VirtualBox is a powerful x86 and AMD64/Intel64 virtualization product for enterprise as well as home use. Not only is VirtualBox an extremely feature rich, high performance product for enterprise customers, it is also the only professional solution that is freely available as Open Source Software under the terms of the GNU General Public License (GPL) version 2.

Note: It has been reported that version 7.0.20 has better performance that version 7.1, so we have kept this version available for users. Version 7.1 is also listed for those interested.

Can I run macOS on a Windows machine?

Yes. With VirtualBox, you can install multiple operating systems on a single PC and seamlessly switch between them, including macOS on Intel hardware (experimental feature). VirtualBox can run multiple x86 OS such as Windows, macOS, Linux distributions, FreeBSD, and OpenBSD on your host machine. The operating systems run within an application, which virtualizes the hardware in a completely isolated environment.

Is VirtualBox free?

Yes, VirtualBox is a free and open source virtual machine platform for personal, educational, or evaluation use.

Do I need to dual boot or repartition the disk?

No, that's not necessary. VirtualBox uses your computer's file system and creates files that map to a virtual machine's disk drives, so there is no need to create a partition for each operating system. If you already have another OS with dual boot, you can use VirtualBox to run the other operating system in a virtual machine on your host operating system. Instead of dual booting, you can run both operating systems simultaneously and seamlessly switch from one operating system to another with a click of your mouse.

Can I run an x86 virtual machine on Arm hardware?

Unfortunately, no. You can't run an x86 image on Arm via VirtualBox. Virtual Box will only allow you to run virtual machines on the same underlying architecture as your host machine supports.

Features

Modularity.

VirtualBox has an extremely modular design with well-defined internal programming interfaces and a client/server design. This makes it easy to control it from several interfaces at once: for example, you can start a virtual machine in a typical virtual machine GUI and then control that machine from the command line, or possibly remotely. VirtualBox also comes with a full Software Development Kit: even though it is Open Source Software, you don't have to hack the source to write a new interface for VirtualBox.

Virtual machine descriptions in XML.

The configuration settings of virtual machines are stored entirely in XML and are independent of the local machines. Virtual machine definitions can therefore easily be ported to other computers.

Guest Additions for Windows, Linux and Solaris.

VirtualBox has special software that can be installed inside Windows, Linux and Solaris virtual machines to improve performance and make integration much more seamless. Among the features provided by these Guest Additions are mouse pointer integration and arbitrary screen solutions (e.g. by resizing the guest window). There are also guest additions for OS/2 with somewhat reduced functionality.

Shared folders.

Like many other virtualization solutions, for easy data exchange between hosts and guests, VirtualBox allows for declaring certain host directories as "shared folders", which can then be accessed from within virtual machines.

VirtualBox is being actively developed with frequent releases and has an ever growing list of features, supported guest operating systems and platforms it runs on. VirtualBox is a community effort backed by a dedicated company: everyone is encouraged to contribute while Oracle ensures the product always meets professional quality criteria.

What's New

  • VMM: Fixed issue when Windows 11 24H2 guest was experiencing BSOD in rare conditions
  • GUI: Improved representation of disabled preferences contents (mask+font) when it is shown with certain Linux themes
  • GUI: Fixed issue when seamless mode was not properly enabled or disabled in appropriate time according to GA status events
  • GUI: Fixed rare crash on macOS hosts on application exit
  • GUI: Fixed small 7.1.4 regression in preferences windows when filter editor was not in focus
  • GUI: Introduced improvements in Advanced properties/settings dialog area
  • GUI: Restored missing functionality to change bridged adapter at VM startup if current one wasn't found
  • GUI: Fixed issue when Show action duplicates were created on macOS host in attempt to switch between running and powered off VMs
  • GUI: Fixed regression when 3D acceleration check-box was not available for certain guest OS and graphical controller types
  • GUI: Restored lost Help button for preferences windows on macOS
  • GUI: Restored lost Help button shortcuts for certain windows
  • GUI: Fixed issue when error message was shown when VM was starting in full-screen mode
  • VirtioNet: Fixed issue with re-negotiation of features after reset
  • Graphics: Fixed issue with Linux guest screen flickering when guest was using VMSVGA graphics adapter
  • VBoxManage: Added the ability to export and import VMs which contain an NVMe storage controller
  • VBoxManage: Fixed issue when it was not possible to set graphics controller to "QemuRamFB" using modifyvm command (bug #22232)
  • Main: Fixed issue when specifying custom proxy server in GUI settings had no effect
  • Network: Added changes which replaced NAT engines with libslirp
  • Guest OSes: Added OS type for Windows Server 2025
  • Linux guest and host: Added more fixes for UBSAN related warnings (bug #21877)
  • Linux guest and host: Added initial support for RHEL 9.6 kernel
  • Windows guests and host: Re-implemented driver installation
  • Solaris host: Removed the VirtualBox GUI shared objects libqgtk2styleVBox.so and libqgtk2VBox.so from the Solaris installation packages as they depend on GTK2 which is EOL and no longer supported
  • Linux Guest Additions: Introduced initial support for kernel 6.13
  • Linux Guest Additions: vboxvideo: Added improvement for kernel 6.4 support and fixed issue when graphics could be frozen when using VBoxVGA adapter
  • Linux Guest Additions: Introduced additional fixes for kernel 6.12 in vboxvideo