Today we are taking a look at VirtualBox which is an open-source virtualization app. What this basically does is allow you to run Windows on a Mac, Linux on a Mac or you can run stuff like DOS and OS/2 on Windows for example if you are feeling nostalgic for something old school.
How to Download VirtualBox
To download the program for your machine, click on the Download button that is located below this review.
The Program Review
The way this works is not exactly super easy and simple to figure out, but they do have guides to help you. You open up your VirtualBox Manager menu and from here you can run what it is you want to run, Windows on a Mac for example. You can have it in a small box if you want or you can run in it in “Seamless Mode” this is where it goes full screen and it will appear you are just using Windows.
This does not exactly run perfectly with Windows 10 and you should expect a few problems here and there, but for the most part, it will allow you to do what it is you want to do. You may have to install some extra options if you want to take advantage of more advanced features like dragging and dropping files between your main OS and the one you are emulating.
For people who are tech-minded, this is not going to be a problem. However, there is quite a lot of room for error here so I can see some people getting frustrated. While I said it did not work perfectly with Windows 10 when I was using it, Windows 7 on the other hand ran pretty much perfectly and it was a lot of fun to mess around with.
While it is not exactly easy to use if you are not used to this kind of thing, VirtualBox does what it does very well. It certainly offers you plenty of advanced options to play around with another kind of OS on your device. You will have to play around with this a lot or read a lot of guides or watch many different videos, to truly understand all that it can do.
There are actually other apps/programs or whatever you want to call them that offer a similar service to VirtualBox. Parallels Desktop and VMware Fusion are two of the more popular ones. While they may be a bit easier to use and offer more features, they are premium products and do cost you money. Parallels Desktop costs you $79.99 a year and VMWare Fusion will cost you $79.99, but that is for a lifetime license.
One of the reasons that so many people are so high on VirtualBox is that it is free to use! That is right, this is completely free and open source. That is why so many developers and people who love to tinker with their computers think that this is fantastic. If you fancy trying this kind of thing out then you would be better giving VirtualBox a try before spending money on one of the other similar products on the market.
Guest Additions
As we have already stated VirtualBox is a free and open-source virtualization software package that allows users to run applications inside its own window. You can install other operating systems as well, for example, Windows or Linux distributions.
VirtualBox provides different features that increase the level of safety for your operating system because it can create snapshots of the system state at any time. It also facilitates the installation of guest additions inside the virtual machine environment. Guest additions are needed for better integration with your host operating system.
Guest additions are kernel modules provided by VirtualBox that allow interaction between the host operating system and the guest machine. Once you have installed them inside your virtual machine, the next time it will be started, they will automatically load in order to make your life easier. Guest Additions can provide your virtual machines with better video support, for example when working on a resolution higher than 1024×768 pixels or when you want to access remote USB devices.
