Installing Virtual Box and Windows 7 on Mac OSX

https://www.virtualbox.org/

VirtualBox is a cross-platform virtualization application. What does that mean? For one thing, it installs on your existing Intel or AMD-based computers, whether they are running Windows, Mac, Linux or Solaris operating systems. Secondly, it extends the capabilities of your existing computer so that it can run multiple operating systems (inside multiple virtual machines) at the same time. So, for example, you can run Windows and Linux on your Mac, run Windows Server 2008 on your Linux server, run Linux on your Windows PC, and so on, all alongside your existing applications. You can install and run as many virtual machines as you like -- the only practical limits are disk space and memory.

VirtualBox is deceptively simple yet also very powerful. It can run everywhere from small embedded systems or desktop class machines all the way up to datacenter deployments and even Cloud environments.

When dealing with virtualization (and also for understanding the following chapters of this documentation), it helps to acquaint oneself with a bit of crucial terminology, especially the following terms:

Terminology:
Host operating system (host OS).
This is the operating system of the physical computer on which VirtualBox was installed. There are versions of VirtualBox for Windows, Mac OS X, Linux and Solaris hosts; for details, please see the section called "Supported host operating systems".

Most of the time, this User Manual discusses all VirtualBox versions together. There may be platform-specific differences which we will point out where appropriate.

Guest operating system (guest OS).
This is the operating system that is running inside the virtual machine. Theoretically, VirtualBox can run any x86 operating system (DOS, Windows, OS/2, FreeBSD, OpenBSD), but to achieve near-native performance of the guest code on your machine, we had to go through a lot of optimizations that are specific to certain operating systems. So while your favorite operating system may run as a guest, we officially support and optimize for a select few (which, however, include the most common ones).

Virtual machine (VM).
This is the special environment that VirtualBox creates for your guest operating system while it is running. In other words, you run your guest operating system "in" a VM. Normally, a VM will be shown as a window on your computer's desktop, but depending on which of the various frontends of VirtualBox you use, it can be displayed in full-screen mode or remotely on another computer.

In a more abstract way, internally, VirtualBox thinks of a VM as a set of parameters that determine its behavior. They include hardware settings (how much memory the VM should have, what hard disks VirtualBox should virtualize through which container files, what CDs are mounted etc.) as well as state information (whether the VM is currently running, saved, its snapshots etc.). These settings are mirrored in the VirtualBox Manager window as well as the VBoxManage command line program; see Chapter 8, VBoxManage. In other words, a VM is also what you can see in its settings dialog.

Category:

Education

Tags:

• Windows 7
• Mac OS X
• VirtualBox
• Tutorial
• Computer
• Desktop

[austinmmboy]

3000 viewer :)

[johnnythegeek1]

@austinmmboy w00t w00t! Thanks for watching!

[jweze08]

thanks alot for this.

[johnnythegeek1]

@jweze08 Thanks for watching!

[GunRay10]

when i try and make a new disk, it wont work, i get the same error message everytime , even when i reset

[johnnythegeek1]

@GunRay10 What are the specs of the machine you are running on? OS version? Hard drive partition format? NTFS or Fat32?

[johnnythegeek1]

@jweze08 At what point are you trying to get the drives to be recognized? During Windows Installation? Windows Installation Environment may not have the USB drivers installed. I think there is an extra option in Virtual Box Settings for USB. Something about EHCI I think. Try to enable that and download VB special tools then maybe that will work. Thanks for watching!

[JoslynMcFly]

YOU ARE AWESOME!

[jweze08]

do you have any hints as to how to fix- if its not picking up my flashdrives/thumbdrives?

[johnnythegeek1]

@LouisOwles1 It would depend on the games but it does use the graphics native hardware when you enable 3D Acceleration. The Macbook Pro I used only has an Intel 3000 integrated graphics and it's decent but not great. If your Macbook Pro is one of the 15inch with the ATI discrete graphics then you are in good shape. If it is a desktop with a decent graphics card then it will do fine.