Download VirtualBox 4.0.0

Oracle has released version 4.0.0 of VirtualBox. This program can be used to install other operating systems on a computer in a virtual environment. In this way it is possible to use different OS’s on the same hardware. VirtualBox is available for Windows XP and above, Mac OS X, Linux, and Solaris, and can handle a variety of guest operating systems.

VirtualBox is available in two versions. The full version has additional functionality, such as support for USB ports and the remote display protocol, but is only free for private use and evaluation purposes. The extra functionality is closed source and is therefore not present in the open source version. It may, however, be used in commercial environments, provided you install it yourself on the PC. New in version 4.0 is, among other things, that the program is now offered as a basic package and that it contains extra functionality in separate extension packs.

The following major new features were added:

• Reorganization of VirtualBox into a base package and Extension Packs; see chapter 1.5, Installing VirtualBox and extension packs, see the manual for more information
• New settings/disk file layout for VM portability; see chapter 10.1, Where VirtualBox stores its files, see the manual for more information
• Major rework of the GUI (now called “VirtualBox Manager”):
  • Redesigned user interface with guest window preview (also for screenshots)
  • New “scale” display mode with scaled guest display; see chapter 1.8.5, Resizing the machine’s window, see the manual for more information
  • Support for creating and starting .vbox desktop shortcuts (bug #1889)
  • The VM list is now sortable
  • Machines can now be deleted easily without a trace including snapshots and saved states, and optionally including attached disk images (bug #5511; also, VBoxManage unregistervm –delete can do the same now)
  • Built-in creation of desktop file shortcuts to start VMs on double click (bug #2322)
• VMM: support more than 1.5/2 GB guest RAM on 32-bit hosts
• New virtual hardware:
  • Intel ICH9 chipset with three PCI buses, PCI Express and Message Signaled Interrupts (MSI); see chapter 3.4.1, “Motherboard” tab, see the manual for more information
  • Intel HD Audio, for better support of modern guest operating systems (eg 64-bit Windows; bug #2785)
• Improvements to OVF support (see chapter 1.12, Importing and exporting virtual machines, see the manual for more information):
  • Open Virtualization Format Archive (OVA) support
  • Significant performance improvements during export and import
  • Creation of the manifest file on export is optional now
  • Imported disks can have formats other than VMDK
• Resource control: added support for limiting a VM’s CPU time and IO bandwidth; see chapter 5.8, Limiting bandwidth for disk images, see the manual for more information
• Storage: support asynchronous I/O for iSCSI, VMDK, VHD and Parallels images
• Storage: support for resizing VDI and VHD images; see chapter 8.21, VBoxManage modifyhd, see the manual for more information.
• Guest Additions: support for multiple virtual screens in Linux and Solaris guests using X.Org server 1.3 and later
• Language bindings: uniform Java bindings for both local (COM/XPCOM) and remote (SOAP) invocation APIs

In addition, the following items were fixed and/or added:

• VMM: Enable large page support by default on 64-bit hosts (applies to nested paging only)
• VMM: fixed guru meditation when running Minix (VT-x only; bug #6557)
• VMM: fixed crash under certain circumstances (Linux hosts only, non VT-x/AMD-V mode only; bugs #4529 and #7819)
• GUI: add configuration dialog for port forwarding in NAT mode (bug #1657)
• GUI: show the guest window content on save and restore
• GUI: certain GUI warnings don’t stop the VM output anymore
• GUI: fixed black fullscreen minitoolbar on KDE4 hosts (Linux hosts only; bug #5449)
• BIOS: implemented multi-sector reading to speed up booting of certain guests (eg Solaris)
• Bridged networking: improved throughput by filtering out outgoing packets intended for the host before they reach the physical network (Linux hosts only; bug #7792)
• 3D support: allow use of CR_SYSTEM_GL_PATH again (bug #6864)
• 3D support: fixed various clipping/visibility issues (bugs #5659, #5794, #5848, #6018, #6187, #6570)
• 3D support: guest application stack corruption when using glGetVertexAttrib[ifd]v (bug #7395)
• 3D support: fixed OpenGL support for libMesa 7.9
• 3D support: fixed Unity/Compiz crashes on natty
• 2D Video acceleration: multi-monitor support
• VRDP: fixed rare crash in multimonitor configuration
• VRDP: support for upstream audio
• Display: fixed occasional guest resize crash
• NAT: port forwarding rules can be applied at runtime
• SATA: allow to attach CD/DVD-ROM drives including passthrough (bug #7058)
• Floppy: support readonly image files, taking this as the criteria for making the medium readonly (bug #5651)
• Audio: fixed memory corruption during playback under rare circumstances
• Audio: the DirectSound backend now allows VMs to be audible when another DirectSound application is active, including another VM (bug #5578)
• EFI: support for SATA disks and CDROMs
• BIOS: reduce the stack usage of the VESA BIOS function #4F01 (Quake fix)
• OVF/OVA: fixed export of VMs with iSCSI disks
• Storage: Apple DMG image support for the virtual CD/DVD (bug #6760)
• Linux host USB support: introduced a less invasive way of accessing raw USB devices (bugs #1093, #5345, #7759)
• Linux hosts: support recent Linux kernels with CONFIG_DEBUG_SET_MODULE_RONX set
• Guest Additions: Shared Folders now can be marked as being auto-mounted on Windows, Linux and Solaris guests
• Linux Additions: Shared Folders now support symbolic links (bug #818)
• Linux Additions: combined 32-bit and 64-bit additions into one file
• Windows Additions: automatic logon on Windows Vista/Windows 7 is now able to handle renamed user accounts; added various bug fixes

VirtualBox 4.0.0 screenshot, click on the image for a larger version.