VirtualBox Cheat Sheet: Tips and Tricks for Getting the Most Out of Your VM
VirtualBox is a free and open-source virtualization platform that allows you to run many operating systems at once on your desktop computer, even if they don’t run on the same hardware. This cheat sheet will help you set up and use VirtualBox, but if you have any questions, be sure to check out the VirtualBox forums! We’re always happy to help. If you can’t find an answer there, then leave us feedback so we can address the issue in the next version of VirtualBox! If you need technical support, please submit a bug report to our bug tracker and support forum.
Set up multi-monitor virtualization
Not everyone needs to run multiple monitors on their virtual machine (VM), but if you do, it’s a pretty simple process. Just open up your VM’s settings and go to the Display tab. From there, you can enable more than one monitor and even specify resolution and positioning. Plus, when you close down your VM, everything will stay as it was in the Settings menu – so all you have to do is right-click on your VM and select Start in order to continue working with multi-monitor configuration.
The other option that might be worth checking out is scaling; this will let you zoom in or out of what’s displayed within your VM.
Configure audio
To configure audio in VirtualBox, first, select your VM in the left sidebar and then click on the Settings cog in the top right corner. In the Settings window, go to the Audio tab. In the Audio tab, you can choose whether to enable audio for your VM and which audio controller to use. If you want to use your host’s audio output (e.g. speakers or headphones), select the Host Audio Output option. You can also select which device to use as the default playback device. Click Apply to save your changes!
Speed up your guest
If you’re running a Windows guest on a VirtualBox host, there are a few tweaks you can make to speed up your machine. One is to install the VirtualBox Guest Additions, which will give you better performance and integration with your host machine. Another is to allocate more RAM to your guest machine; by default, VirtualBox allocates 512MB, but you can give it more if your host has enough RAM to spare.
Use shared folders between host and guest machines
One of the great features of VirtualBox is the ability to share folders between your host machine and guest machine. This can be extremely useful if you need to transfer files between the two or want to use a shared directory for development purposes. You can also allow other users on the same system access to this folder by mapping it as a network drive. To do this, right-click on Shared Folders in the left pane, then click on Map Network Drive.
Connect USB devices to your VM
One of the great things about VirtualBox is that you can connect USB devices to your VM. This can be incredibly useful, especially if you need to use a specific device with your VM that doesn’t have a driver for your host operating system. You can also share files between your VM and host machine using this method by connecting an external hard drive or flash drive. It’s important to remember that all data on any shared drives will be accessible by both the guest OS and host OS.
Share printers
If you’re using VirtualBox to run a virtual machine (VM) on your computer, you may be wondering how to print from the VM to your printer. Fortunately, it’s easy to do with VirtualBox’s built-in share printers feature. First, select the VM in VirtualBox Manager and go to Settings -> Shared Folders -> Add… -> Printer -> Create new share -> Save and then use File Sharing in Windows or Finder in Mac OS X to access the shared folder. You’ll now see your shared printer under Devices in Control Panel or Printers & Scanners in System Preferences depending on which operating system you are running inside the VM.
Enable clipboard sharing
Clipboard sharing allows you to share text and images between your host machine and your virtual machine. To enable clipboard sharing, go to the Devices menu in VirtualBox and select Clipboard. Then select either Bidirectional or Host to Guest. Once enabled, text copied on one side will appear on the other side as well.
