. In the window that opens, give the machine a name (can be arbitrary); in the drop-down lists, select the operating system and its version.

At the next stage, you will be asked to specify the amount of RAM allocated to the virtual machine. There are no strict rules regarding the allocated RAM; for 32-bit Windows it is advisable to reserve at least 1 GB of memory, for 64-bit Windows - at least 1.8-2 GB.

At the third stage, a virtual hard disk is created, here we leave everything by default. Click “Create”, select the disk type VDI or VHD.

As for the storage format, it is better to select “Dynamic”, this way you will save time and space on the physical disk, although losing a little in performance.

We set the size of the virtual disk as desired, but not less than specified in the operating system requirements. Click “Create”.

The virtual machine has been created and now you can quickly go through its settings. First of all, however, go to the settings of the VirtualBox program itself and on the “General” tab change the path to the virtual machine storage directory. It is best to allocate a folder for them on drive D, where there is the most space.

Now go to the settings of the created VM and check the following parameters:

In the “General” section on the “Advanced” tab, change the path to the VM snapshot files if necessary (it is advisable to place them in the folder with the main VM container file). Here you can enable a shared clipboard for the host and virtual machines.
If you want to install the system in EFI/GPT mode, in the “System” section, be sure to check the “Enable EFI (special OS only)” checkbox.
To be able to run 3D applications on a virtual machine, in the “Display” section, check the “Enable 3D acceleration” checkbox.

Setting up the Internet and shared folders

If you plan to provide access to the VM to other users of the local physical network, you should select the “Network Bridge” connection type in the VirtualBox network settings. To ensure interaction between different virtual machines, the “Virtual Host Adapter” mode is used; to connect guest operating systems to a single internal network, the “Internal Network” mode is used. There is also a “Universal Driver” connection type, but it is used much less frequently.

Of particular interest are shared folders in VirtualBox, thanks to which the user can exchange any files between the host and virtual machines. You can connect such a directory in the “Shared Folders” section. To do this, click on the plus sign opposite the “Machine Folders” item, select a folder on your hard drive through the overview and connect it, not forgetting to check the “Auto-connect” checkbox.

Starting a VM and installing the operating system

Now you know how to configure VirtualBox and the created VM. Next, let's see how to install the operating system on it. The procedure for installing an OS on Virtualbox is practically no different from installing it on a physical computer, except that instead of a bootable flash drive or DVD, an ISO installation image is used here. Launch the created virtual machine and specify the path to the bootable ISO image with the system in the window that opens.

The standard installation procedure will begin, during which you will be asked to accept the license agreement, partition the disk, and after copying the system files, create a user account.

The guest operating system is installed, but some functions, in particular, shared folders and the clipboard, will not work until you install a special plugin - guest OS additions. In addition, without these add-ons you will not be able to adjust the screen resolution, connect flash drives to the virtual machine, etc. Fortunately, you don’t need to download anything; guest OS add-ons are included with VirtualBox. All you need to do is select the option in the virtual operating system menu Devices – Mount the Guest Additions disk image.

Go to the “This PC” section in the virtual OS, open the disk drive VirtualBox Guest Additions and, if the system does not offer to do this itself, run the executable file VBoxWindowsAdditions.exe.

Install the add-ons as a regular program, accepting the security agreement, and restart the virtual computer.

The guest system is ready for use, all that remains is to check the network operation. We will not dwell in detail on how to set up the Internet in VirtualBox. If you selected NAT, the VM will connect to the Internet automatically. With other types of connections, you will most likely have to tinker a little. Remember the main thing: if the IP address for your main computer is automatically issued by the router, the same settings must be set in the parameters of the virtual system network adapter. If settings are assigned manually, then they must also be assigned manually in the guest system network adapter settings.

Main problems when working with VirtualBox

VirtualBox is a stable and high-quality software product, and if users have to encounter problems during its operation, the causes of the latter are most often the errors of the users themselves. Thus, those who try to launch virtual machines on VirtualBox with Hyper-V active will encounter the error “Failed to open a session for the virtual machine” (code E_FAIL 0x80004005). The reason is the incompatibility of these virtualization platforms. If you are planning to use VirtualBox, please disable Hyper-V and vice versa.

However, the disabled virtualization function in the BIOS can lead to the same error. This will be indicated by the unavailability of hardware virtualization options in the virtual machine settings (VT-x/AMD-V and Nested Paging in the section System - Acceleration). By the way, these options must be enabled even with active virtualization in the BIOS, otherwise the VM will also not start.

A VM crashing into BSOD upon startup is a common problem caused by a lack of physical computer resources allocated to the guest operating system. When creating a virtual machine in VirtualBox, you need to ensure that the allocated resources meet the requirements of the operating system.

The Blue Screen of Death can also be caused by Hyper-V enabled on the host system and a controller type mismatch. If the virtual disk was previously connected to SATA, and then you connected it to IDE, the guest OS will fail with a critical error and crash into BSOD. The issue is resolved by creating a new compatible controller and connecting a container file with the guest system to it.

Accidental deletion of snapshot files by the user may result in the inability to start the VM. You need to delete snapshots correctly - through the “Snapshots” section, otherwise you will have to completely reinstall the guest system. If VirtualBox itself does not start or when you start it you get the error “Cannot access the kernel driver!”, most likely you will have to uninstall the program and then reinstall it.

VirtualBox is a program that can create for you a virtual machine that has the parameters of a real computer. Moreover, on the created machine it will even be possible to run any operating system.

You can download Oracle VM VirtualBox to a computer that runs on other than Windows OS. The utility supports Linux, Solaris, Mac OS X. Thus, using the software, you can run a virtual machine running Linux or even Windows on a computer running Mac OS.

Functional

The Oracle VM VirtualBox utility is capable of:

support guest systems on 64-bit and 32-bit systems,
support hardware 3D acceleration, audio device virtualization,
support file exchange between the guest system and the host system.

Since the basic version of the Oracle VM VirtualBox program is distributed under the GNU GPL license, there are no restrictions on its use, which means that it can be installed both at home and on devices owned by the enterprise.

Separately, it is worth noting the cross-platform nature of this software, as well as the fact that it is capable of creating 64-bit guest systems even when running on 32-bit host systems.

Interface

If you have already downloaded Oracle VM VirtualBox in Russian for free, then install it and run the program. Next, you will need to press Ctrl+N simultaneously. This will give you access to the Create option. Or you can click on the “Machine” menu item and select “Create” there.

You will need to come up with a name for the machine and select the operating system type and version for it.

Specify the amount of RAM that will be available for use in this guest system. If you do not enter a value here, the program will install it for you. As a rule, it takes one third of the amount of RAM that is available on your PC. However, you can specify your own parameters. However, try not to go beyond the green field. Since if you move the slider responsible for these parameters outside of this sector, then you may have problems with the operation of the system.

When this stage is completed, you will need to create a virtual disk. Here you will have to decide how much space you need for this, and indicate the desired value in the appropriate field. Now all that remains is to click on “Launch”.

But in order to specify the bootable CD image, you need to click on Devices - Optical Drives - Choose a virtual optical drive file.

You will see a window where you will need to find the path to the file with the CD image on which the OS you need is loaded. Next, click on “Open”. And thus the installation of the virtual operating system will end.

If you downloaded Oracle VM VirtualBox for Windows 10, 8, 7 on 32 bit and 64 bit from among the new versions, you will see that they have a number of significant additions. For example, you can now export virtual machines to Oracle Cloud. The graphic selector has also been redesigned and audio support for video recording has been suppressed. True, this possibility is still experimental.

It is noteworthy that all machines created in this way are highly productive.

System requirements

Supported systems:

Windows: Vista SP1 and higher (32-bit and 64-bit), Server 2008 (64-bit), Server 2008 R2 (64-bit), 7 (32-bit and 64-bit), 8 (32-bit and 64-bit), 8.1 (32-bit and 64-bit), 10 RTM build 10240 (32-bit and 64-bit), Server 2012 (64-bit), Server 2012 R2 (64-bit).
Mac OS X hosts (64-bit): 10.9 (Mavericks), 10.10 (Yosemite), 10.11 (El Capitan)
Linux hosts (32-bit and 64-bit): Ubuntu 12.04 LTS - 16.10, Debian GNU/Linux 7 (“Wheezy”), 8 (“Jessie”) and 9 (“Stretch”), Oracle Enterprise Linux 5, Oracle Linux 6 and 7, Redhat Enterprise Linux 5, 6 and 7, Fedora Core / Fedora 6 to 24, Gentoo Linux, openSUSE 11.4 - 13.2

VMware Workstation is a program that allows you to create virtual machines on a host system. In this case, the number of guest programs can be unlimited. It all depends on the capabilities of the host system itself. Guest OSes installed on a computer operate in a virtual environment without affecting the real system. This way, you can check suspicious software without fear that it will harm your native OS.
Virtual PC. A virtualization software package for the Windows operating system, as well as an emulation program for Mac OS.
VMware Workstation. Virtualization software designed for x86-64 computers running Microsoft Windows and Linux operating systems.
Hypervisor. A program or hardware circuit that enables or enables the simultaneous, parallel execution of multiple operating systems on the same host computer.
QEMU. A free and open source program for emulating hardware of various platforms. Includes emulation of Intel x86 processors and I/O devices.

Conclusion

There are many reasons why users might want a virtual system installed on their computer's OS. Unfortunately, there are not many worthy software that allow you to realize what you want.

However, Oracle VM VirtualBox stands out noticeably against their background. Moreover, you can download Virtual Box in Russian. After all, this version will allow you to quickly understand the features of the program. You can download Oracle VM VirtualBox from our website.

This is a program that will help system administrators make their lives easier. With its help, you can deploy a virtual local network of several computers with different operating systems on one computer. The program uses the source code of the Qemu project.

Virtualbox is distributed in 2 versions: free O pen S ource E dition (OSE) and proprietary (PUEL). The fully functional proprietary version of the program can be used for home use absolutely free.

Screenshots

Description

Strengths of Virtualbox:

The program works on all popular operating systems: Windows, Linux, FreeBSD, Mac OS X and SUN Solaris/OpenSolaris.
The program is very easy to use.
Host-machine USB devices are available in guest OSs (works out of the box only in the PUEL version).
VMDK (VMware) and VHD (Microsoft Virtual PC) hard drive images can be easily launched in Virtualbox.
Audio device virtualization.
You can organize a local network between the guest OS and the host OS using NAT, Bridged and Internal.
You can save the state of the virtual machine (snapshots), which you can return to at any time.
Ability to create a public directory for sharing files between the host and guest systems.

Interface language: Russian and English
License: for the OSE version - GNU GPL, the license text for the PUEL version can be read on the Wiki page.
Homepage: http://www.virtualbox.org/

Installation

Windows / MacOS / Linux source code:
Ubuntu/Kubuntu/Xubuntu:
# echo "deb http://download.virtualbox.org/virtualbox/debian `lsb_release -cs` non-free" | sudo tee -a /etc/apt/sources.list

# Connecting an additional repository

# sudo apt-key adv --recv-keys --keyserver keyserver.ubuntu.com 54422A4B98AB5139 && sudo apt-get update

# Adding a repository key and updating the package list

# sudo apt-get install virtualbox-ose

# Installing Virtualbox version of OSE

# sudo apt-get install virtualbox-3.0

# Installing Virtualbox version PUEL

Similar 7 programs:

Comments
1. Geralt
  23 July, 12:33
  Oh thanks for the article! I am subscribed to your news feed and always find something interesting on this site. Now I found out that there is VirtualBox PUEL, which supports usb. Before that I tried to enable usb support in the OSE version.
2. 24 July, 03:16
  >Geralt
  I am very glad that this site is still useful for someone besides me.
  VirtualBox OSE can also be trained to understand USB. I will write about this later.
3. Geralt
  24 July, 12:27
  I tried many ways to teach VirtualBox OSE to understand usb (using fstab, etc.) but it didn’t help. Ubuntu 9.04 distribution
4. 25 July, 03:50
  I used to screw up USB on Ubuntu 8.10. I'll take a look))
5. man
  12 November, 14:24
  how to remove Windows from a virtual machine
6. Mut@NT
  13 November, 14:22
  Just delete the “hard drive” file. I have them in /home
7. Lyokha
  8 March, 18:42
8. Mut@NT
  9 March, 06:12
  
  Lyokha: Can you tell me what system requirements are acceptable for installation and usability of VirtualBox? I have a Dell-500 Celeron single-core 2.13 GHz, 2 Gb RAM, can I work normally in the box in this situation? I would like to experiment, use different Linux distributions, currently ubuntu 10.10, I don’t want to install second systems, cut the screw, then demolish it.
  P.S. The site is cool, I found a lot of useful things for myself. Thank you)
9. Anatoly
  20 March, 19:43
10. Mut@NT
  22 March, 17:34
  
  Anatoly: Is there a special distribution for VirualBox?
11. your name
  24 March, 02:19
  
  Mut@NT: Why him? If you want to use VirtualBox as a virtualization platform, you can simply install Ubuntu Srver and VirtualBox on it
12. Mut@NT
  24 March, 14:21
  
  Your name: Then, so that the virtual machine can make maximum use of system resources and its memory, without sharing them with processes (services, “daemons”) that are not necessary for its operation.
  
  I have never seen such distributions.
13. your name
  25 March, 10:52
14. Mut@NT
  25 March, 14:30
  
  Your name: Thanks for the answer. The same Ubuntu Server, apparently, can be configured for VirtualBox. Do I understand correctly that it “sees” up to 16 GB RAM? Do you have to have a server or is a workstation enough? Are there any restrictions on the disk file system? Is it possible to format it, say, ext3, if you plan to install virtual XP? Sorry for the bunch of questions and thanks if you answer.
  
  I can’t tell you about 16 GB, but it looks like a 64-bit OS should see this size, it’s not that big.
  The file system can be any. I use Ext4 on servers.
  The difference between a Linux server and a Linux slave. station only in that the latter additionally loads a graphical shell, which accordingly eats up some part of the system resources. The servers are spared from this. Virtualbox works quite correctly for me on an Atom N280 and 2GB of RAM. It’s clear that you won’t get high responsiveness from a virtual machine, but it’s enough for me to experiment with.
15. CosmicBubu
  7 February, 19:01
  
  Mut@NT: You can check this experimentally. I'm running VirtualBox on a netbook. Of course it’s not a comfortable job, but you can have a look.
  
  Oh, thanks for the tip, otherwise I was afraid that the beech wouldn’t work. I’ll put it on, I’ll get nostalgic, from Bubunta, over Vin2000

VirtualBox 5.1.6

On September 13, 2016, Oracle announced the release of a corrective release of the VirtualBox 5.1.6 virtualization system.

The release includes 28 fixes to improve stability and eliminate regression changes.

Among the changes:

VirtualBox 5.1.4

Correction:

The installer for the Linux platform has fixed several bugs that caused installation failures on some Linux distributions;
Fixed a problem with the normal display of the mouse pointer when operating guest systems with Linux and Solaris in a Windows host environment;
Additions for Linux guest systems improve the operation of the video driver in 32-bit guest systems with large video memory;
The video driver included in the add-ons for Linux guest systems adds support for the Linux 4.7 kernel and provides a workaround for an error in the X server that causes screen updating to stop;
Crashes and freezes that occur during the operation of the audio subsystem and USB have been eliminated;
Improved stability on NVMe drives;
Fixed problems with incorrectly limiting storage access bandwidth when setting the limit values too small.

VirtualBox 5.1.2

Major changes

Implementation of APIC (Advanced Programmable Interrupt Controller) and I/O APIC, notable for a significant increase in performance for certain types of load (when using network functions);
Migrating the interface to Qt5;
Enabling passive processing of API requests, which increased the performance and responsiveness of the VM GUI;
The Detach UI function has been moved to the virtual machine management menu;
Support for paravirtualized Hyper-V debugging for Windows guest environments;
Advanced MMIO (Memory-mapped I/O) emulation;
Audio output improvements: Added HDA (High Definition Audio) support for modern Linux guests. Improved performance when performing audio operations and reduced CPU load. The AC"97 emulator provides the ability to more accurately control volume;
Improved Python 3 support;
The session information window has been redesigned;
The new virtual machine setup wizard now allows you to select the location of the created VM;
When working with drives, the fallocate call was used to proactively reserve blocks, which made it possible to increase the speed of creating disk images of a fixed size;
Implemented an NVMHCI-compatible solid-state drive controller (NVM Express, Non-Volatile Memory Host Controller Interface);
Improved performance of the E1000 network driver;
Numerous improvements to EFI support, including USB boot capability;
Improved processing of images in OVF (Open Virtualization Format) format, certified with a digital signature;
DKMS is no longer used to build the Linux kernel module.

VirtualBox 5.0.16

Among the most notable fixes:

An issue leading to incorrect behavior of guest systems on computers with AMD CPUs has been fixed;
The problem with GUI crash, which occurs under rather rare circumstances, has been resolved;
For Linux, an experimental possibility of PC speaker forwarding has been introduced;
Fixed several problems with xHCI USB controllers (for example, webcam forwarding did not work);
Added support for cached authentication in Active Directory when a domain controller is unavailable to guest management tools;
Problems with the operation of the /sbin/rcvboxdrv script on Linux hosts have been resolved;
For Linux hosts, correct removal of Python scripts is ensured when performing the uninstall operation via the .run installer.

VirtualBox 5.1 Beta 1

The main upgraded features of Oracle VirtualBox 5.1 (the final version is expected no earlier than mid-August 2016):

The hypervisor will implement APIC (Advanced Programmable Interrupt Controller) and I/O APIC; they will provide a performance boost under certain network conditions.
The hypervisor will support paravirtualized guest OSes with the Hyper-V role for debugging.
Improvements to working with MMIO, which gives a positive effect in terms of performance and reduces the overhead of virtualization.
The GUI has moved to Qt5.
The passive event listener API increases front-end performance and reduces response time during operations in the VirtualBox console.
Improved Python 3 support.
Many improvements in the GUI - for example, a redesigned session information window, a new virtual machine creation wizard and much more.
To quickly create pre-allocated virtual disks, use the fallocate function (if supported).
Improved EFI support (booting from USB stick is possible).
Improved handling of digitally signed OVF virtual module packets.
The Linux installer no longer uses DKMS to build modules.

VirtualBox 5.0.24

The product includes eight fixes aimed at improving stability and eliminating regression changes. The most noticeable change is the rollback of the code to the old I/O-APIC implementation due to the identification of a series of regressive changes in the new code. As a result, some guests may experience a drop in I/O performance before the 5.0.20 release. As a workaround, it is recommended to disable GRO support for Linux guests.

Other changes:

Addressing potential corruption of optimized VMDK images created in VMware products;
Implementation of support for dynamic reconnection of input devices on hosts running OS X;
Informing guest systems about changes in battery charge state through ACPI notifications;
Solving problems when using host systems with the Linux 4.6 kernel;
Resuming GUI functionality on Solaris 10 hosts.

2015

Beta testing of VirtualBox 5.0 has begun

The main change in it is the implementation of work in paravirtualization mode, which involves the use of a guest system modified for closer interaction with the hypervisor and using special drivers instead of hardware emulation. Working in paravirtualization mode makes it possible to significantly increase the performance of the guest system.

Screenshot of the paravirtualization manager window, 2015

Including changes:

New modular architecture of the audio subsystem, providing a higher level of abstraction relative to the audio backends of the host system;
Providing guest systems running using hardware virtualization mechanisms with the ability to use extended instruction sets, such as SSE 4.1, SSE4.2, AES-NI, POPCNT, RDRAND and RDSEED;
The xHCI virtual controller now supports USB 3 devices;
Support for drag"n"drop mode for Windows, Linux and Solaris guest systems;
Ability to encrypt disk images;
Added support for scaling guest screen output to the GUI, including when using 3D acceleration;
New configurator section for customizing the menu and status bar;
New tab for configuring disk image encryption settings;
Ultra High Definition Display (HiDPI) support
Possibility of hot plugging of SATA drives.

Oracle has released a release corrector for VirtualBox 4.3.28

Notable fixes

Improved means of forwarding web cameras from Linux hosts (V4L2). Added support for new web camera models;
Support for the upcoming Linux kernel 4.1;
Solving problems when working on systems with the Linux kernel 3.19 with the SMAP protection mode activated;
Eliminate flickering when updating the mouse cursor when using add-ons for X11;
The use of VNIC templates with network configurations on the Crossbow platform in Solaris has been established;
Fixed crashes when shutting down Linux and restoring the X11 environment after hibernation when using 3D acceleration tools;
VRDP has achieved compatibility with rdesktop 1.8.3, rdesktop-vrdp has been moved to version 1.8.3;
Improved volume controls when emulating HD audio devices;
Ensures correct application of bandwidth limitation when using NAT.

Oracle announced VirtualBox 5.0 Release Candidate 1

Screenshot of the application window, 2015

Among the most significant changes:

improved support for high resolution monitors (HiDPI)
more efficient use of video memory, this expands the range of device support and optimizes performance
Improved console interface, added smoother switching of elements
support for localization interface languages (NLS)
the encryption process is displayed correctly
support for hot adding USB controllers, now the controller type is visible in the VM settings
hot plugging of SATA optical drives
many Guest Additions bug fixes
improved Drag&Drop mechanism
rdesktop-vrdp version 1.8.3
fixed AHCI processing errors
the Guest Additions heartbeat service is documented
improved overall system stability

Oracle VM VirtualBox 5.0 released

On August 4, 2015, Oracle Corporation announced the availability for download of Oracle VM VirtualBox 5.0, an open (Open Source) cross-platform virtualization software.

Oracle VM VirtualBox runs on desktop and mobile PCs with x86 processors. Oracle VM VirtualBox allows the creation of multi-platform virtual machine environments for application development and testing, for virtualizing the operating system for universal purposes with the additional capability of dynamic encryption. Developers can create applications for cloud platforms like Docker and OpenStack directly in the Oracle VM VirtualBox virtual machine environment on their computers running Windows, Mac OS, Linux or Oracle Solaris, making it easier to develop multi-tier applications on a regular laptop.

Screenshot of the application window, 2014

Oracle VM VirtualBox helps you create and update virtual machines locally on your computers, including the operating system and applications, and then package them into a standard file format for distribution and deployment in the cloud with Oracle VM Server or other server virtualization solutions. In addition, Oracle VM VirtualBox helps you run almost any x86 platform operating system to run applications that are not natively available to run on host systems.

Oracle VM VirtualBox 5.0 version supports the latest guest or host operating systems, including Mac OS X Yosemite, Windows 10, Oracle Solaris, Oracle Linux and other Linux distributions, as well as legacy operating systems.

Oracle VM VirtualBox 5.0 Additions:

Paravirtualization support for Windows and Linux guest operating systems - Paravirtualization (the ability to run a modified guest OS without hardware virtualization) improves the performance of the guest operating system by using the built-in virtualization support in operating systems such as Oracle Linux 7 and Microsoft Windows 7 (and later versions).

Optimized CPU Usage - The guest operating system is provided with an enhanced processor instruction set, allowing applications to leverage the latest hardware instruction sets for maximum performance.

Support for USB 3.0 devices - Guest operating systems can directly recognize USB 3.0 devices and run them at the appropriate maximum speeds. The guest OS can be configured to support USB 1.1, 2.0 and 3.0.

Support for bidirectional Drag and Drop for Windows - On all host platforms, Windows, Linux and Oracle Solaris guest operating systems now support Drag and Drop operations between the host and guest OS. The drag-and-drop feature allows you to transparently copy, open files, directories, etc.

Disk image encryption - Data can be encrypted on virtual hard disk images in the background while programs are running; it uses the AES algorithm with 256-bit encryption keys (DEK). This helps ensure that data is securely protected and allows encryption to occur at any time, regardless of the virtual machine's inactivity or activity on the development machine or server.

VirtualBox 5.0.2 released

Among the most notable:

Built-in support for systemd has been added to installation scripts for host and guest environments. Scripts for building kernel modules are now located in /sbin/rcvboxdrv (for the host) and /sbin/rcvboxadd (additions for guest systems);
added support for OS X 10.11 "El Capitan";
solved problems with compilation when using pre-releases of the Linux 4.3 kernel;
Fixed problems in the installer that appeared in Linux From Scratch and systems with the “vanilla” Linux kernel;
in additions for Linux guest systems, the correct saving of the VBoxService process identifier in the PID file has been adjusted;
Problems with the operation of Guest Control tools when using add-ons for Linux guest systems have been resolved;
a large portion of fixes specific to Windows and OS X guest systems, as well as when running VirtualBox in host mode on the Windows platform.

VirtualBox 5.0.10

The release includes 32 fixes aimed at improving stability and eliminating regressive changes. Among them:

Compatibility with RHEL 7.2 is ensured;
The problem with compatibility with .desktop files on Linux host systems has been resolved (the /usr/share/applications/virtualbox.desktop file was supplied incorrectly);
the organization of recompilation of the kernel module has been changed (the launch of “/sbin/rcvboxdrv setup” has been ensured instead of /sbin/vboxconfig, which led to problems with activating the module on some systems);
PCI device forwarding process has been improved on Linux hosts;
Fixed a rare problem that, under certain circumstances, caused the virtual machine to freeze on Linux and OS X platforms;
Bindings for Python 2.7 have been added for hosts on the Solaris platform;
Linux fixed an issue with connecting a second monitor caused by the compiler removing code it thought was unused, which was not the case;
in additions for guest systems with Linux, the names of directories mounted for sharing are transferred to /proc/mounts (previously "none" was displayed);
in additions for guest systems with Linux, a workaround has been implemented to solve the problem with enabling the systemd service "vboxadd", which occurs when using SELinux;
in the GUI, problems with scrolling when dragging elements outside the selection area have been resolved and cursor handling has been improved when selecting text with the mouse;
Problems with XHCI controller emulation in software virtualization mode have been resolved;
LBA64 support has been added to the BIOS implementation, making it possible to boot from very large hard drives.

2013

Oracle VM VirtualBox 4.3

Among the significant features of the new version is support for the 'scaling' mode, which allows you to proportionally reduce the size of the guest operating system window. The VirtualBox management interface has also been redesigned, which in the new version is called VirtualBox Manager. The new interface, in addition to service information, now contains screenshots reflecting the recent state of the guest operating system. The storage locations for program files have been changed, the amount of supported memory on 32-bit guest systems has been increased, and new virtual components have been added: Intel ICH9 chipset and Intel HD Audio. OVF support has also been improved, work with VDI and VHD images has been improved, support for multiple virtual screens has been added on Linux and Solaris guest systems, and bugs have been fixed.

In the fourth version, the program architecture has been redesigned: it now consists of a base package and sets of extensions. The main package is distributed under the GPLv2 license.

The new version of VirtualBox adds the ability to connect additional functional modules, including those distributed under proprietary licenses. So far, the Oracle VM VirtualBox Extension Pack plug-in has been announced, which will provide high speed when working with USB 2.0, remote desktop access and network boot services. It is likely that in the future Oracle will develop other plug-ins that can be distributed for a fee.

Oracle VM VirtualBox - a powerful free virtualization system for x86 and AMD64/Intel64 architectures for creating isolated virtual machines with various operating systems for corporate and home users.

The program is absolutely free and entirely in Russian, which makes it very attractive for use on both home and work computers. The system was first made available in 2007 by InnoTek in two versions - open and closed source, both free for non-commercial use. In 2008, the platform was purchased by Sun Microsystems, which is currently developing it.

The platform is a virtualization system for host systems Windows, Linux and Mac OS and provides interaction with guest operating systems Windows (2000/XP/2003/ /Seven, etc.), Linux (Ubuntu/Debian/ OpenSUSE/ Mandriva, etc.) , OpenBSD, FreeBSD, OS/2 Warp.

Program description

Oracle VM VirtualBox is a feature-rich tool for creating isolated virtual machines, offers high performance, and is also the only professional solution that is freely available and open source under the terms of the GNU General Public License (GPL) v.2.

VirtualBox supports a large number of guest operating systems, including, but not limited to, Windows (NT 4.0, 2000, XP, Server 2003, Vista, Windows 7), DOS/Windows 3. x, Linux (2.4 and 2.6), Solaris and OpenSolaris, OS/2 and OpenBSD.

VirtualBox is actively developed with frequent updates and has an ever-growing list of features, supported guest operating systems and platforms it works with. VirtualBox is a team effort supported by dedicated companies: everyone is encouraged to contribute while Oracle ensures the product meets professional quality criteria.

Features of VirtualBox Extension Pack

The Extension Pack adds useful new features to the popular virtualization solution VirtualBox.

The set of add-ons includes a USB 2.0 controller (EHCI), which, for example, will allow you to improve the performance of your USB 2.0 devices.

You also get support for the VirtualBox Remote Desktop Protocol (VDRP). Essentially, this allows you to run a virtual machine on one computer while you view and manage it from another.

The Extension Pack also includes support for remote booting of the computer via Intel PXE boot ROM emulation with support for the E1000 network card.

All these features require a separate installation of a package with the "vbox-extpack" extension on top of VirtualBox (to download, go to the "Useful Links" section).

Close VirtualBox, download and run the VirtualBox Extension Pack installation file, and VirtualBox will launch the add-on and install it, updating any earlier versions that may have been installed.

VirtualBox: System Requirements

Supported systems

Windows hosts:

Windows Vista SP1 and higher (32-bit and 64-bit)
Windows Server 2008 (64-bit)
Windows Server 2008 R2 (64-bit)
Windows 7 (32-bit and 64-bit)
Windows 8 (32-bit and 64-bit)
Windows 8.1 (32-bit and 64-bit)
Windows 10 RTM build 10240 (32-bit and 64-bit)
Windows Server 2012 (64-bit)
Windows Server 2012 R2 (64-bit)

Mac OS X hosts (64-bit):

10.9 (Mavericks)
10.10 (Yosemite)
10.11 (El Capitan)

Linux hosts (32-bit and 64-bit), including:

Ubuntu 12.04 LTS - 16.04
Debian GNU/Linux 7 ("Wheezy"), 8 ("Jessie") and 9 ("Stretch")
Oracle Enterprise Linux 5, Oracle Linux 6 and 7
Redhat Enterprise Linux 5, 6 and 7
Fedora Core / Fedora 6 to 24
Gentoo Linux
openSUSE 11.4 - 13.2

Download from the official website For a more detailed introduction to the Oracle VM VirtualBox platform, you can visit.

Spoiler: Screenshots of the program

Last edited: 01.28.2019

VirtualBox 4.3.10 offers full-screen support for OS X

VirtualBox 4.3.10. While the release primarily offers a series of bug fixes, the solution does include one new feature for OS X users.

VirtualBox is a free application for creating virtual computers. The program supports almost all modern operating systems; Windows, DOS/Windows 3.x, Linux, OpenBSD and others can be used as guest operating systems.

The new feature is experimental support for native full-screen mode, which was previously implemented in Mountain Lion and Mavericks. This new option comes with the removal of another: the minimize button in the toolbar.

Other notable improvements include:

Ensured correct installation of Linux add-ons in Ubuntu guest environments with the /usr/lib64 directory.
Additions for X11 resolve an issue where the VBoxClient process would not terminate correctly, resulting in significant CPU consumption.
Improved emulation of some MSR registers.
Fixed a bug that prevented the creation of compact snapshots under certain conditions.
HID LED synchronization between Windows and Mac hosts.
Issues in 3D hardware acceleration support have been resolved.

For questions regarding cooperation, please contact us or via correspondence. Free help with infections and technical problems is provided on the forum; you must create a new topic in the appropriate section.

Any point on the map can be the center of the world. He is neither bad nor good. He just is. There is no virtue or dishonor here. There is only you alone with your conscience. And so on until the race is over, until the end comes, until we turn into the ghosts we seemed to ourselves. (c) film "Legend"

You lose more from indecision than from a wrong decision. (c) Carmela Soprano

New version of VirtualBox 5.0.10

VirtualBox 5.0.10 for Windows hosts x86/amd64

VirtualBox 5.0.10 for OS X hosts amd64

VirtualBox 5.0.10 for Linux hosts

VirtualBox 5.0.10 for Solaris hosts amd64

VirtualBox 5.0.10 Oracle VM VirtualBox Extension Pack All supported platforms

Changelog VirtualBox 5.0.10 (released 2015-11-10)

VMM: improved support for certain Intel Atom CPUs (bug #14773)
VMM: system register emulation fix (5.0 regression; bug #14515)
GUI: fixed immediate screenshot issue (bug #14108)
GUI: fixed another 3D overlay window reparenting issue when the VM is switched to fullscreen mode on X11 hosts
GUI: fixed help index (bug #14722)
GUI: fixed state synchronization issue in the VM manager window when VM was paused from its runtime window
Audio: fixed suspending/resuming audio streams on VM pause/unpause (bug #14784)
Audio: properly reset AC97 audio streams, otherwise there is silence until a non-48 kHz stream is played
Audio: fixed a small emulation quirk of the AD1980 codec of the HDA device to make recent linux guests work (bug #14653)
USB: serveral fixes for the xHCI controller
USB: fixed a crash under certain conditions on hosts with Linux kernels older than version 3.3
USB: better identification of certain USB devices
NAT: support TCP in DNS proxy (bug #14736)
NAT Network: fixed sporadic crashes on Windows hosts (bug #13899)
API: when creating differencing images (e.g. as part of a snapshot or cloning a VM) use the same disk image variant as the parent image if possible, which means that e.g. a diff image for a VMDK image split into 2 GB files will also be split (bug #14764)
API: event queue handling fixes preventing loss of certain events at runtime (e.g. new webcam attached), particularly important on Mac OS X hosts
Webcam: passthrough fix for certain devices (Windows hosts only)
VBoxManage: don"t crash on snapshot restorecurrent / edit if the VM has no snapshots
VBoxManage: don't crash on controlvm addencpassword (bug #14729)
Mac OS X hosts: use the correct kernel on certain hosts
Windows hosts: fixed VRDP external authentication
Windows hosts: allow to use a shared folder path with extended-length path prefix (5.0 regression; bug #14651)
Windows hosts: fix a crash in the netfilter host driver under certain conditions (bug #14799)
Windows host installer: documented and fixed public properties which can be used to control the installation to some extent
Windows host installer: fixed not starting the actual installation when showing the version information or help dialogs
X11 Additions: added basic support for X.Org Server 1.18 (3D requires additional fixes)

New version of VirtualBox 5.0.12

VirtualBox 5.0.12 for Windows hosts x86/amd64

VirtualBox 5.0.12 for OS X hosts amd64

VirtualBox 5.0.12 for Linux hosts

VirtualBox 5.0.12 for Solaris hosts amd64

VirtualBox 5.0.12 Oracle VM VirtualBox Extension Pack All supported platforms

Changelog VirtualBox 5.0.12 (released 2015-12-18)

This is a maintenance release. The following items were fixed and/or added:

GUI: fixed wrong scrolling behavior in the VM selector window when a VM item is dragged out of the chooser-pane area
GUI: fixed the validation of IPv6 port-forwarding rules
GUI: suppress the first-run wizard if a CD/DVD medium is inserted using the selector UI
GUI: fixed the Ctrl+Break key sequence scan codes (bug )
GUI: improved handling of text selection mouse pointer (bug)
Host services: fixed a crash during VM shutdown under rare conditions (5.0.6 regression; bug )
Shared folders: fixed a sharing violation if a file is opened to check the attributes (Windows hosts only; bug )
Webcam: passthrough fix for certain devices (Mac OS X hosts only)
XHCI: fixed broken emulation if software virtualization is used
XHCI: several fixes
3D: fixed state handling under certain conditions (bug)
Audio: several fixes
BIOS: added LBA64 support for being able to boot from huge hard disks (bug)
EFI: fix for Windows 10 guests
ExtPack: before installing an Extension Pack check if there are VMs running to prevent file system locking issues
rdesktop-vrdp: source code tarball fixes
Windows hosts: fixed hang when using VBoxAuthSimple library for VRDP external authentication (bug)
Windows hosts: fixed a regression which prevented it to attach to a physical network adapter having TCP/IP disabled (bug)
Windows hosts: fixed a regression which caused multi-port adapters to be shown as a single adapter (bugs , )
Windows hosts: fixed a regression which caused created host-only adapters to not appear in the list (bug)
Windows hosts: fixed host-only adapter creation issues related to Windows 10 (bugs, )
Linux hosts: .desktop file compatibility issue (bug)
Linux hosts/guests: fixes for RHEL 7.2 (bug)
The command for recompiling the host kernel modules was changed again, to /sbin/rcvboxdrv setup (bug)
Linux hosts: some fixes for PCI passthrough (still highly experimental)
Linux/Mac OS X hosts: fixed a VM hang during startup under certain circumstances (bug)
Solaris hosts: added Python 2.7 bindings
Mac OS X hosts: fixed a possible crash when the default input or output audio device changes
Mac OS X hosts: fixed a panic under certain conditions
Linux Additions: prevent the compiler from doing dead-code elimination on vital code in guest / host communication (bug)
Linux Additions: when mounting a shared folder, explicitly pass the share name so that /proc/mounts contains this name instead of "none"
Linux Additions: workaround for a systemd problem in conjunction with SELinux which prevented to properly enable the "vboxadd" service during while upgrading the Additions

New version of VirtualBox 5.0.14

VirtualBox 5.0.14 for Windows hosts x86/amd64

VirtualBox 5.0.14 for OS X hosts amd64

VirtualBox 5.0.14 for Linux hosts

VirtualBox 5.0.14 for Solaris hosts amd64

VirtualBox 5.0.14 Oracle VM VirtualBox Extension Pack All supported platforms

VirtualBox 5.0.14 Software Developer Kit (SDK) All platforms

New in version 5.0.14

Interface: limiting the number of VCPU cores in accordance with the number of physical cores in Mac OS X;
Audio: Fixed a bug that prevented loading the saved state of saved guests with HDA emulation;
Audio: Fixed a crash when the post-processor compiler fails to initialize;
Audio: fixed problem with audio capture in Mac OS X;
Storage: fixed a possible crash when attaching the same ISO image to the same virtual machine multiple times;
BIOS: correct notification when connecting two floppy drives;
USB: Fixed an issue with filters that caused device capture to fail under some circumstances.
ExtPack: fixed an incompatibility issue where blacklist extension packages older than version 4.3.30 were not processed correctly;
Windows Host Systems: Fixed reverting to a previous state causing robocopy to fail;
Linux host systems: correct creation of symlink /sbin/rcvboxdrv;
Mac OS X host systems: several USB fixes in El Capitan;
Linux Add-ons: Fixes for Linux 4.5.

WHAT'S NEW

New in version 5.0.16

This is a maintenance version that fixes bugs and includes feature improvements.

(official website, English)

New in version 5.0

Support for paravirtualization mode for Windows and Linux guests: significant improvement in guest OS performance through the use of built-in virtualization support on Oracle Linux 7 and Microsoft Windows 7 and higher;
Optimized CPU usage: Execute a wide range of CPU instructions in the guest OS, allowing applications to apply the latest instructions to the hardware for maximum performance;
USB 3.0 device support: Guest OSes can now directly recognize USB 3.0 devices and run at full speed. The guest system can be configured to support USB 1.1, 2.0, 3.0 specifications;
Supports two-way drag and drop mode for sharing content between the guest OS and the host system. The drag and drop function allows you to transparently and conveniently copy or open files, folders, etc.;
Encrypting disk images: Data can be encrypted in a virtual disk image at runtime using the industry standard AES algorithm, which supports 256-bit encryption keys. The new feature guarantees the security of encrypted data both during periods of activity and when the virtual machine is idle.

You lose more from indecision than from a wrong decision. (c) Carmela Soprano

WHAT'S NEW

New in version 5.1

Release 5.1 supports the latest guest OS and host systems, including Mac OS X Yosemite, Windows 10, Oracle Linux, Oracle Solaris, other Linux OSes and genuine operating systems. Key features of VM VirtualBox 5.1:

Improved performance: Significantly improved performance for virtual machines with multiple processors and for network connections.
Error reporting tool: The new utility collects information and logs related to the host system and guest system for debugging or analysis.
Improved log window: New event logging capabilities will allow you to highlight and filter information related to guest virtual machines.
Improved multimedia support: Improved support for various USB devices and multi-channel audio.
Flash drive emulation: The new NVMHCI storage emulation controller allows you to emulate NVME devices - flash drives - in guest systems.
Improved Linux integration: automatic deployment of modules when updating the Linux kernel and improved integration of the latest Linux distributions.

(English, official website)

You lose more from indecision than from a wrong decision. (c) Carmela Soprano

Spoiler: Changelog

VirtualBox 5.1.24(released 2017-07-18)

This is a maintenance release. The following items were fixed and/or added:

VMM: mask the VME CPUID capability on AMD Ryzen processors for now to make certain guests works, for example Windows XP
VMM: emulate more SSE2 instructions
VMM: properly clear the TF and AC flags when dispatching real-mode interrupts
GUI: fixes to make the mini-toolbar work with recent versions of KDE / Plasma (bug)
GUI: fixed a potential crash when a VM with multiple screens is running in full screen / seamless mode and a host screen is removed, for example when connecting to the host via RDP
GUI: fixed initial size hints for guests which set intermediate sizes before responding (bug)
GUI: prevent stopped screen updates or black screen on reboot in a multi-screen setup under certain conditions
Audio: many improvements for Windows 10 guests (bugs , , , , , and others)
Storage: fixed possible crash when using Intels SPDK
API: use the correct file name of the VM machine state if the VM settings directory is renamed, for example during grouping / ungrouping a VM (bugs and )
API: return the correct error code if powering up a VM fails
API: video recording did not automatically start at VM start when enabled in the VM settings (bug)
API: when relocating a medium, check that the target path is fully qualified
EFI: fix for VMs with more than 3504MB RAM (bug)
Host-only adapter: correctly determine IPv4 netmasks on Windows hosts (bug)
NAT network: properly do the refcounting for starting / stopping the NAT / DHCP services if the NAT network is changed while the adapter network connection type is anything else but NAT network
VBoxManage: fixed controlvm videocapfile (bug)
Windows hosts: fixed crashes if driver verifier is enabled (bug , )
Linux hosts/guests: Linux 4.12 fixes (bugs, )
Linux hosts / guests: reduce the kernel stack consumption for Linux kernels with CONFIG_CPUMASK_OFFSTACK defined
Linux hosts/guests: fixes for kernel modules built with gcc-7 (bug)
Linux hosts/guests: Linux 4.13 fix (bug)
Linux hosts: don"t depend on net-tools on newer distributions as this package is deprecated in favor of iproute (bug)
Linux hosts: make 2D video acceleration available for older Linux distributions (5.1 regression; bug )
Linux Additions: fix for dynamic resizing with Oracle Linux 6 with UEK4
Linux Additions: make Fedora 25 and 26 Alpha work when 3D pass-through is enabled
Linux Additions: no longer recommend removing distribution- installed Additions if they are updated to our guidelines