Oracle released the first beta version of the upcoming virtualization software VirtualBox 7 this week. The new version is available as a test version for Windows, Linux and Mac devices.
One of the main improvements of VirtualBox 7 is that it supports Windows 11 officially. VirtualBox users who tried to install Windows 11 in previous versions of VirtualBox may have run into hardware compatibility verification issues. While there are ways around those, it has been a burden.
VirtualBox 7 improves the Windows 11 setup experience as well. Besides the improved setup screen, which makes the selection of the local folder for the VM and the ISO image easier, it is supporting unattended setups.
It is possible to skip the unattended installation by checking the box on the first page of setup. Unattended installation support allows users to add a user account right away, enter a product key, set up a hostname and domain name, and enable Virtual Box Guest Additions.
If the host supports the requirements of Windows 11, the installer in the VirtualBox environment won’t throw the unsupported error message anymore during installation; this speeds up the installation of virtual Windows 11 systems significantly.
VirtualBox 7 includes a number of additional improvements. Oracle classifies VirtualBox 7.0.0 as a maintenance release:
• Audio recording: Now using Vorbis as the default audio format for WebM containers. Opus
is no longer being used.
• Audio: Added “default” host driver type to make it possible to move VMs (appliances)
between different platforms without the need of changing the audio driver explicitly. When
the “default” driver is selected, the best audio backend option for a platform will be used.
This is the default for newly created VMs.
• Guest Control: Implemented initial support for automatic updating of Guest Additions for
Linux guests
• Guest Control: Implemented ability to wait for and/or reboot the guest when updating
Guest Additions via VBoxManage
• VBoxManage: Added Guest Control “waitrunlevel” sub-command to make it possible to
wait for a guest to reach a certain run level
• Windows hosts: Added experimental support of running autostarted VMs in session 0, to
allow running VMS even when a usser is not being logged in (disabled by default, please
consult the manual)
• Audio: Added “default” host driver type to make it possible to move VMs (appliances)
between different platforms without the need of changing the audio driver explicitly. When
the “default” driver is selected, the best audio backend option for a platform will be used.
This is the default for newly created VMs.
• Guest Control: Implemented initial support for automatic updating of Guest Additions for
Linux guests
• Guest Control: Implemented ability to wait for and/or reboot the guest when updating
Guest Additions via VBoxManage
• VBoxManage: Added Guest Control “waitrunlevel” sub-command to make it possible to
wait for a guest to reach a certain run level
• Windows hosts: Added experimental support of running autostarted VMs in session 0, to
allow running VMS even when a usser is not being logged in (disabled by default, please
consult the manual)
The company has not revealed yet when VirtualBox 7.0.0 Final will be available.
(via Deskmodder)