We start this second part (here you can read the first) about VirtualBox first by watching the setup of the VM just created with the wizard.
By clicking the Settings button a window with various “sections” will be available (pic1)
In “General” we find summary info but also advanced settings (boot order, IDE controlller typer, snapshot folder, shared clipboard…).
In “Hard disks” you can view a list of them and their slot.
In “CD/DVD-ROM” you can host a CD/DVD drive or mount an image.
In “Floppy” you can mount a floppy drive / load a floppy image file.
In “Audio” you can find the sound card properties.
In “Network” you define network card properties, connection (NAT, etc…)
In “Serial ports” the properties related to them
In “USB” you can find the properties related to USB controller.
In “Shared folders” you can create shared that can use to exchange data with the physical OS.
In “Remote display” you can enable remote screen (via VRDP server)
With the first start of virtual machine a wizard (pic2) will guide to OS installation (media type to use), with our copy (it’s a Windows XP SP3) inserted on drive it will automatically start by boot (pic3), at the end we have the virtual os running (pic4)
It’s also possible to install an OS within an ISO image file, to do it go in virtual machine settings, section “CD/DVD rom” and here you can browse to load it, then we can start the virtual machine.
Once VM is started we have a VirtualBox menu available with Machine, Device, Help.
In Machine (pic5) we can set various screen modes (full screen, etc…), open task manager, take snapshot, reset – pause – power off VM.
In Device (pic6) we can mount/unmount CD/DVD, floppy, list of network adapters, USB devices, shared folders, remote display and Install Guest Additions.
Guest Additions (pic7) are VirtualBox “addons” that make various enhancements (easy file sharing, enhance screen etc…) so are highly suggested.
Once installed we find an icon on system tray; you can compare to VMWare Tools, the other famous virtualization software VMWare.
If you want to share a folder between virtual O.S. and real O.S. it’s very easy with VirtualBox.
Go to Settings -> Shared folders and add a new share (pic8), in the first field you enter the path and in the second you give a name; if you don’t check Read only you give the full access.
In the virtual machine point to path \Vboxsvr and we find our share that we can map (pic9)
If you want to add a new HDD go to Settings -> Hard Disks and press the add icon (pic10)
The HDD creation wizard will start and at then you can see the new HDD in the list (pic11)
Lastly in VM go to Administration tools (control panel) of Windows -> Storage -> Disk Management: here do the operations to let Windows know it (make volume, format)
(pic12), at the end you can see the new hdd on explorer window (pic13)
To create a snapshot of VM go to Snapshots tab and create it within the icon (pic14), then you can restore a snapshot, delete it or see details in every moment (pic15)
I remember that the snapshots are stored in the path you have specified in Settings, pay attetion to their size (pic16)
This is the end of the second part of VirtualBox tutorial!
