Creating EFI virtual machines in VirtualBox. Creating a virtual machine in VirtualBox

Creating a virtual machine on a real computer is extremely convenient tool experimenting, studying, testing various operating systems.

In simple words, if you want to look and study, for example, Linux OS, Mac OS, Windows Server and other various systems, but for this you do not have a separate computer and hard drive to install them, virtualization will help out. That is, by allocating some RAM and hard disk space from your work computer, you can install any system you need on it.

Install virtual operating system very easy using the Oracle VM VirtualBox program. Its installation usually does not cause any difficulties; it is done by analogy with any other applications.

How to use VirtualBOX:

1. Launch VirtualBox and click " Create".

2. Specify the name (think of any one), as well as the type and version of the operating system. The OS boot option depends on the type and version, i.e. will the one you connect work? boot image.

3. Next, we indicate the amount of random access memory (RAM) for the future virtual system. The recommended volume will be offered depending on the selected OS version. If possible, indicate a little more than recommended, but not required. Focus on the tasks that you plan to perform in the system you are creating. For example, if you just need to see what a new operating system looks like, then it is enough to indicate the minimum, but if you are going to work in it, distribute more.

4. Then you need to specify the disk to host the OS. If this is your first time, select " Create new virtual hard disk", if not, you can select an existing one.

5. For correct operation of the OS, it is better to specify the “native” format of the VirtualBox hard drive - VDI.

6. Depending on whether you have enough volume disk space you need to decide which virtual disk storage format to use: dynamic or fixed. Essentially, this is how you set the size of the virtual machine image file on your computer and the disk space inside the virtual system.

• Dynamic virtual hard drive - initially does not take up extra space on your hard drive, i.e. has only the size required for a given operating system. But as you work with the virtual OS, if you fill it with files (install programs, copy information there, etc.), then the size will grow accordingly. And only in the direction of increase; the disk will no longer be able to decrease backwards.
• Fixed virtual hard disk- has an exact constant size in the virtual operating system, and accordingly the size of the virtual machine image file. This option is suitable if you have quite a lot free space on hard drives on the computer. A fixed disk is faster than a dynamic disk.

8. After clicking the "Create" button, the process of creating a disk for the virtual system will begin. Surgery time depends on the size and type of disc.

9. After the process is completed, in the left column you will see the created virtual machine with information about the characteristics. A “virtual computer” has been created in the computer! Click " Launch".

10. Now you need to specify the path to the boot image to install the operating system. Here you either specify a drive with a disk, or, more simply, a bootable ISO image. If everything is specified correctly, the download will begin from of this disk(or from the base). Install the operating system as usual.

11. After installing the system, launch it. For example - installed Windows 8.1 in the VitrualBox window.

Learning to use VirtualBox is beneficial for everyone. Thanks to this service, you get virtual computers that you can run on your devices without having to buy new hardware. At its core, it is free virtualization software.

VirtualBox was created to solve many problems. Thanks to this functionality, you get the opportunity to create virtual computers out of thin air. They don't take up any space on your desk, but they work just like a real PC. They can be created and deleted with a few clicks.

What is VirtualBox? It is a free, open source, cross-platform application for creating, managing and running virtual machines (VMs) - computers whose hardware components are emulated by the host computer, or device, on which the program is running. VirtualBox can run on Windows, Mac OS X, Linux and Solaris.

Why is this necessary?

Using virtual machines can be extremely useful for a number of reasons. For example, you can run it to try software that you think might be dangerous, or you can try a different operating system without changing the way your computer is configured.

You can also use it for security purposes. For example, you can create a virtual machine just for online banking to make sure you don't become a victim spyware or Trojans obtaining your data.

How to install VirtualBox?

The easiest way to get latest version VirtualBox - Download it from the download page of the official website. There you can find the appropriate version for your platform or? if you use Linux, you can study the list of instructions for various distributions of this OS.

For each version of Linux, you are given the option to download the "i386" or "amd64" option, 32-bit and 64-bit versions, respectively.

How to install VirtualBox? The process is similar to installing any other program on your platform, so you shouldn't have any problems. If you have any difficulties, you can always read the installation guide on the service's website.

Using VirtualBox

How to use VirtualBox? When you launch the application for the first time, you will be greeted by the VirtualBox Manager. Here you can create virtual machines, enable or disable them and configure access to the virtual hardware available to them, as well as make network settings.

Creating a virtual machine

In order to configure the network in VirtualBox and get started, you will need to create a virtual machine. This is done as follows.

The first step to creating any virtual machine is to click the "Create" button in the top left corner of the VirtualBox Manager window - this is a big blue star, which is very difficult to miss.

This will launch the "New Virtual Machine Wizard" which will walk us through the steps required to get it up and running.

Enter the name of the virtual computer. This name is completely up to you, but there are some nuances.

VirtualBox will try to figure out what OS you plan to run in the virtual machine based on what name you enter. If the name mentions "XP", it is assumed that you will be installing Windows XP and configuring it accordingly. However, you can come up with random name. You will then have the option to manually select your OS type from the drop-down lists below. When you do this, click Continue to move on to the next step. This example looks at Windows for VirtualBox. Below are instructions for installing this OS as a guest OS and then setting up a network connection.

Selecting RAM

To install the guest OS after launch VirtualBox, you will be asked to select the amount of RAM you want to place in the virtual machine. The more volume you give it, the better app will work, but keep in mind that the memory allocated to the virtual machine cannot be used by the host OS (i.e. the machine on which VirtualBox is installed).

So how much RAM should you allocate to a VM? This depends on a number of factors. If you plan to only use the virtual machine while it's running, you can afford to give it more RAM because you won't be asking the host system to multitask. If, on the other hand, you will be using it while running many other functions on the host OS, you should better calculate this value. good general rule is to allocate half of your computer's RAM. So, if your PC has 4GB RAM, give 2GB to the VM, leaving the host with the rest. If you select this value with a blunder, you will encounter the fact that VirtualBox does not start.

Storage space

The next step is to create " virtual hard disk" (VHD). This creates a file on your HDD that can be used by VirtualBox to act as a separate hard drive. This allows you to install the operating system without worrying about your existing data being affected.

Make sure Boot Hard Disk and "Create" are selected. new hard disk", then click "Continue". This will launch "Create new master virtual disk." Click Continue again to complete the action.

You'll then be asked if you want to create a "dynamically expanding" or fixed-size disk. Each has its own advantages. The great thing about a dynamic disk is that it only takes up as much space as the data it contains. It is also much faster to create than a fixed one of any significant size.

However, you need to keep an eye on this because his flexibility can also be his negative trait. So you create a dynamic disk and assign 50GB to it and then put about 20GB of data on it. Its file will appear as holding only 20 GB of hard drive space, according to your host OS. Therefore, you can take this place with other data and not notice it.

The point is that if you start a virtual machine and try to add more data to the dynamic disk, you will have problems - the virtual disk says it still has 30 GB, but in fact it may no longer have it.

This is also the advantage of a fixed-size disk. Sure, it's inconvenient when you're trying to figure out how much space you'll need, but then you won't have to worry about it anymore.

This example shows dynamic disks, but fixed ones will work just as well. Make sure Dynamically Expanding Storage is selected, then click Continue again. Next, you will be asked to select a name, location, and size for the new VHD. For most uses, you won't need to change the name or location, but you can do so by clicking on the folder icon next to the text field.

The size you should specify depends on how much material you plan to use. If you just want to use it to run a few programs, the suggested size of 10 GB should be sufficient. Make sure the settings are correct, then click Continue and Finish.

At this point, you just need to check everything and make sure that all the settings are set as you expect. Then you just need to click "Finish" and the virtual machine will be created so you can install Windows.

Booting a Guest OS in VirtualBox

How to continue using the service? Now it's time to run the virtual machine for the first time. Make sure the new virtual PC you just created is selected in the VirtualBox Manager window, then click the Start button at the top of the window. When the service starts, you will be greeted with a First Run Wizard window that will help you prepare to install Windows XP. Click Continue. It will then ask you whether you want to use a CD or an image on your hard drive (usually an .iso file) as your installation media. Once you've selected your option, click Continue, then Finish.

If you were unable to open the virtual VirtualBox machine After the above settings, you probably have allocated space for RAM or HDD incorrectly. If rebooting does not solve the problem, repeat the previous steps again.

Since there is nothing installed on the virtual hard disk, the program will automatically load Windows installations. It will take some time to download all the required OS files, but eventually you will see a screen showing a list of existing sections and unallocated space on your computer.

After this you should configure XP, so press Enter. You will be asked how you want to format the drive. You need to select the “Format partition using NTFS (Quick)” option. Make sure you select the "Fast" option or you will be waiting for a very long time!

Windows Setup will then format the VHD and then begin copying the files to the drive. Your participation in this process is not required. Once the files are copied, Windows Setup will automatically restart your computer to move on to the next step.

When the PC reboots, it will try to boot from the CD using the "Press any key to boot from CD..." window. Ignore it! If you do this, you will repeat the previous step again for no reason.

You can prevent this system issue by right-clicking the CD icon at the bottom of the virtual machine window and clicking "Remove disk from virtual disk." Once this window closes, you will see the familiar screen Windows boot XP before it switches to the second stage of installation.

Once the “Windows XP Setup Wizard” is displayed, click “Next” to begin it. You will first be asked to set your regional and language options, which basically involve clicking "Customize..." (to select your country) and then "Details" if you need to change your keyboard layout.

Once everything is selected, click Next again. After this, you will need to enter your computer name and administrator password. It's better to choose a name that has some meaning instead of a random string of automatically generated characters. How complex you want to make the administrator password depends on how important the security of the virtual machine is.

After clicking Next, you will see the date and time settings, which you do not need to change. When you click this button again, the window will disappear for a while, Windows will apply all the settings and continue with the installation. You can now use Guest Additions in VirtualBox.

After a minute or two, another window will appear, this time for network settings. It is more convenient to choose the first option (a network that does not have a domain). To do this, you need to enter a workgroup name - Rward by default, and all default values. However, you may need to select "Direct3D Support" when asked to identify components.

How to work with the network?

Networking in VirtualBox is extremely powerful, but setting it up can be a little tricky. To figure this out, we need to look at the different ways to configure VirtualBox networking, with a few pointers to what configurations to use and when.

Oracle VM VirtualBox 5.1 allows you to configure up to 8 virtual network adapters(controllers network interface) for each guest virtual device(although there are only 4 in the GUI).

Main modes:

• Network Address Translation (NAT).
• Bridge networks.
• Internal network.
• The network is for hosting only.
• NAT with port forwarding.

Oracle VirtualBox offers them as based on the guest OS type you specify when you create the virtual machine, and you rarely need to modify them. But choosing a network mode depends on how you want to use the device (client or server) and whether you want other computers on your network to see it. So, you should look at each VirtualBox network configuration mode in a little more detail.

Network Address Translation (NAT)

This is the default mode for new virtual machines and works fine in most situations where the guest OS is a "client" type (i.e. most network connections are outgoing). Here's how it works.

When the guest OS boots, it typically uses DHCP to obtain an IP address. Oracle VirtualBox will send this DHCP request and inform the operating system of the assigned IP address and gateway address for routing outgoing connections. In this mode, each virtual machine is assigned the same IP address (10.0.2.15) because each one considers itself to be on its own isolated network. And when they send their traffic through the gateway (10.0.2.2), VirtualBox rewrites the packets so that they appear as if they came from the host, and not from the "guest" (running inside the host).

This means that the guest OS will work even if the host moves from network to network (such as a laptop moving between locations), from wireless to wired connections.

However, how does another computer initiate a connection with it? For example, you need to connect to a web server running on a guest computer. This is not possible (usually) using NAT mode because there is no route to the guest OS. So for running virtual machine servers you need a different network mode and a different VirtualBox network setup.

NAT connection (network characteristics):

• Guest OSs are on their own private network.
• VirtualBox acts as a DHCP server.
• VirtualBox's NAT mechanism translates addresses.
• Destination servers display traffic originating from the VirtualBox host.
• No configuration is required for the host or guest OS.
• Works great when the "guests" are clients but not servers.

Bridged networks

Bridged Networking is used in cases where you want your virtual machine to be a full member of the network, that is, equal to your host device. In this mode, the virtual network adapter is "connected" to the physical one on your host.

This is because each virtual machine has access to physical network just like your host. It can access any service on the network - external DHCP services, name lookup services and routing data, and so on.

The downside to this mode is that if you run a lot of virtual machines, you may quickly run out of IP addresses or your network administrator will be overwhelmed with requests for them. Second, if your host has multiple physical network adapters (such as wireless and wired), you must reconfigure the bridge if it reconnects on the network.

What if you want to run servers in a virtual machine, but don't want to involve a network administrator? Maybe one of the following two modes will work for you, or maybe you need a combination additional parameters, for example NAT vNIC + 1 Host-only vNIC.

Bridged network characteristics:

• VirtualBox bridges are for the host network;
• good for any guest OS (both client and server);
• use IP addresses;
• may include guest configuration;
• best suited for production environments.

Internal network

When you configure one or more virtual machines to run on an internal network, VirtualBox ensures that all traffic on that network remains within the host and is only accessible to the device on that virtual network.

The internal network is a completely isolated system. It is good for testing. In it, using a virtual machine, you can create complex internal networks that provide their own services (for example, Active Directory, DHCP, etc.). Note that even the host is not an element.

This mode allows the virtual machine to run even if the host is not connected to the network (for example, on a plane). However, with this type of connection and network setup, VirtualBox does not provide such “convenient” services as DHCP, so your device must be statically configured or provide the DHCP/Name service.

Installation of several internal networks is allowed. You can configure virtual machines to allow multiple network adapters to reside in internal and other network modes, and thereby provide routes if necessary. But all this looks complicated and inaccessible to a non-specialist.

What if you want the internal network to accept the VirtualBox host while providing IP addresses to the guest OS? To do this, you may need to configure a host-only network.

Internal network characteristics:

• guest operating systems can see other “guests” on the same internal network;
• the host cannot see the internal configuration;
• network configuration required;
• even if the host is not a party to the connection, the internal network can be used in conjunction with a bridged connection;
• well suited for multi-user networks.

Hosting only network

Works almost the same as an Internal Networking connection, where you specify which network the guest server is on. All virtual machines located on this network will see each other and the host. However, others external devices cannot see "guests" on this network, hence the name "host only".

It is very similar to an internal network, but the host can now provide DHCP services. To set up such a connection, go to VirtualBox Manager and select the default settings.

Network characteristics:

• VirtualBox creates a private internal network for the guest OS, and the host sees the new NIC software.
• VirtualBox provides a DHCP server.
• Guest operating systems cannot access the external network.

NAT with port forwarding

Now you can imagine that you have learned enough modes to handle every case, but there are exceptions. What if your development environment is on a laptop, for example, and you have one or more virtual machines that need other computers to connect to? And you are constantly forced to use different client networks.

In this scenario NAT will not work because external machines must be connected as a bridge. It's possible good option, but you may need IP addresses. Additionally, software may not always be able to cope with changing networks.

If you use an internal network, you may find that your virtual machines need to be visible on the network. What to do in such cases?

Configure the virtual machine to use a NAT network, add port forwarding rules, and external computers connect to "host". The port number and connection will be forwarded by VirtualBox to the guest OS number.

For example, if your virtual machine runs a web server on port 80, you can configure the above rules. It provides a mobile demo system that does not need re-tuning every time you connect your laptop to a different LAN/Network.

Ultimately, VirtualBox has a very powerful set of options, allowing you to customize almost any configuration you might need. To choose the option you need, read the VirtualBox instructions on the official website.

A program for working with virtual machines is special software that creates a virtual computer system with virtual equipment. This virtual computer runs in a separate window as a process in a real operating system. The virtual machine can be booted from the installation disk (or Live CD), and the operating system will "perceive" the virtual computer as a real one. It will install and work exactly the same as on a real physical PC. To load such an operating system, just open a program for working with virtual machines and launch the virtual OS in a separate window directly on the desktop.

The virtual machine's operating system is stored on a virtual hard disk, a multi-gigabyte file that resides on the actual hard drive. The operating system treats this file as a full-fledged disk, so there are no difficulties with creating partitions.

Virtual machines create additional load on real ones system resources, therefore they do not work as fast as the operating system installed on real computer. This creates particular difficulties for modern games that require powerful video cards and multi-core processors, so virtual machines are not the best option for running Windows games on Linux or Mac OS X (unless they are old or resource-intensive).

Why you might need a virtual machine

Virtual machines are not only good entertainment for geeks, but also very useful tool. They allow you to experiment with alternative operating systems without giving up your current one. This is a good option, for example, to try Linux in general or a recent distribution in particular, without installing it on your main computer or even booting from a Live CD or USB. When you get tired of the operating system, you can simply delete the virtual machine. In addition, the virtual machine is good way test new version Windows. When the trial build of Windows 9 is released, you can avoid potential system stability issues by installing it in a virtual machine.

A virtual machine also allows you to use software written for other operating systems. For example, on Linux and Mac you can install Windows programs in a virtual machine. And even on Windows, you can use a virtual machine to run Linux programs, rather than Cygwin or a second operating system in alternative boot mode.

In addition, virtual machines are isolated from the main operating system, so programs installed in them cannot harm the real OS. Virtual machine – good decision for testing dubious programs. For example, when we received a fraudulent email claiming to be from Microsoft, we ran the attached file in a virtual machine to see what it did, and the attackers were unable to harm our real operating system.

You can safely run unprotected operating systems in an isolated environment. If you absolutely cannot do without applications that run only in Windows XP, you can create a virtual machine for them. Of course, it would be better not to use Windows XP at all, but if you have to, it is preferable to run it in a virtual machine than on a real computer.

Programs for working with virtual machines

There are several programs for working with virtual machines:

Creating your first virtual machine

Click the " Create" V top corner VirtualBox.

A wizard window will appear to guide you through setting up your new virtual machine (VM).

On the following pages, the wizard will ask you for the minimum information required to create a virtual machine, including:

• Name virtual machine, which will later be shown in the list of virtual machines in the VirtualBox Manager window, and it will be used for the VM files on disk. While any name can be used, keep in mind that once you've created a few virtual machines, you'll appreciate it if you gave your virtual machines fairly descriptive names; "My Virtual Machine" would be less useful than "Windows XP SP2 with OpenOffice".
• In the section " Operating system type» Select the operating system you want to install later. Supported operating systems are grouped; if you want to install something very unusual that is not listed, select " Other" Depending on your selection, VirtualBox will enable or disable certain virtual machine settings that your guest operating system may require. This is especially important for 64-bit guest OSes. Therefore, it is recommended to always set the type to the correct value.

On the next page, select the memory (RAM) that VirtualBox should allocate each time the virtual machine starts. The amount of memory specified here will be taken from your host computer and provided to the guest operating system.

Remember: Select this option carefully! The memory you transfer to the virtual machine will not be available to the OS on your physical computer while the virtual machine is running, so do not specify more than you have free. For example, if your host computer has 8 GB of RAM and you enter 4000 MB as the amount of RAM for a particular virtual machine, while that virtual machine is running, you will only have 4000 MB left for everything else software on your host. If you run two virtual machines at the same time, even more memory will be allocated to the second virtual machine (which may not even start if that memory is not available). On the other hand, you should specify as much as your guest OS (and your applications) require for proper operation.

A Windows XP guest will require a minimum of several hundred MB of RAM to run properly, and Windows Vista It will even refuse to install if less than 512 MB is available to it. Of course, if you want to run graphics-intensive applications in your virtual machine, you may need even more RAM.

For modern versions of Windows (both host and guest OS), it is advisable to have at least 4 GB of RAM for comfortable operation. For Linux with a graphical interface, it is advisable to have 2 GB for comfortable work. For Linux with a command line interface, 100 MB is enough for the OS itself + memory for running applications.

Don't leave your host (the operating system on a physical computer) with less memory than it needs to run, otherwise it will begin to heavily use the page file, which will lead to significant slowdown of both the host and the virtual machines.

As with other settings, you can change this setting later after you have created the virtual machine.

Next, you must specify the virtual hard disk for your virtual machine.

There are many, including potentially complicated ways, by which VirtualBox can provide hard drive space for a virtual machine, but the most common way is to use large file image on your "real" hard drive, whose contents VirtualBox presents to your virtual machine as if it were its hard drive. This file represents the entire hard drive, so you can even copy it to another host and use it with another VirtualBox installation.

The wizard will show you the following window:

To create a new empty virtual hard disk, click the " Create».

You can select an existing disk image file - if you have already used virtual disks before, you will see them in the drop-down list, or you can click on the folder image and select a random location where the virtual disk is located.

If this is your first time using VirtualBox, you will need to create a new disk image. Hence, click the button Create».

This will bring up another window - " Create a virtual hard disk" which will help you create a new disk image in the new virtual machine folder.

The Master tells us:

“Please specify the file type that determines the format you want to use when creating a new hard drive. If you do not need to use the disk with other software virtualization products, you can leave this parameter no changes.

• VDI (VirtualBox Disk Image)
• VHD (Virtual Hard Disk)
• VMDK (Virtual Machine Disk)"

VirtualBox supports two types of image files:

• Dynamically the distributed file will only grow when the guest OS actually stores data on its virtual hard disk. Therefore, it will initially be small on the host hard drive and only later, as it fills with data, will it grow to the specified size.
• File fixed size will immediately take up the specified space, even if only part of the virtual space on the hard drive is actually used. This option, taking much more space, a fixed-size file, has less overhead (the need to perform operations associated with growing the container) and is therefore slightly faster than a dynamically allocated file.

To prevent overflow physical disk, VirtualBox limits the size of the image file. However, it should be large enough to contain data for your operating system and the applications you want to install - for a Windows or Linux guest OS, you'll probably need several tens of gigabytes for any serious use. The image file size limit can be changed later.

Starting a virtual machine

To start a virtual machine, you have several options:

• double click on the virtual machine in Manager
• select its entry in the list in the Manager window and click the button at the top “ Launch»
• for virtual machines created with using VirtualBox 4.0 or later, go to the " VirtualBox VMs" in your system user's home directory, find the subdirectory of the machine you want to run and double-click the machine settings file (the file with the extension .vbox)
• if you have created a desktop shortcut for the virtual machine, you can run double click from desktop

This will open a new window and the virtual machine you selected will boot. Everything that is usually visible on the virtual system monitor is displayed in Preview in VirtualBox Manager.

In general, you can use the virtual machine just as if you were using a real computer. However, there are a few points worth mentioning.

Starting a new virtual machine for the first time

When the virtual machine is launched for the first time, another wizard will appear - “Startup Wizard” - you can select installation media. Because the virtual machine is created empty, it will behave exactly like a real computer without an operating system installed: it will do nothing and display an error message that no bootable operating system was found.

For this reason, the wizard helps you select an environment to install the operating system.

• If you have physical media The CD or DVD from which you want to install the guest operating system (for example, in the case of an installation CD or Windows DVD), place the media in your host's CD or DVD drive.
  Then, from the Installation Media Wizard drop-down list, select " Host drive" with the correct drive letter (or, in the case of a Linux file, a device file). This will allow your virtual machine to access the media file on your main drive and you can continue with the installation.
• If you downloaded the installation media from the Internet as a file ISO image(most likely in case Linux distribution), you would typically burn this file to a blank CD or DVD and continue as just described. With VirtualBox, you can skip this step and mount the ISO file directly. VirtualBox will then present this file in the virtual machine as a CD or DVD-ROM, much like it does with a virtual hard disk image.
  In this case, the wizard's drop-down list contains a list of installation media that have previously been used with VirtualBox.
  If your media is not listed (especially if you are using VirtualBox for the first time), select the small folder icon next to the drop-down list to open the standard dialog box file manager, with which you can select an image file on your host disks.

In both cases, after choosing in the wizard, you will be able to install your operating system.

Capturing and releasing the keyboard and mouse

Starting with version 3.2, VirtualBox provides a virtual USB tablet device for new virtual machines through which mouse events are communicated to the guest operating system. As a result, if you are using a modern guest operating system that can handle such devices, mouse support may work out of the box without mouse capture, as described below.

Otherwise, if only the standard PS/2 mouse and keyboard devices are visible in the virtual machine, then since the operating system in the virtual machine does not “know” that it is not running on a real computer, it expects exclusive control of your keyboard and mouse. This is not true, however, because unless you are running the virtual machine in full screen mode, your virtual machine needs to share the keyboard and mouse with other applications and possibly with other virtual machines on your host.

As a result, first after installing the guest operating system and before installing the Guest Additions (we'll explain this in a minute), only one of the two - your virtual machine or the rest of your computer - can "own" the keyboard and mouse. You will see a second mouse pointer that will always be limited to the VM window. Typically you activate a virtual machine by clicking inside it.

To return keyboard and mouse ownership to your host operating system, VirtualBox reserves for you special key on the keyboard: " host key" The default is right CTRL button on the keyboard. You can change this default value in global VirtualBox settings. In any case, the current setting for the host key is always displayed in the lower right corner of your VM window in case you forget it:

In detail, this all means the following:

• Your keyboard belongs to the VM if the VM window on your computer's desktop has the keyboard focus (if there are many windows open in the guest OS, it belongs to the window that has the focus). This means that if you want to make keyboard input into a virtual machine, first click on the title bar of your VM's window.

To release the keyboard from the virtual machine, press the " Host" (as described above, this is usually the right CTRL).

Note that while the virtual machine owns the keyboard, some key combinations (for example, Alt-Tab) will no longer be visible to the host, but will instead go to the guest OS. After you press the host key to re-enable the keyboard on the host, all keystrokes will go to the host again. For technical reasons, the VM will not be able to receive all keyboard inputs, even if it currently owns the keyboard. Examples of such combinations are Ctrl-Alt-Del on Windows hosts or single keys captured by other applications on X11 hosts.

• Your mouse belongs to the VM only after you click in the VM window. The mouse cursor will disappear and your mouse will control the guest pointer instead of the normal mouse pointer.

Note that mouse ownership is independent of keyboard ownership: even after you've clicked on the title to be able to type into the VM window, your mouse is not yet necessarily owned by the VM.

To release the mouse from ownership of the virtual machine, also press the " Host».

Because this behavior can be inconvenient, VirtualBox provides a set of tools and device drivers for guests called " VirtualBox Guest Additions”, which make the virtual machine keyboard and mouse experience smoother. Most importantly, Guest Additions gets rid of the second, "guest" mouse pointer and will make your host mouse pointer the mouse pointer in the guest OS.

Entering special characters

Operating systems initiate certain procedures from certain key combinations. Some of these key combinations may be difficult to communicate to the guest OS, since there are three candidates who receives keyboard input: the host operating system, VirtualBox, or the guest operating system. Which of these three gets the keystrokes depends on a number of factors, including the combination itself.

Host operating systems reserve certain key combinations for themselves. For example, it is not possible to enter the combination Ctrl+Alt+Delete, if you want to reboot the guest operating system on your virtual machine, since this key combination is usually hardwired into the host OS (both Windows and Linux catch it) and pressing this key combination will reboot your host.

Additionally, on Linux and Solaris hosts that use the X Window System, the keyboard shortcut Ctrl+Alt+Backspace usually resets the X server (to reload the entire GUI). Since the X server intercepts this combination, clicking it will usually restart the graphical user interface your host (and kills everything running programs, including running VirtualBox).

Third, on Linux hosts that support virtual terminals, the combination Ctrl+Alt+Fx(Where Fx is one of function keys from F1 to F12) usually allows you to switch between virtual terminals. As in the case Ctrl+Alt+Delete, these combinations are intercepted by the host operating system and therefore always switch terminals on the host.

If you instead want to send these key combinations to the guest operating system in the virtual machine, you will need to use one of the following methods:

• Use the items in the virtual machine window menu " Enter» → « Keyboard" There you will find " Send Ctrl+Alt+Delete" And " Ctrl+Alt+Backspace"; however, the latter will only affect Linux or Solaris guest OSes.
• Click special combinations keys with key Khosta(usually the right key CTRL), which VirtualBox will then pass to the virtual machine:
• Button Host+Del to send Ctrl+Alt+Del(to reboot the guest);
• Button Host+Backspace to send Ctrl+Alt+Backspace(to restart GUI Linux or Solaris user);
• Button Host+F1(or other function keys) to simulate Ctrl+Alt+F1(or other function keys, i.e. for switching between virtual terminals in a Linux guest).

For some other key combinations such as Alt-Tab(to switch between open windows), VirtualBox allows you to configure: During focus on a virtual machine, whether these combinations will affect the host or the guest. This is a global setting for all virtual machines and can be found in the " File» → « Settings» → « Enter» → « Automatic keyboard capture».

Changing removable media

While the virtual machine is running, you can change removable media in the " Devices» virtual machine windows.

The settings are the same as for the virtual machine in the " Settings" of the main VirtualBox window, but because this dialog is disabled when the virtual machine is in " running" or " saved" condition, this additional menu makes it possible to work with removable media of a virtual machine at any time.

Therefore, in the menu " Devices» VirtualBox allows you to attach a host disk to a guest, or select a floppy disk, or DVD image using the Disk Image Manager, as described in the "" section.

Resizing your car window

You can resize the virtual machine window when it starts. In this case, one of three things will happen:

1. If you have enabled scaling mode, the virtual machine screen will be scaled to fit the window. This can be useful if you have a lot of machines running and want to take a look at one of them while it's running background. Alternatively, this may be useful for making the window larger if the virtual machine's output screen is very small, for example because it is running an older operating system.

To enable zoom mode, click Host key+C or select " Screen scaling mode" in the menu " View" in the VM window. To exit zoom mode, press again Host key+C.

The aspect ratio of the guest's screen is maintained when the window is resized. To ignore aspect ratio, click Shift during resizing operation.

1. If you have Guest Additions installed and they support automatic change size, Guest Additions will automatically adjust the screen resolution of the guest operating system. For example, if you are running a Windows guest with a resolution of 1024x768 pixels, and then resize the VM window to make it larger by 100 pixels, Guest Additions will change the resolution Windows screen up to 1124x768.
2. Otherwise, if the window more screen virtual machine, the screen will be centered. If it is smaller, scroll bars will be added to the car window.

Saving machine state

When you press the " Close" of your virtual machine window (in the top right corner of the window, just like you close any other window on your system), VirtualBox asks you if you want to " Save machine state", "" or " Disable machine" (you can also use a keyboard shortcut for this action: press the " Host" together with " Q».)

The difference between these three parameters is critical. They mean:

• « Save machine state" With this option, VirtualBox “freezes” the virtual machine, saving its entire state on the local disk.

When you start the virtual machine again, you will find that the virtual machine continues from where it left off. All your programs will still be open and your computer will resume functioning. Thus, saving the state of a virtual machine is similar to pausing a laptop computer (for example, by closing its lid).

• « Send a shutdown signal" This will send an ACPI shutdown signal to the virtual machine, which will have the same effect as if you pressed the power button on the real computer. If the virtual machine is running a fairly modern operating system, this should trigger the proper mechanism to stop the virtual machine running.
• « Disable machine": With this option, VirtualBox also stops working with the virtual machine, but does not save its state.

Warning: This is equivalent to pulling the power plug on a real computer without shutting it down properly. If you start the machine again after turning it on, your operating system will have to reboot completely and may begin a lengthy check of its (virtual) system disks. Those. This should generally not be done as it may result in data loss or inconsistent guest disk state.

This shutdown option should be used in exceptional cases; it can be used to close a frozen virtual machine, or if you have Snapshots that you want to return to and do not want to save new data written after the Snapshot was created.

A similar function as the option “ Send a shutdown signal» executes in the menu « Car» option « Shut down", it has the same effect and everything said above applies to it.

Using the free VirtualBox program, you can create a virtual machine on your computer with a different guest operating system. Program VirtualBox virtualization creates virtual machines into which you can install different operating systems: Windows, Linux, Mac OS X, etc.

In Virtual Box, a virtual computer with a different (or other) operating system will be installed on your computer, which will not in any way affect the main OS installed on your computer. With this program, you can simultaneously work in two different operating systems, for example, Windows and Linux Mint, or Windows 10 and Windows 8.1.

In such a virtual operating system it will be possible to perform various actions: learn to work in a new OS, test new Windows versions, try unfamiliar programs, run outdated applications that no longer work on your system, etc. You can do whatever you want with the virtual (guest) operating system, without any risk to the main system.

To do this, you will not need to create new partitions on your hard drive and install another OS there. VirtualBox will do everything you need to create a virtual machine.

More information about installing the VirtualBox program and add-on package can be found here. Next, we will look at the process of creating a virtual machine and configuring it. The VirtualBox program is completely Russified.

Creating a virtual machine in VirtualBox

To start the process of creating a virtual machine, in the main window of the VirtualBox program, click on the “Create” button.

In the “Specify OS name and type” window, you will need to enter the name of the new virtual machine, then select the type and version of the operating system. The created virtual machine will be identified by this name, so I recommend making the names clear.

IN in this case, Windows 10 is installed on my real computer, but I want to install it on a virtual one Windows machine 7. In order to avoid confusion between versions (it will be possible to install several identical systems from different releases), I gave the guest system a detailed, friendly name.

It will be possible to install the virtual machine in expert mode (all settings will be grouped in several windows), or in detailed mode, which we will now look at.

VirtualBox recommends the minimum amount of RAM for a given virtual machine. You can choose the required amount of memory yourself. Here you should adhere to the following recommendation: you should not exceed the size of the allocated memory, which is marked in green on the scale, so that in the end you do not have problems with the operation of the created virtual machine.

Virtual memory- this is part physical memory your computer, which will be used in the virtual machine. Virtual memory is allocated from the host operating system to allow the guest operating system to run on a virtual machine. The allocated RAM will only be used when the virtual machine is running.

My computer has 8 GB of RAM, so I can allocate half the capacity to the virtual machine - 4 GB. You can select your RAM size by moving the cursor on the scale, or enter the memory size as a numerical value in MB. In the future, if necessary, you can change the amount of allocated RAM in the settings of this virtual machine.

On next stage You will need to create a virtual hard disk, since the virtual machine will not be able to work without such a hard disk. A virtual hard disk is a special type of file that is stored in file system Your computer's OS.

This window offers three options to choose from:

• Do not mount the virtual hard disk - you can mount the virtual hard disk after creating the virtual machine
• Create new hard disk - a new virtual hard disk will be created
• Use an existing virtual hard disk - a previously created virtual hard disk will be connected to the virtual machine

In the next window you will need to select the type of virtual hard disk. You can choose following formats disks (virtual containers):

• VDI (VirtualBox Disk Image) - VirtualBox disk format
• VMDK (Virtual Machine Disk) - VMware disk format
• VHD (Virtual Hard Disk) - Microsoft disk format
• HDD (Parallels Hard Disk) - Parallels disk format
• QED (QEMU enhanced disk) - format for QEMU/KVM
• QCOW (QEMU Copy-On-Write) - format for QEMU (qcow2)

If you only use the VirtualBox program to create and run virtual machines, then you can leave the default choice: VDI format. Discs of this format will be opened in the Virtual Box program.

The VMDK format is suitable if you use a virtual machine VMware Player, or VMware Workstation. By creating a virtual machine in VirtualBox and selecting the VMDK virtual disk type, you can then launch this virtual machine with the operating system installed, not only in VirtualBox, but also in another VMware program.

After selecting the disk type, click on the “Next” button.

A dynamic hard disk file will take up little space on your computer's physical hard drive. As it fills with data, it will increase in size to its maximum capacity.

A fixed hard disk file will immediately occupy the entire space of the virtual hard disk.

In the new window you will be asked to specify the name and size of the virtual hard disk file.

In the name field you will need to write the name of the virtual hard disk. I always provide clear names for virtual machines so that I can easily distinguish virtual container files from each other.

By default, all virtual machine files will be saved in the user profile on the C drive of your real computer. I recommend doing it differently: creating it in another (non-system) partition of your computer’s disk. special folder(I call it Virtual Machines), in which you can store virtual machine files.

If the virtual machine files will be stored in the user profile on system disk, then if the operating system is reinstalled, previously created virtual machines will be lost. You will need to re-create the virtual machine and then install the operating system there.

Files saved on another partition of the hard drive, or on another hard drive, will be saved if the system is reinstalled. After installing a virtualization program (VirtualBox or VMware) on your computer, you will only need to connect and launch previously created virtual machines with operating systems.

To select a storage folder for virtual machines, use the icon with a folder button. In the Explorer window, select the drive and folder to store the virtual machine data.

Then use the scale to indicate the size of the virtual hard disk in megabytes. To do this, drag the slider to the desired location that suits your needs. After selecting the settings, click on the “Create” button.

The virtual machine has been created. After this, the main window “Oracle VM VirtualBox Manager” will open with the newly created virtual machine. On the right side of the window you can see some parameters of the virtual machine.

Now you will need to make additional settings before installing the operating system on the virtual machine.

Virtual machine settings in VirtualBox

In the main VirtualBox window, highlight the virtual machine (if there are several of them), and then click on the “Configure” button to enter the settings for that specific virtual machine.

In the "General" section, in the "Advanced" tab, you will need to select a storage folder for system snapshots (very useful feature). By default, system snapshots will be saved in the “Snapshost” folder in the user profile on the system drive “C”. You can create a folder with this name in the place where you store the files of this virtual machine, so as not to lose snapshots when reinstalling the system.

You will also need to select a shared clipboard in order to exchange data between the host real operating system and the guest virtual OS. There are several options to choose from:

• Off - default setting
• From main to guest OS - you can move information from the main system to the virtual OS
• From guest to host OS - you can move data from virtual OS to host OS
• Bidirectional - data can be exchanged in both directions

It makes sense to choose a bidirectional shared clipboard for the greatest convenience when working.

In the "System" section, in the "" tab Motherboard"You can configure the boot order of the virtual machine. Use the up and down arrow buttons to select the boot sequence for the virtual machine. It makes sense to do it first boot device optical disk, it will be possible to uncheck the floppy disk altogether due to the irrelevance of this method.

When you select an optical disk as the first boot device, the system can boot as if from a real disk drive on your computer, where it will be inserted boot disk DVD with the operating system and from a disk image, for example, in ISO format, which is physically located somewhere on your computer's disk.

After applying the new settings, do not forget to click on the “OK” button.

In the “Processor” tab, you can enable additional cores if your computer’s processor is multi-core.

In the “Display” section, in the “Screen” tab, you can select the amount of video memory that the virtual machine will use. Here you can enable 2D (required) and 3D (optional) acceleration.

In the “Video Capture” tab, you can enable the video capture function in the virtual machine.

In the “Media” section you will need to select virtual drive. The virtual disk file is already displayed here, but it is almost empty, since the operating system has not yet been installed. Therefore, to install the system you will need to select ISO file image with the operating system.

Click on “Empty”, on the right side of the window opposite the “Optical drive” item, click on the button with a disk image, and then in the context menu select “Select optical disk image...”. Use Explorer to find on your computer the desired image operating system.

In the “Audio”, “Network”, “COM Ports”, “USB” sections you can leave the default settings; these settings largely depend on the hardware of your computer.

There is nothing in the Shared Folders section yet because the guest system has not yet been installed. For operation shared folders You will need to install Additions for the Guest OS (VirtualBox Guest Additions). You can read more about installing the system in a virtual machine and installing add-ons here.

If necessary, you can change the settings for a specific virtual machine to others. All settings are individual for each virtual machine.

Removing a virtual machine in VirtualBox

To delete a virtual machine, in the main Virtual Box window you will need to enter the “Machine” menu, and then select context menu"Delete".

After uninstallation, all files and data of the virtual machine will be deleted from your computer.

Conclusions of the article

In free VirtualBox program you can create a new one, or connect a ready-made virtual machine, apply the necessary settings for more convenient use virtual machine.