Virtualbox virtual machine. How to create a virtual computer. Creating EFI virtual machines in VirtualBox

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 virtual machines in the VirtualBox Manager window and it will be used for the VM files on the 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 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 give to the virtual machine will not be available to the OS on your physical computer while the virtual machine is running, so don't 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 are running two virtual machines at the same time, more will be allocated for the second virtual machine. more memory(which may not even start if this 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.

Modern Windows versions(both host and guest OS) for comfortable work it is advisable to have at least 4 GB of RAM. 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 the 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.

Then you should specify 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 own hard drive. This file is all hard disk, 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 the physical disk from becoming full, 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 monitor virtual system, is displayed in Preview in VirtualBox Manager.

In general, you can use the virtual machine just as if you were using 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. Since 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 the bootable operating system was not detected.

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 connect directly ISO file. VirtualBox will then present this file in the virtual machine as a CD or DVD-ROM, similar to how it does with a virtual machine image. hard drive.
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 if you are not using the virtual machine in full screen mode, your virtual machine needs to share a 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 the VirtualBox Global 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 user or Solaris);
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 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:

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.

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.
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 a 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 shut down a frozen virtual machine, or if you have Snapshots that you want to revert to and do not want to save new data written after the Snapshot was taken.

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.

A virtual machine is a program that allows you to work in an isolated operating system, without the risk of changing your main operating system in any way. This is a kind of “sandbox” in which you can do whatever you want.

For example, you have Windows 7 installed, but you need to run an application that only works on Windows XP. Installing two operating systems is not economical, since you need to buy another expensive license, clog up your hard drive, and in general it’s not the best idea. But you can run a virtual machine with Windows XP and work with it without any problems the necessary software. Some even try to break one like that physical computer several virtual ones, but it looks a little stupid; there are other, more adequate technologies.

What is a virtual machine for?

Let's list:

Run other operating systems without installing them on your computer
Testing programs that may contain viruses
Testing viruses that you can embed into programs
To emulate something. For example, other hardware devices (development of Java applications for phones)
Testing and acquiring skills in creating/using a local network

I have listed the main tasks for which virtual machines can be used. You can adapt them to suit your needs, all you need is an idea and a little thought, and, of course, you need to know how to create a virtual machine.

Virtual machines for Windows

To create a sandbox on your computer/server, you can use one of the five most popular virtual machines: VirtualBox, QEMU, Parallels Desktop Microsoft Virtual PC and VMware Workstation. We will focus on VirtualBox, since it is not inferior to its competitors in performance and speed, and in some cases even surpasses them.

VirtualBox is a virtual environment that can emulate different operating systems and applications. It installs without problems on Windows, Linux or Mac OS. It was developed on January 15, 2007, changed developers 3 times, and is now being developed by Oracle. Distinctive feature – given environment can work with several operating systems simultaneously.

So, for example, you can run Windows and Linux on your Mac, or run Windows Server 2008 on Linux server. If you need to run Linux on your Windows computer, and so on, all together with your existing applications.

Installing a VirtualBox virtual machine

First, you need a Windows distribution. IN in this example I'm using XP, so I downloaded Windows XP Professional SP3 from latest updates. Download VirtualBox for Windows from the official website. Both 32 and 64-bit operating systems are supported. During installation you will be asked to install drivers, in all dialog boxes select "Install".

We launch, the program window looks like this:

Click Create and select Windows XP.

We set the RAM to suit your needs. I only needed to run one application, so I chose 256 megabytes. Click "Next".

We create a virtual disk on which files for our virtual OS will be stored. Type – VDI (VisualBox Disk Image). Dynamic hard drive 10 GB.

So our virtual operating system has been created.

To install the OS from an image, we need to go to Settings/Media and do it as shown in the screenshot below:

Choose Windows image XP we downloaded:

In the same settings you can do shared folder, in which we will store files for work. In the settings, go to the Shared Folders section, click on the Add icon:

Now everything is ready to launch, exit the settings and double click click on the name of our created virtual machine and launch it. Once launched, the download will begin automatically.

Note: When the machine starts up, it may not see the shared folder and you will need to install an add-on. This can be done by selecting top menu Install/install guest OS additions:

Now you know how to install a virtual machine, and you can put this knowledge into practice. Good luck with your virtualizations, dear readers.

The need to create a virtual machine arises in many cases.

This includes the desire to have several Windows operating systems on your computer, including old ones such as Windows 95.98. The reasons for this are varied: nostalgia, the desire to play old games, and more.

This also means safety when working on the Internet. The ability to visit any sites without fear of blockers and other evil spirits. The main operating system always remains safe, and the virtual machine can always be simply deleted and a new virtual machine can be created, along with it, spending just a few minutes on this.

This is also the desire to have a testing ground for studying and testing new programs downloaded from sources that, to put it mildly, do not inspire confidence.

And much, much more. The list of possibilities for using virtual machines could take a very long time. Moreover, such opportunities only increase over time.

Program for creating a windows virtual machine

Creating a virtual windows cars is, in general, a routine process. There are different programs for creating a virtual machine, from different manufacturers. One such program that allows you to create virtual machines quickly and in almost unlimited quantities is Oracle VM VirtualBox.

Using this program as an example, let's take a closer look at the creation process. VirtualBox virtual machine.

Thus, VirtualBox is a program for creating virtual machines. This free program with clear and user-friendly interface, Russified. Unfortunately, Help at English. But the interface is completely Russified and quite understandable.

Another undoubted advantage is that this program allows you to create virtual machines compatible with virtualization programs from other manufacturers. This program, of course, has many more advantages, but listing them is not the topic of the article. This article is devoted to the experience of creating virtual machines.

Download the program for creating virtual machines virtualbox can be found on the manufacturer's website at www.virtualbox.org and, as already mentioned, completely free.

How to create a virtualbox virtual machine

After you have downloaded the program to create a free virtual machine, you need to install it. to create virtual machines on the main OS.

A new virtual machine is created in Oracle VM VirtualBox Manager.

So, we launch the program for creating free virtual machines VirtualBox and click on Manager to create and manage virtual machines using a button Create (fig1)

Fig.1

A dialog box will appear New Virtual Machine Wizard(Fig. 2). Read the information and click the button Next or
. Fig.2

In the next window (Fig. 3) we set the name of the virtual machine to be created VirtualBox and choose which operating system we will subsequently install on the created virtual machine.

Fig.3

To select the OS you need to click on the triangle in the window Operating systems . A drop-down list will open from which you can select the system to be installed on the virtual machine.

If you have not yet decided on the choice of OS, then you can choose Other - Other(Fig. 4).

Fig.4

If you have chosen an operating system to install on the virtual machine you are creating Microsoft Windows , then in the window Version you will need to select the OS version (Fig. 5)

Fig.5

When choosing, keep in mind that each OS and its versions require different quantities resources for comfortable work, in particular the size of the minimum RAM.

Having decided on the OS for the free VirtualBo virtual machine to be created x, click the button Next – Next.

In the next window we select the amount of RAM allocated to the virtual machine. Moreover, if we have previously selected the operating system for the machine being created, then the minimum size of the main memory will be recommended here. It is not advisable to choose less, but more depends on the power of your computer (Fig. 6). The choice is made by moving the slider or entering numbers in the window.

Fig.6

Having decided on the RAM, click Next.

In the next step, we select the size of the boot hard drive for the virtual machine being created (Fig. 7).

Fig.7

Bird in the checkbox Boot disk is the default.

Here we have the choice or create new hard disk or use an existing one.

Existing disk you can select from the drop-down list or by clicking on the folder icon to select a disk image file on your computer.

Since we are creating the first virtual machine, we will create a new disk by selecting the radio button - Create a new hard drive and clicking Next(Fig. 7).

In the next step, a dialog box will open Masters of creating something new virtual disk for your virtual machine (Fig. 8)

Fig.8

Here you will need to select the file type that will be used to create virtual hard disk. In other words, you need to choose with what extension the files of the created virtual machine will be saved.

The default file type is selected vdi. Files with this extension are typical for VM VirtualBox. If you intend to use the created virtual disk with virtualization programs from other manufacturers, then you need to select the appropriate extension. Otherwise, leave everything as it is and proceed to the next step, where you will need to select the type of virtual disk for the virtual machine being created (Fig. 9).

Fig.9

On at this stage you need to decide on the type of virtual disk to be created. You can choose between a dynamic and a fixed virtual disk.

Dynamic disk tends to increase as it is filled with information. But you need to keep in mind that this action is unidirectional. If the size of the disk increased as the information grew, and then you deleted some of the information, the disk will not automatically decrease in size, but will remain the same size.

Fixed disk immediately possesses given dimensions and its advantage is higher performance compared to dynamic.

But in principle, you can choose any one to start with. They both work well. Subsequently, you can change the parameters to your liking.

Having selected the disk type, we proceed to the next step, where we will have to select the location and size of the virtual disk (Fig. 10).

Fig.10

Here you need to select the name and location of the virtual machine to be created. In other words, the location of the folder in which the files of the created virtual machine will be stored. By default, the name is the same as the name of the machine that was specified at the beginning, but here you can change it if desired.

The location of the virtual machine can be selected by clicking on the folder icon.

It’s more convenient not to post disk being created virtual machine on the main system disk. In this case, when you reinstall the main OS, the created virtual machine will be saved. To run it, it will be enough to reinstall the virtualization program, and not create the machine again.

The next step is final (Fig. 11). Here you can check the entered information and, if everything is satisfactory, create a new virtual machine.

Fig.11

If the selected parameters do not suit you, you can go back by clicking the return button (Fig. 11).

It should be borne in mind that the ability to go back is provided at any stage of creating a virtual machine, which is very convenient.

By clicking the Create button after checking the entered information, you proceed to the last stage of creating a virtual machine (Fig. 12).

Fig.12

Virtual machine creation process VirtualBox It will take some time, but, however, not very long.

Once the creation of the virtual disk for the virtual machine is complete, a final dialog box will appear (Fig. 13).

Fig.13

Here again you can get acquainted with what parameters the virtual machine will be created. And you are asked to confirm them by pressing the button Create, after which a new virtual machine will be created.

Pay attention to the paragraph that says that subsequently the parameters of the created virtual machine can always be changed through the dialog box Properties menu of the main VirtualBox window (Fig. 13). So you can safely create a machine with preliminary parameters, and then adjust it to your immediate needs. The free, but very good, virtual machine creation program VirtualBox allows you to do this at any time.

But you need to keep in mind that you can change parameters when the virtual machine is in mode Off, not Saved.

Creating a virtualbox virtual machine using an existing disk

You can significantly simplify and speed up the creation of a new virtual machine virtualbox windows, if specified during the creation process (Fig. 14).

Fig.14

In this case, it will be possible to specify in the drop-down list which disk will be used when creating the virtual machine. These are disks of existing machines. By clicking the Next button, we immediately go to the final window (Fig. 15). Here we confirm the proposed parameters and click the Create button.

Fig.15

The virtual machine will be immediately created and will appear in the list of existing machines (Fig. 16).

Fig.16

Moreover, the created machine will be with installed system and programs of the virtual machine whose disk was used. Basically, a copy of the existing machine will be created.

One thing to keep in mind is that the two machines will be using the same disk. Changes made on one machine will be reflected on the second.

After creating the virtual machine, you will need to do some configuration of it, install the operating system and Guest OS Additions, and then create shared folders that allow you to exchange information between the host OS and the virtual machine.

Hello! My name is Maxim Borisov, let me remind you that in this series of articles we are talking about the operation of the VirtualBox virtual machine. Last time we already did, and are now ready to create the platform itself for installing the operating system.

Please note that even before installing the OS itself, you need to tell the virtual machine what operating system we will install. At this stage, you need to select the OS type - Windows, Linux or another. In addition, you need to indicate whether the system will be 32 or 64 bit.

On some computers, 64-bit OS versions are not shown in the list. Most often this is due to the fact that the hardware does not support such systems or is not enabled. Also, one of the problems may be a conflicting Hyper V server in Windows 8 or 10.

It is worth remembering that the memory you allocate to the virtual machine will not be available to the real machine at the moment launch VirtualBox. Therefore, if you have 4 GB of memory in total, installing 64 bit versions does not make much sense. On the other hand, if you leave only 1 GB of RAM for the virtual machine, you will experience performance problems.

If you have not created virtual machines before, select “Create a virtual disk”. It is worth understanding that the guest OS installed on the virtual machine will not have access (by default) to hard drives main (host) system. Therefore, in one of the next steps you need to think carefully before deciding how much disk space to allocate for a virtual machine.

The type of disk matters in cases where the same disk is used by several hypervisors (programs for creating virtual machines). In our example, we are installing our first virtual machine, so I leave the default option and the hard drive will be created in the internal VirtualBox format.

The next parameter has great value. If you select the “Fixed virtual hard disk” option, space on the physical hard disk will be immediately allocated and archived for it. “Dynamic” is another matter; it will take up space on the physical disk as it fills up.

The size of the virtual disk cannot be changed after installing the OS, so if you select 15-20 GB and then they run out, you will have to create the machine again. So, the 32 GB that is recommended to us is the minimum that needs to be selected, especially for modern Windows operating systems - 7, 8 or 10.

The creation of the virtual machine is completed, let's launch it.

And we see that for the first time we need to insert bootable media or select the OS image on your hard drive. If you close this window, it will not appear the next time you start the machine.

But let's do it anyway, I'll show you how to start the OS installation later. In the meantime, let's make some more settings, which, in principle, could be done after installing the OS, but it wouldn't hurt to familiarize yourself with them before.

In the "General" and "Advanced" sections you can change the path of an individual machine. Make sure that it is not stored in a folder with all machines, but separately. But, even during VirtualBox settings We set this parameter so that the space on drive C is not cluttered and now there is no need to change anything. But enabling the ability to transfer files via drag-and-drop and clipboard is very convenient.

In the "System" and " Motherboard» You can select the boot device. Please note that there is no option to select a flash drive; I’ll tell you in a separate article if there is such a need.

In the "Processor" section, you can configure the processing power that is available to the virtual machine. Although the slider formally works if physical machine only one processor, do not set the setting to 2-3 or 4. This will cause a conflict. But the processor power available to the guest OS can be adjusted. Although, for most systems it is better to leave it at 100% and then the guest OS will use the power as needed. This does not mean that all 100% will be downloaded at once, but if necessary they can be used.

For correct operation with Windows 8 and 10, enable PAE/NX technology support.

Now let's focus on file sharing between the host and guest operating systems. This is what shared folders are for.

By clicking on the plus sign, you can add a temporary or permanent shared folder. You can also place files that are needed for the guest OS in it. Someone even adds the entire disk D to a shared folder, but then you should understand that the guest OS will have access to your real files, and in some cases this is unsafe, for example, if some malware is being tested on the guest OS.

Let's summarize our creation of the virtual machine - we did everything right, and the machine works. To install the OS, you now need to select “Devices” in the top menu of the machine, “ Optical discs"and find either a system image or insert the disc into the drive.

VirtualBox is one of the popular programs today that allows advanced users and IT professionals to create an operating system inside another (real) operating system. In other words, this is a virtual environment for testing various software, including the operating systems themselves. In VirtualBox, you can create several virtual computers by installing a separate operating system on each of them. In particular, the program allows you to install operating Windows systems, Linux, BSD, Solaris, etc.

Below we will take a step-by-step look at how to create using the program VirtualBox virtual computer and install the Windows operating system on it. To do this, we need, in addition to a real computer, the VirtualBox program and an installation disk with the Windows operating system.

Virtual Box is completely free and can be downloaded freely on the Internet. A huge advantage of the program is its simple and intuitive interface, as well as support for the Russian language.

Creating a virtual computer

Launching VirtualBox

VirtualBox installs quite standardly, there should be no problems with this. After installation, launch the program and click the first available function in the upper left corner of the program window - “Create”. In the window that appears, you must select the operating system, its version, and also set a name for virtual computer.

After clicking the “Forward” command, you need to set the amount of RAM that the virtual computer will have, borrowing it from the RAM of the real computer during operation. Therefore, RAM for a virtual computer should be allocated sparingly. In this menu you can see minimum requirements virtual RAM from the VirtualBox program itself, which will depend on the version of the operating system being installed.

For example, if you install the Windows XP operating system, VirtualBox will ask for a minimum RAM of 192 MB, and for Windows 7 it must be at least 512 MB. These minimum virtual RAM requirements do not guarantee stable work operating system, most likely, programs will crash, and it is unlikely that it will be possible to test resource-intensive software.

Therefore, for the correct Windows operation For XP it is better to define 256 MB of RAM, and for Windows 7 - 800-900 MB. You should not go into the red section - that is, allocate more than half of the hardware capabilities of a real computer for the virtual computer. You can set the RAM value for a virtual computer either using a convenient slider or entering the exact number manually. Next, click the “Forward” command.

The default setting in this menu is “Create a new hard drive”; here you need to set hard parameters virtual computer disk. When asked by the program to specify the file type, which will determine the format used when creating a tough disk for a virtual computer, it is best to leave the default file type - VDI. Next, click the “Forward” command.

Storage format: in this menu you need to specify the type of hard disk on the virtual computer - dynamic or fixed. The program menu contains descriptions of each type of disk, where the user can select the option that suits him. It is only worth noting that most users choose a fixed disk for the simple reason that it is somewhat faster in operation than a dynamic one. Having made your choice, click “Forward” again.

In the next menu, you need to select a specific volume of the virtual computer's hard disk. This parameter directly depends on free space on the hard drive of a real computer, the amount of memory required to install the operating system, as well as the tasks for which the virtual computer is created. Typically, Windows XP takes up about 1.5 GB of hard drive space, and Windows 7 takes up as much as 8 GB.

If we add to this volume the space for installing software, for Windows XP the minimum hard drive size will be 4-5 GB, and for Windows 7 – 15 GB. Here, by clicking the browse button (in the form of a yellow folder), select the folder where the virtual hard disk will be created on the real computer disk. Naturally, you should not place the virtual hard disk on system disk real computer. Click the “Create” command and wait for the program to create the virtual computer’s hard drive.

After this, we can safely observe the parameters of the newly created virtual computer.

To turn on the virtual computer, click the command in the form of a green arrow “Run”.

Next, a window will open asking you to select real or virtual drive, which contains, respectively, either physical disk, or a disk image for installing the Windows operating system. To select an image installation disk with the operating system, next to the drive selection there is an option to browse files in the form of a folder, by clicking on which you need to specify the path to the image. Next, click “Continue”.

VirtualBox will open the usual menu Windows installations. Then everything happens exactly the same as in the case of installing the operating system on a real computer. After installation is complete, the newly installed operating system will launch in the program window.

Shutting down a virtual computer

You can turn off the virtual computer either through the operating system menu “Start” - “Turn off the computer”, or by clicking on the cross in the upper right corner of the VirtualBox program window. When closing, you must select the option to exit the virtual computer.

The first exit option is to save the state of the virtual machine before closing it. This option must be selected if installation of programs or experiments with system settings were successful.

The second option is to send a signal to shut down the job. This is the process of gracefully shutting down a virtual operating system.

The third option terminates the virtual operating system without saving changes made to it - neither settings nor installed programs. This ideal option exit from the virtual system, for example, if according to the test results installed software turned out to be unsuitable for normal use.

The virtual computer is launched from the VirtualBox program. When you open the program, you will immediately see the available virtual computers on the right side of the window. The selected computer is started using the “Run” button in the form of a green arrow. The same command is duplicated in context menu, if you right-click on the selected computer. After this, the virtual operating system will launch in a separate window of the VirtualBox program.

For ease of use, you can place the virtual computer launcher shortcut on your desktop. To do this, in the context menu there is a command “Create a shortcut on the desktop”.

At the end of the article, I suggest you watch the video Oracle settings VirtualBox on Windows 7. Enjoy: