VirtualBox is a general-purpose full virtualization software for x86_64 hardware (with version 7.1 additionally for macOS/Arm and with version 7.2 also for Windows/Arm), targeted at laptop, desktop, server and embedded use.

Features

  • Modularity. VirtualBox has an extremely modular design with well-defined internal programming interfaces and a client/server design. This makes it easy to control it from several interfaces at once: for example, you can start a virtual machine in a typical virtual machine GUI and then control that machine from the command line, or possibly remotely. VirtualBox also comes with a full Software Development Kit: even though it is Open Source Software, you don't have to hack the source to write a new interface for VirtualBox.

  • Virtual machine descriptions in XML. The configuration settings of virtual machines are stored entirely in XML and are independent of the local machines. Virtual machine definitions can therefore easily be ported to other computers.

  • Guest Additions for Windows, Linux and Solaris. VirtualBox has special software that can be installed inside Windows, Linux and Solaris virtual machines to improve performance and make integration much more seamless. Among the features provided by these Guest Additions are mouse pointer integration and arbitrary screen solutions (e.g. by resizing the guest window). There are also guest additions for OS/2 with somewhat reduced functionality.

  • Shared folders. Like many other virtualization solutions, for easy data exchange between hosts and guests, VirtualBox allows for declaring certain host directories as "shared folders", which can then be accessed from within virtual machines.

What's New

This is a maintenance release. The following items were fixed or added:

  • VMM: Fixed issue which caused a Guru Meditation with VERR_IEM_IPE_4 if the guest was trying to execute the wrong hypercall instruction but injected a UD exception instead (github:gh-616)
  • NAT Network: Fixed issue when internal DNS server could not be reached
  • Graphics: Fixed issue when mouse cursor did not change shape by context in Ubuntu 25.10 / Wayland (github:gh-464)
  • Main: Fixed crash on FreeBSD 16.0 shutdown with multiple devices attached to LSI Logic SAS controller (github:gh-538)
  • IPRT: Merged Github pull request 503 (fix: infinite loop in vsscanf whitespace processing). github-merge-author: lachlanharrisdev
  • Unattended: General improvements
  • Linux Host: Added initial support for kernels 6.19 and 7.0 (github:gh-467, github:gh-623)
  • Linux Host: Added support for guest time accounting (github:gh-2)
  • Linux Host and Guest: Introduced additional fixes for RHEL 10.1 and 10.2 kernels (github:gh-455)
  • Linux Host and Guest: Added support for UEK9 kernel on Oracle Linux 9
  • Linux Host and Guest: Added improvements to make 'rcvboxdrv/rcvboxadd setup' and installation process faster
  • Linux Guest Additions: Deprecated vboxvideo kernel module for kernels 7.0 and newer; please consider using VMSVGA graphics or vboxvideo module which comes with Linux kernel or provided by your Linux distribution if guest running kernel 7.0+; vboxvideo will still be available for older kernels
  • Linux Guest Additions: Fixed issue when clipboard sharing was not possible in combination of Wayland guest and Windows host (github:gh-33)
  • Linux Guest Additions: Fixed issue when last character was not pasted into Windows host clipboard when copying from Wayland guest (bug:22339)
  • Windows Guest: Fixed issue when Windows 11 guest experienced BSOD - DRIVER_OVERRAN_STACK_BUFFER (github:gh-590)
  • UEFI: Fixed errors with secure boot certificate updates and Windows 11 guests (github:gh-133)
  • DMI: Fixed issue when 0.0 value was provided for the BIOS release and BIOS firmware version numbers so Windows did not populate the registry keys under HKLM\HARDWARE\System\BIOS which some components rely on (bug:21943)