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1 Introduction
• Clean architecture; unprecedented modularity. VirtualBox has an extremely
modular design with well-defined internal programming interfaces and a clean
separation of client and server code. This makes it easy to control it from several
interfaces at once: for example, you can start a VM simply by clicking on a
button in the VirtualBox graphical user interface and then control that machine
from the command line, or even remotely. See chapter 7, Alternative front-ends;
remote virtual machines, page 90 for details.
Due to its modular architecture, VirtualBox can also expose its full functionality
and configurability through a comprehensive software development kit (SDK),
which allows for integrating every aspect of VirtualBox with other software sys-
tems. Please see chapter 10, VirtualBox programming interfaces, page 143 for
details.
• No hardware virtualization required. As explained in the previous chapter, in
most cases, VirtualBox does not require the processor features built into newer
hardware like Intel VT-x or AMD-V. As opposed to many other virtualization
solutions, you can therefore use VirtualBox even on older hardware where these
features are not present.
• Guest Additions: shared folders, seamless windows, 3D virtualization. The
VirtualBox Guest Additions are software packages which can be installed inside
of supported guest systems to improve their performance and to provide addi-
tional integration and communication with the host system. After installing the
Guest Additions, a virtual machine will support automatic adjustment of video
resolutions, seamless windows, accelerated 3D graphics and more. The Guest
Additions are described in detail in chapter 4, Guest Additions, page 60.
In particular, Guest Additions provide for “shared folders”, which let you access
files from the host system from within a guest machine. Shared folders are
described in chapter 4.6, Folder sharing, page 68.
• Great hardware support. Among others, VirtualBox supports:
– Guest multiprocessing (SMP). Starting with version 3.0, VirtualBox can
present up to 32 virtual CPUs to a virtual machine.
– Hardware compatibility. VirtualBox virtualizes a vast array of virtual de-
vices, among them many devices that are typically provided by other virtu-
alization platforms – including an Input/Output Advanced Programmable
Interrupt Controller (I/O APIC) which is found in many modern PC sys-
tems. This eases cloning of PC images from real machines or 3rd party
virtual machines into VirtualBox.
– USB device support. VirtualBox implements a virtual USB controller and
allows you to connect arbitrary USB devices to your virtual machines with-
out having to install device-specific drivers on the host. USB support is not
limited to certain device categories. For details, see chapter 3.7.9.1, USB
settings, page 54.
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