Downloading, install and use VirtualBox

About Oracle VirtualBox

VirtualBox – virtualizer of hardware. Using this app you can run another OS, for example, Windows or Linux in virtual machine on MacBook

VirtualBox 5.1 macOS hosts

Supported hosts: 10.9 (Mavericks), 10.10 (Yosemite), 10.11 (El Capitan).

Supported guest operating systems

Windows, macOS, DOS, Linux, Solaris, FreeBSD, OpenBSD, OS/2.

Downloading VirtualBox

www.virtualbox.org

Installing VirtualBox

Double-click on disk image file
Double-click on VirtualBox.mpkg icon to start installation
After installation you can find VirtualBox.app in Applications folder

Downloading and install Extension Pack

With installed Extension Pack you can add several features to the virtual machine:

The USB 2.0 and USB 3.0 support
VirtualBox Remote Desktop Protocol (VRDP)
Host webcam passthrough
Intel PXE boot ROM
Disk image encryption with AES algorithm

VirtualBox Manager

In this window you can create, start and control your virtual machine (VM).

Create virtual machine

Click New button to create VM
Enter name and select OS
Select memory size
Hard Disk – click Create
Select disk type: VDI
Select Dynamically allocated
Select disk size and click Create

New VM is ready to start and install guest operating system. You can find VM files in Home – VirtualBox VMs.

Now you can configure virtual machine preferences and install guest OS. As an sample, you can install virtual Windows 7 or free web hosting with Ubuntu Server. To get all the power of the virtual machine – do not forget to install Guest Additions.

Guest Additions

Guest Additions can be installed in guest OS to provide closer integration with macOS and get: Mouse pointer integration, Shared folders, Better video support, Seamless windows, Time synchronization, Shared clipboard, Automated logons.

Virtual disk drives

Formats of virtual hard disk

VirtualBox supports formats of hard disks:

VDI – VirtualBox native disk type
VMDK – container format VMware
VHD – format used by Microsoft
HDD – format files of Parallels

Two options of creating VDI disk image:

Fixed-size – full size file
Dynamically allocated – grow size file

Virtual Media Manager

In Virtual Media Manager you can copy, remove or modify: Hard disk images, CD/DVD ISO, Floppy RAW

Differencing images

When you make snapshot virtual machine – state of the disk freezes and differencing disk creates. A differencing disk – is a special disk image that only holds the differences.