Installation and configuration of the Oracle VM VirtualBox virtualization platform. Installing and configuring a virtual machine using VirtualBox

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 system files can lead to the most unpleasant consequences.

Ask how to avoid them? Very simple, use virtualization systems, for example, the VirtualBox virtual machine - special program, which 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 - to the host OS, that is, the main one working system, it won't have any effect.

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. Go to the developer’s website www.oracle.com/virtualization/virtualbox/index.html and download latest version programs.

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.

On next stage you will be prompted to specify the volume of the allocated virtual machine RAM. 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, it is created virtual hard disk, here we leave everything by default. Click “Create”, select the disk type VDI or VHD.

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

Size virtual disk we install 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 on the local physical network, in the VirtualBox network settings you should select the connection type “Network Bridge”. To ensure interaction between different virtual machines, the “ Virtual adapter host”, to connect guest operating systems to a single internal network – the “Internal Network” mode. There is also a connection type " Universal driver", 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 bootable flash drive or DVD is used here installation image ISO. Launch the created virtual machine and specify the path to bootable ISO image with the system.

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

Guestbook operating system 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 executable file VBoxWindowsAdditions.exe.

Install addons as regular program, accepting the security agreement, and reboot 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 issued automatically by the router, the same settings must be set in the network adapter parameters virtual system. 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 – 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. So, with the error “Could not open a session for virtual machine"(code E_FAIL 0x80004005) will have to be faced by those who try to run virtual machines on VirtualBox with Hyper-V active. 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 resources allocated to the guest operating system. physical computer. 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.

The inability to start the VM can be caused by accidental deletion user of the snapshot files. 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.

At the time of the release of Windows 7, the bulk of its potential buyers were using Windows XP. Among them there were very few who decided to immediately and unconditionally switch to the new product. Most were in no hurry to retire old XP, since it turned out that a huge amount of software simply could not work under the new system. What could Microsoft do? Losing potential customers is not an option, so the solution was found: to release an update for Windows 7, which carries a virtualization package - a system function that allows you to run XP directly inside the “seven”.

The update under the name “Virtual PC” and number KB958599 was released in 2008. It is a virtual machine - an application that emulates computer hardware and creates an isolated environment inside the operating system, where you can install another OS, including a type other than Windows.

Virtual PC from Microsoft is included in the package Windows updates 7 Ultimate editions, Professional and Enterprise. This virtual machine is specifically designed for installing Windows XP Service Pack 3 and solving problems with software that won’t start.

How to install Virtual PC?

Checking hardware virtualization support

If you have “seven” Ultimate, Enterprise or Professional installed on your PC and the function is enabled automatic update, You already have Virtual PC. Before you start using it, you need to make sure that your processor supports hardware virtualization. To check this, Microsoft has created a utility called Hardware-Assisted Virtualization Detection Tool, which you can simply download and run.

If the utility displays a message like in the screenshot below, it means that hardware virtualization is supported and you can use Virtual PC without additional settings.

If there is no such support (message in the window below), you need to make some more changes to the system.

Please note: Hardware virtualization is enabled and disabled in the BIOS, so if it doesn't work on your PC, try activating it in Settings BIOS Setup. The option may be called Intel_Virtualization Technology (for Intel processors), AMD-V (respectively, for AMD), Virtualization Extensions, etc.

In this example, the Intel_Virtualization Technology option is disabled. To enable it, you need to change the value from Disabled to Enabled.

If you cannot use hardware virtualization, Microsoft offers to install a patch that will still allow you to run Virtual PC on Windows 7. On the download page, you need to select the file version in accordance with the bitness of your system.

Installing Virtual PC manually

Manual installation of a virtual machine in Windows 7 includes the installation of 2 components:

• Windows Virtual PC;
• Windows XP Mode virtual disk;

Virtual PC is installed first. To do this:

• download update KB958599 from the official website, corresponding to the bit level of your Windows 7, and run it;

• accept the license agreement;

• wait for the installation to complete;

• close the installer window and restart your PC.

Next you need to install virtual Windows disk XP Mode:

• run the installer downloaded from the official Microsoft website;

• select a location for the virtual disk;

• wait for the installation to complete;

• Check the “Run Windows XP mode” checkbox and click “Finish”.

First launch of Windows XP mode

After installing Windows XP mode, “Seven” will further configure it and create a virtual disk.

The first window will open in front of you, where you will have to accept the license agreement for using the program and click “Next”.

Next you will be asked to specify the folder where the virtual disk will be installed and create the first user.

Then – enable protective functions created system(optional).

After clicking on the “Start installation” button, the installation process of the virtual machine with Windows XP will begin. All we have to do is wait for it to finish.

Creating a new virtual machine on Windows 7

• Through Start or File Explorer, open the location of the XP Mode virtual disk.

• Click the “Create virtual machine” button in the top menu of the folder.

• After this, the wizard will launch and your new virtual machine will begin to be created. In the next box, enter her name and location.

• Configure network settings and the amount of RAM ( virtual Windows XP can make do with 512 megabytes of RAM, but more can be allocated).

• Create a virtual hard drive(or use an existing one). Specify its type (dynamically expandable or fixed volume) and location. Click “Create”.

• After this, the newly created one will appear in the list of virtual machines. Right-click on it and select “Open” from the menu.

• In the list of parameters, click on “DVD drive” and specify the path to the physical laser drive where the Windows XP disc is inserted. If you are going to install the system from an image, find its installation iso file in the directory - images of the format iso virtual The machine considers it “optical drives”.

After this it starts normal process installing Windows XP.

Using alternative virtual machines

In addition to its own Virtual PC component, Windows 7 supports virtualization systems from third-party manufacturers. Among them, the two most famous and widespread are Oracle VM VirtualBox and VMWare Workstation. Let's look at the principles of working with them using one example. Let's take VirtualBox from Oracle and create a new virtual machine on it to install the same “seven”.

After installing VirtualBox, open its main window – the virtual machine manager. Click in the top horizontal menu“Create” button.

In the next window, write the name of the virtual machine and select its version and bitness from the list. In our example, this is Wibdows 7 32 bit.

Configure the amount of RAM that the virtual (guest) system will use.

Create a hard drive (or select one of the ones you created earlier).

Specify the disk type. If you don't know the difference, leave this option at the default (VDI).

Specify the data storage format - dynamically expanding virtual disk or fixed-size disk.

By moving the slider, set the size of the disk, and also specify its name (if you want it to differ from the name of the “virtual drive”).

After clicking “Create”, the new virtual machine will appear in the list of the main window. On the right side are its settings.

To begin installing the operating system, click on the machine icon and click the “Run” button from the top panel.

Following this, another window will open - the one in which you will monitor the progress of the OS installation and continue to work. The virtual machine manager window (the main one) can be minimized for now.

Here, as when creating a virtual machine on Virtual PC, you need to specify the path to installation disk“seven” or ISO image.

After the OS installation is completed, the virtual machine is ready for use. You need to launch it by clicking on the corresponding icon in the left vertical list of the main VirtualBox window. As you can see, creating “virtual computers” is not at all difficult.

Creating a virtual machine on VMWare Workstation is also intuitive and in many ways similar to the procedure just discussed.

After creating a virtual machine in VirtualBox, you can begin installing the operating system Windows systems(or any other) to the VirtualBox virtual machine. By installing an operating system on a virtual machine, you can use several operating systems on your computer at the same time: the main (host) and guest (virtual) operating systems.

The guest operating system installed on the virtual machine will operate in isolation from the main system installed on your computer. You can learn to work in a new OS, test applications, launch outdated programs, use a virtual system for security purposes, etc. In this case, nothing will threaten the main system, and you can make any changes in the guest system.

In previous articles on my website, we discussed in detail the process of installing the program for VirtualBox virtualization and the VirtualBox Extension Pack on your computer, creating and configuring a virtual machine in VirtualBox (you will find links to the articles mentioned here under this article). Now the final stage has come: installing the operating system in VirtualBox, installing the VirtualBox Guest Additions, final settings of the virtual machine.

Once the virtual machine has been created and configured, you can begin installing the operating system.

In this example I install in virtual Windows machine 7, Windows 10 is installed on my computer (by the way, you can additionally install another Windows 10 on a virtual machine).

Installing Windows on VirtualBox

In the main window Oracle programs VM VirtualBox, select the desired virtual machine if you have multiple virtual machines installed, and then click on the “Launch” button.

In the Virtual Box program window, the process of installing the operating system into the virtual machine will begin. The process of installing the system is no different from installing the system on regular computer. Go through all the steps of installing the OS on a virtual computer.

After installing the operating system on the virtual machine, you will see Windows (or another operating system) in the VirtualBox program window.

Virtual OS requires customization to suit your needs, like conventional system on your computer.

Immediately after installing the operating system on the virtual machine, you will need to install Additions for the guest operating system - VirtualBox Guest Additions, which consists of a set of drivers and utilities. After installing the add-on package, the functionality of the guest OS is noticeably improved.

Installing VirtualBox Guest Additions

In the window of the running virtual machine, go to the “Devices” menu item. Next, in the context menu, select “Mount guest OS Add-ons disk image...”.

After this, in the guest operating system you will need to open Explorer. In Explorer, you will see that the VirtualBox Guest Additions disk image is located in the place of the CD-DVD drive.

Now you will need to install Add-ons for Guest Virtual VirtualBox machines Guest Additions.

Go through the steps of installing add-ons for the guest system by consistently clicking on the “Next” button. Agree to install software for devices.

After the installation of the guest OS package is complete, reboot the virtual operating system.

Creating a shared folder in VirtualBox

A shared folder is needed to exchange data between the main (host) and guest operating systems. First, you will need to create a shared folder on the main operating system installed on your computer. I have a “Data Sharing” folder on one of the drives on my computer, which is intended for data exchange.

In the “Folder Path” field, enter the path to the folder on the main system. Select "Other...", and then in the Explorer window, select or create the desired folder.

In the “Add a shared folder” window, check the “Auto-connect” and “Create a permanent folder” checkboxes, and then click the “OK” button.

In the Explorer window, go to “Network”, in the VBXSVR folder you will see a shared folder. In the Virtual Box program you can create several shared folders.

After installing guest OS add-ons, remove ISO image operating system from the virtual machine's disk drive, since the system image is no longer needed.

For more quick access, the shared folder can be added to the “Network Location” of Explorer as network drive. To do this, press the “Windows” + “R” buttons on your keyboard. In the Run window, in the Open field, enter the following command:

Net use x: \\vboxsvr\folder_name

Then click on the "OK" button.

After executing the command, the shared folder will appear in Explorer under “Network Location”.

Taking a System Snapshot in VirtualBox

VirtualBox has very useful feature: "Pictures." An operating system snapshot is the current state of the operating system at the time the snapshot was taken. Essentially this is backup recovery systems. You can take one or more snapshots and then restore the system to the state it was in when the snapshot was taken.

Typical situation: an operating system was installed on the virtual machine, after it was configured and installed necessary applications, a snapshot of the guest operating system was taken. After this, the user “killed” Windows (or another system), changed the configuration, etc. As a result of these actions, the operating system malfunctions or does not work at all.

Since this is a virtual OS, you can easily remove it from VirtualBox and then install it new system to a virtual machine. If a snapshot of the system was previously taken, then nothing will need to be done. In this case, it will be possible to restore the system to working condition using the previously taken “Snapshot”.

To create a system snapshot, click on the “Snapshots” button in the main VirtualBox window.

In the “Pictures” tab, click on the camera button. In the “Take a snapshot of a virtual machine” window, you will need to give a name to the snapshot being created, and in the description you can add additional information(I added the date the photo was taken). Next, click on the “OK” button.

After this, the process of creating a snapshot of the system in Virtual Box occurs.

A system snapshot has been created and can be accessed from the main VirtualBox window. Just keep in mind that system snapshots take up some space on the guest operating system's disk.

Recovering using a system snapshot

If necessary, for example, in case of serious problems with the guest system, you can restore the state of the virtual machine using a previously taken system snapshot. Restoring using a system snapshot occurs when the virtual machine is turned off.

Click on the "Snapshots" button in the main VirtualBox window. In the “Snapshots” tab, right-click on the system snapshot, and in the context menu select “Restore snapshot”.

In the question window, agree to restore the image. If the guest system is not working, you can uncheck the “Create a snapshot of the current system state” checkbox so as not to create an unnecessary snapshot since the system is not working normally.

Click on the "Restore" button.

If you create a snapshot of the current state, give it a name and description.

In the next window, click on the “Restore” button.

The guest operating system will be restored to the virtual machine in the state at the time the system snapshot was taken.

VirtualBox Update

To update VirtualBox you will need to download installation file programs new version, as well as a new version of the Extension Pack. After installing the program, all previously made settings will be saved.

After starting the guest operating system in the virtual machine, you will need to install the VirtualBox Guest Additions again. If several operating systems were installed in VirtualBox, then in this case, Add-ons for Guest OS will need to be installed on each operating system.

Conclusions of the article

You can install a guest operating system on a VirtualBox virtual machine, install the VirtualBox Guest Additions, create shared folders, take a snapshot of the system, and then restore the virtual OS using the snapshot.

The Windows operating system allows you to create a virtual machine (VM), which is another computer with a separate virtual disk, OS, system data, and software. Simply put, you connect another system that can be opened in a separate window. We will tell you how to install a virtual machine in this article. Follow the instructions carefully, and after 20-30 minutes the VM will appear on your computer

Creating a virtual machine on Windows 10

After installation, the computer must be restarted. Now let's go to search service Windows and drive it there Hyper-V Manager. It is located in Administration tools. Now let's move on to creating the VM:

Ready. Opening Hyper-V, you will see the VM.

Important! It may happen that you have configured and installed everything correctly, but the operating system on the virtual machine does not start. This can be explained by the fact that technical specifications are not suitable for playing a virtual system. Please read carefully system requirements to install one or another version of the OS. For example, you cannot install Windows 10 on a weak PC with a dual-core processor and 1 GB of RAM.

Creating a virtual machine on Windows 7

• In the main menu, click on the button Create.
• After this, the New VM Creation Wizard will open.
• We select the type of operating system and its version: if you want to install Windows 8, then select it from the list.
• In the next window, we set the required amount of RAM for the new OS - for Windows XP, 512 MB is enough, and the tenth version will not work correctly if you do not provide at least 4 GB for it.

Useful advice! When specifying memory, set it to at least 515 MB and no more than 50% of the total RAM that is in your computer.

Now we return to the VM creation menu and press the button Ready. Now we need to configure the virtual machine and install the system itself on it - go to the section Properties. In the section Display must be enabled 2D accelerator And 3D accelerator.

The next step is to select the media from which the new OS will be installed on the virtual machine:

• If you want to use the installation image, then go to the section Attributes and click on the folder icon - the media manager will open - you need to add your image here.
• If the installation will be performed from a DVD or USB drive, you should insert it into the computer and go to the section Attributes. After downloading, the disk or flash drive you need will appear in the list of media.

Useful advice! To create a VM with Linux is better use the Virtual Box program. You can also use standard Windows wizard 10, but user reviews indicate that Linux will be unstable.

Installing a virtual machine with Windows XP

After downloading, run the installation file and install the program according to the standard procedure. Now go to VMaware Workstation and proceed according to the following scheme:

1. In the application dialog menu, select the partition to install the VM. In the English version it is called New Virtual Machine.
2. First of all, the program will ask us to specify a DVD disc, Flash drive or ISO image. For example, we took a regular DVD with XP. Click on the button Next and go to system activation mode - specify the path to the XP activation file.
3. Now you need to set up a separate hard drive on which files with Windows XP will be located, and software will also be installed there. We indicate the size: usually 40 GB is enough, but for trial use of the VM, 8 GB will be enough for you.
4. After this, VMaware Workstation will run the check and final configuration. Here we can change the amount of RAM for Windows versions F, login methods and other parameters. The Russian version is now available on the VMaware Workstation website; we recommend reading the description of each setting in the help. If you skip this section, the program will automatically set the RAM.
5. Once setup is complete, VMaware Workstation will proceed to install the XP system on the virtual machine.

Video installation of VM

Using the free VirtualBox program, you can create a virtual machine on your computer with a different guest operating system. The VirtualBox virtualization program 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 in Windows 10 and Windows 8.1.

In such a virtual operating system, you can perform various actions: learn to work in a new OS, test new versions of Windows, 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 host 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, I have Windows 10 installed on my real computer, and I want to install Windows 7 on the virtual machine. In order to avoid confusion between versions (you can install several identical systems of different editions), 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 on the scale green so that in the end there are no 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.

In the next step, you will need to create a virtual hard disk, since the virtual machine will not be able to work without one hard drive. 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 virtual hard disk. You can choose following formats disks (virtual containers):

• VDI (Virtual Box 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 hard section disk, or on another hard drive, in case of reinstallation of the system will be saved. 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 right place, suited to 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 do additional settings before installing the operating system on a 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 (a 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 selected as the first boot device optical disk, the system can boot as if from a real disk drive on your computer, where the boot file will be inserted DVD disc 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 shared folders to function, you will need to install 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.

Conclusion

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