MakeUseOf » virtualbox

5 Creative Uses For A Virtual Box That You Probably Never Considered

Justin Pot — Sat, 26 Nov 2011 19:31:08 +0000

Try out Android, Windows 8, any live CD and more, on your computer without messing up your bootloader (or worse.) With VirtualBox it’s easy, if you think creatively.

VirtualBox gives you an easy way to create “virtual boxes”, a sort of computer inside your computer you can use to try out new operating systems and learn more about how computers work. Lachlan Roy’s MakeUseOf manual on VirtualBox explains how to set up Windows XP, Windows 7 and Ubuntu within VirtualBox so you can use those operating systems at any time, without the need to reboot.

Those aren’t the only uses for VirtualBox, though. Here are some creative uses for VirtualBox you probably haven’t considered.

Try Out Windows 8 Right Now

Curious about the future of Windows? You should try out Windows 8, available free as a developer preview.

Windows 8 isn’t exactly stable, and doesn’t run perfectly in VirtualBox. With a few tweaks, however, you will get a feel for what Windows will be like come Autumn 2012.

Play With Android On Your PC

Thinking of buying an Android device, but wish you could give the operating system a spin before you spend your hard-earned cash? Set up Android in VirtualBox to take a quick test drive. It’s possible thanks to AndroidX86, a port of Android to the PC.

You won’t get the full Android experience – notably, there isn’t access to the Android Marketplace. You will, however, get a feel for the default apps, and the system’s excellent integration with Google services such as Gmail and Google Calendar.

Interested? You’ll find instructions for setting up Android in VirtualBox on the AndroidX86 page.

Try Out Any Live CD Without Rebooting

While we’re talking about using VirtualBox to try out different operating systems, don’t feel like you need to install a system in order to try out it. There are hundreds of free live CDs out there that you can easily run, as I point out in my Live CD Manual.

You don’t need to burn a CD and reboot your computer to try them all out, though. With VirtualBox you can simply mount the ISO and boot from within your current operating system, giving you the ability to test every live CD out there. Give it a shot!

Seamlessly Combine Desktops

Do you like VirtualBox, but wish it was easier to work with software in your native operating system and software in your virtual one? You should check out VirtualBox’s seamless mode, which blurs the line between one system and the other.

It’s easy to use if you have the VirtualBox guest additions installed already, but read more about VirtualBox’s seamless mode if you’re having trouble.

Create A Virtual Machine From Your Existing Drive

Do you have an old computer you only occasionally boot up to access a particular piece of software? It’s possible to move that entire system to a virtual machine, though it’s not entirely easy. Check out this tutorial on the VirtualBox website and see if this process will work for you.

Alternatively, you could convert your existing hard drive to a Windows Virtual PC drive.

Conclusion

These are, of course, just a few creative uses for a virtual box. Can you think of better ones? Please, grab yourself a drink and discuss. I’ll be here to chat with you in the comments below.

Try Out Windows 8 In VirtualBox Right Now For Free

Justin Pot — Wed, 28 Sep 2011 16:01:38 +0000

Are you curious about Windows 8, the upcoming operating system from Microsoft? Try Windows 8 in a virtual machine, right now, for free. All you need to do is download the free ISO file and set up VirtualBox properly.

What can you expect to see in Windows 8? Once thing is clear – it will be very different than any version of Windows before it. The traditional desktop is still there, but most functionality will be replaced with “app” style programs. The main interface is designed with touch screens in mind, replacing the start menu with a tile-driven display of all programs. A lot of people are going to hate this, and I’m sure you’ll read a lot of criticism of Microsoft in the months to come. Instead of taking that to heart though, why not try it out yourself and come to your own conclusion? Thanks to a free download from Microsoft, you can.

Try Windows 8 out in VirtualBox and you won’t have to overwrite your existing system with something unstable. You’ll need a pretty powerful computer to do this well, but if you think your computer can cut it then keep reading.

Download Windows 8

The first thing you’re going to need to do is download Windows 8. Don’t worry, this is easy. Just head to Microsoft’s free Windows 8 download page to get started. There’s no need to sign up, and the download links are direct. You’ll need to choose between the 32 and 64 bit versions of Windows 8. If you’re not sure which to choose, pick the 32 bit one; it will work on most computers.

The download took me about a half hour, but obviously your experience will vary depending on your Internet connection. Note that there is no legal torrent for this ISO. You’ll just need to patiently download directly from Microsoft’s servers.

Set Up VirtualBox

You’ll need to install VirtualBox next, which you can download here. It works on Windows, OS X and Linux computers. If you don’t know much about VirtualBox, here’s what you need to know. It allows you to run an entire operating system within the one you already have. Check out the MakeUseOf VirtualBox manual for more information.

Once you’ve got VirtualBox set up, you’ll need to create a new virtual machine to install Windows 8 in. When asked which operating system you’re setting up, choose “Windows 7” (making sure to pick “64 bit” if you downloaded the 64 bit version of Windows 8).

Set aside at least 2GB of memory for your virtual machine (if you don’t have 2GB to spare, you should perhaps not try running Windows 8 in a virtual machine).

Create a new virtual hard drive for Windows 8, unless you’ve got an empty virtual drive kicking around:

The default of 2GB is probably a good idea; don’t go any lower than that. Feel free to go higher, but you don’t need to if you don’t intend to install a lot of applications.

You’ve now created your virtual machine, but there are a few more tweaks to make. Select your new virtual machine, then open the settings. Head to “System” and you’ll see these options:

Be sure to Enable IO APIC; this will make things run better. Then head to the Processor tab and enable PAE/NX. Also head to the Acceleration tab and enable VT-X/AMD-V and Nested Paging. These performance tweaks are recommended by How-To Geek and made a big difference for me.

Install Windows 8

Open the “Storage” section of the preferences, and point your virtual CD drive toward the ISO file you downloaded. Save the changes you made, then start up your virtual machine. If all goes according to plan, you’ll see the Windows installation tool:

Follow its instructions and you should be in Windows 8.

Your mouse will be “stuck” in the virtual machine as you do this. To switch back to your main operating system, press the right control button on your keyboard (assuming you haven’t changed this key from the default).

Why Isn’t Anything Working?

Once you get there you’ll be greeted with an unfamilar scene – the main Windows 8 menu:

You might be frustrated to realize that none of these apps launch, save the traditional Windows desktop. This is because running the new Metro style apps requires a resolution of 1024 X 768 or greater. Head to the Windows Desktop app, then configure your resolution the way you normally would – right-click the desktop, then click “Screen Resolution“. Increase the resolution and you should now be able to run Metro apps.

Have trouble doing this? Installing the VirtualBox Guest additions can help. Click the “Devices” in VirtualBox, then click “Install Guest Additions“. Windows 8 will prompt you to automatically install these additions, but don’t. Head to the Windows Desktop app, then open the Windows Explorer. Head to the CD drive and you’ll find the additions. Right-click the installation file, then set it to run in Windows 7 mode:

Go through the installation, restart, and you should now be able to set your resolution high enough to use Metro apps. I couldn’t get mouse integration working, but I did manage to increase the resolution. Hopefully there will be Windows 8 guest add-ons soon.

Conclusion

If you’ve got Windows 8 running you can now let us know what you think of Microsoft’s upcoming operating system. Do you like it? Please leave us your thoughts in the comments below.

Also feel free to ask questions if you get stuck setting things up, because we’re here to help.

DOWNLOAD Computer In Your Computer: How To Use VirtualBox

Justin Pot — Mon, 12 Sep 2011 13:51:42 +0000

Learn to use VirtualBox. Get virtual computers up and running inside your computer, without having to buy any new hardware. With “Computer Inside Your Computer: How to Use VirtualBox”, the latest manual from Lachlan Roy, you’ll learn to master this free virtualization software and get virtual computers working inside your computer.

You’ve heard a lot about Linux and you’d love to try it out, but you don’t know enough to take the plunge and install it alongside Windows – maybe you’re worried you’ll wipe all your files off in the process. Besides, you’d like to have another computer handy so that you can look something up if you get stuck, but you don’t have another computer.

Good thing VirtualBox exists. With it you gain the power to conjure virtual computers out of thin air. They don’t take up space on your desk, yet they work just like a real computer does. They can be conjured up and removed with little more than a few clicks.

Intrigued? Download the latest manual from MakeUseOf.com now. Featuring step-by-step explanations as well as picture tutorials, this manual makes using VirtualBox easy.

DOWNLOAD Computer In Your Computer: How To Use VirtualBox

The guide is free but password-protected. Gain access to the password by:

1- subscribing to our newsletter (you may do this on the download page itself, link above). Existing subscribers will receive the guide via email inthe next couple of hours.

OR

2 – Simply join our Facebook page. Quick and easy.

This free guide will teach you how to:

Build and manage virtual machines
Get Windows XP working in VirtualBox
Install Windows 7 in a Virtual Machine
Try out Ubuntu Linux in a VirtualMachine
Install Guest Additions in VirtualBox
Access files on your host machine in a Virtual Machine

DOWNLOAD Computer In Your Computer: How To Use VirtualBox

The guide is free but password-protected. Gain access to the password by:

1- subscribing to our newsletter (you may do this on the download page itself, link above). Existing subscribers will receive the guide via email inthe next couple of hours.

OR

2 – Simply join our Facebook page. Quick and easy.

VirtualBox’s Seamless Mode: Combine Two Operating Systems Into One Desktop

Justin Pot — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 19:31:56 +0000

Installing two operating systems at the same time isn’t just possible; it can also be downright slick. Whether you’re a Mac user looking to occasionally use a given Windows application or someone looking for a risk-free way to try out different Linux versions, VirtualBox is the go-to freeware platform for virtualization. This program allows you to run any operating system in a contained, emulated environment.

What most people don’t know, however, is that this same program allows you to seamlessly combine your native and guest operating systems, allowing you to work with windows from both systems side-by-side. Heck, you can even copy and past text between any two platforms. Combine OSX and Windows, or Windows and Ubuntu, or Ubuntu and Fedora: the possibilities are endless.

Installing Two Operating Systems With VirtualBox

If you’ve never used VirtualBox before, or any sort of virtualization software at all, some preliminary reading may be in order. If you want to create a virtual Windows environment, check out Jorge’s article on installing Windows 7 on a virtual machine in Virtualbox. These instructions are quite specific to Windows 7, but can be easily applied to any version of Windows. Alternatively, you could make a VirtualBox-ready clone of your existing Windows operating system, courtesy of an article by Varun.

If testing various Linux distributions is more your thing, Jorge also has you covered: he wrote all about test driving Linux operating systems with VirtualBox. This is actually a great deal simpler than running Windows, as you can download pre-built packages.

Want a virtual OSX? I’m sorry to say that Apple’s licensing forbids this, though if OSX is your native platform you can easily install VirtualBox to test other operating systems.

It’s also possible, in theory, that some legally-questionable BitTorrent trackers have VirtualBox images you can use to boot OSX. But these are illegal, and VirtualBox’s seamless mode won’t work with these anyway. Don’t check them out, and don’t share links to them in the comments below.

Installing Guest Additions

So you’ve got your guest operating system of choice up and running, but notice that it’s anything but seamless at this point? It’s time to install the Guest Additions. These operating system tweaks make it possible to move your mouse from the guest OS to your native OS without missing a beat.

Installing these additions is simple: on the window of the VirtualBox instance containing you Guest OS click “Devices,” followed by “Install Guest Additions.” Then follow the on-screen instructions within your Guest OS to complete the installation.

For those running a guest Linux Operating System: if you downloaded a pre-built VirtualBox image, it’s likely you already have the Guest Additions installed. If you suspect this isn’t the case, however, the above method should work wonderfully for you as well.

Seamless Mode!

Now that you’ve got the Guest Additions up and running it’s time for the real fun: trying out seamless mode. Click “Machine,” then “Seamless Mode.”

After you do this your host operating system and your virtual operating system should seem to combine. You’ll have a taskbar from each and programs from each will be visible over your native operating system’s desktop. If this hasn’t worked, try pressing “Seamless Mode” again – this will usually do the trick.

As you can see above, this is a great way to play Ubuntu and Window’s versions of solitaire at the same time. If you’re looking for more practical ideas, however there are a few. Using Ubuntu’s version of Firefox is a great way to ensure your native Windows system is completely secure. If you’re a Linux user, seamless mode is a great way to use your Windows-only applications whilst still feeling at home within Ubuntu.

Any application supported by your guest OS can be installed on a virtual machine, provided you’ve allowed for enough hard drive space to support them all.

Conclusion

Seamless mode is a slick, underexplored feature of VirtualBox. It’s fit into my workflow on a regular basis, and can work wonders for anyone who needs to run two systems at once for any reason.

What do you guys think? Is this a cool and useful feature, or merely a gimmick? Do you have any advice for using it and getting it all set up? Can you think of any specific use you’d have for this functionality? Let us know in the comments below!

Running Windows Programs on Your Mac using WineBottler

Jeffry Thurana — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 16:30:01 +0000

Will you agree with me if I said, “Being popular isn’t always better.”? However, popularity does provide some privileges like a wider choice of options and more freedom to choose.

That might be the case of Mac OS X choice of applications. Even though most Windows applications today already have their comparable – or better – Mac versions, and most Mac users get along just fine with the available Mac apps; there are still some Windows-only apps needed by a small group of Mac users.

If you are one of them and require the use of some Windows-only apps, you can still run them. Here are your options for running Windows programs with Mac:

Boot your Mac computer into Windows using Boot Camp. Windows and all its apps will completely natively, but you have to go through the hassle of rebooting every time you want to switch OS.
Create a virtual Windows environment using VirtualBox. Windows can run alongside Mac OS X, but the processing power used will be drastically high.
Transform the Windows apps into Mac apps using WineBottler and run them Natively in Mac OS X. (And save yourself from spending several hundred bucks on a Windows license).

Open the Bottle and Pour the Wine

If you’ve used Macs for a while, it’s very likely that you’ve heard about Wine. There’s an entry explaining everything about Wine in Wikipedia, but if you only need a quick recap, here’s the quote:

Wine is a free software application that aims to allow Unix-like computer operating systems to execute programs written for Microsoft Windows. Wine also provides a software library known as Winelib against which developers can compile Windows applications to help port them to Unix-like systems.

WineBottler utilizes the Wine environment to port the Windows applications to work on Mac. The installation is an ordinary drag and drop procedure. However, please note that the disk image contains two files: Wine and WineBottler, and you have to put them BOTH at the Application folder.

When you open WineBottler for the first time, you will see the window with available “prefixes” – some kind of Windows environment to run Windows apps. If you have used other application that simulates Windows environment before – like Crossover – there might already be several prefixes on the list.

You can add or remove prefixes from this window.

But to install Windows applications, you have to choose “Create Custom Prefixes” tab from the left pane.

Then customize the installation using the options on the right pane.

First, select the application that you want to install. If the file is the actual executable – for example, a portable app, check the “Copy only” box.

Then decide whether or not you want to create a self-contained app. If you check the box, you can use the resulting file on another Mac machines without the need to install Wine.

Before clicking the “Install” button, you can choose “Silent install” by checking the box. I honestly don’t know what this “Silent install” business mean. I’ve tried to check and uncheck the box during installation and did not see any differences.

Drum roll, please!

Now we’ll go through the installation process. I tried to install Crayon Physics (mentioned by Simon here).

I chose the file, and click the “Install” button. The installation progress window appeared.

Then, during the installation process, a strangely familiar window popped out: the actual Windows-style installation window. It was like I was performing the installation on a Windows machine.

I followed the Windows installation steps to the end. And when everything was done, the last WineBottler installation window popped out, asking me to choose which file run every time the resulting app is launched.

Not ever installation will ask you to select the “Startfile“. But if you are confronted with one, please make the choice carefully because choosing the wrong one would prevent the resulting app from running; and you have to go through the installation process again.

After the process is done, you can open the ported app the same way you open any other Mac app: by double-clicking it or by selecting it and press “Command + O”

The Glass Half Empty

I haven’t had the time to play with many installations but here are few things that I’ve picked up during the short encounter:

Not all Windows application can be ported to Mac. You just have to try it for yourself.
Creating a self-contained file will result in a much larger sized file. In my experience, a 285MB self-contained app was produced compared to 86MB non self-contained app.
You’ll mostly likely get better results from porting portable Windows apps. Check out this article about portable apps to know where to find a whole bunch of them.
The processing power used by ported apps will depend on the type of each application you’re running but they will consume a considerable amount of juice from the system.
Be careful not to break any laws (Copyrights, EULA, etc.) while performing the porting. You are responsible for your own actions.
Ported apps will run under X11 (Applications > Utilities > X11), you must have that installed before beginning.

Have you tried WineBottler? Do you know other alternatives to port Windows app over to Mac? Share your thoughts and opinions using the comments section below.

running windows programs with mac

Create A Virtual Machine Clone of Your Existing Hard Drive [Windows]

Varun Kashyap — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 14:00:54 +0000

As many of you know, with virtualization you can run an operating system within another. There are plenty of reasons why you would want to do that: if you are a developer you might want to see how your application behaves on different operating systems; you can test out software, products and suspicious files in an isolated environment without damaging your host operating system.

There are various software available for creating and running virtual machine image. Microsoft’s Virtual PC, VMware, and Sun Microsystems’ VirtualBox to mention a few. Usually, there are several steps you would need to follow in order to create a virtual machine. These include creating a virtual hard disk and then installing the required operating system on the virtual hard disk.

Recently, Microsoft-owned Sysinternals released a utility that would be useful for easily creating a virtual machine image from your existing hard drive contents. This can be very useful if you have one of your computers at home or work set up for a particular task and you want to access all the same tools and software temporarily from your laptop.

The tool is aptly called Disk2vhd. Its a small download and doesn’t require installation. Just fire up the application with administrator rights and you are good to go. It will show you various hard disks and partitions on your computer. Select the one you would like turned into virtual hard disks, hit create and the applications goes about doing its thing.

In the ‘Space Required’ column, Disk2vhd shows you the amount of hard disk space you will need to have in order to create the virtual hard disk from your computer’s partitions. The process could take really long so you might as well go out grab something to eat/drink and come back — and if you are lucky, it would have created the virtual hard disk. The time it requires would depend on the size of the disk you are trying to turn into a virtual hard disk. Generally be prepared to wait for quite a while.

Once the VHD file is created, you can use one of the virtualization apps mentioned above to run a virtual machine off the hard disk image you’ve just created. All three support VHD files. Here are the details in case you want to look into them.

In addition, Vista (and now Windows 7) users can mount .vhd files as regular hard disks as well. Follow these steps:

Right click on My Computer icon and choose ‘Manage’.
Listed under Storage, choose ‘Disk Management’.

From the Action menu, choose Attach VHD, browse to the location of the VHD file, check read-only if you want to safeguard the contents against modification and click OK.

You will now be able to access it like a regular hard disk.

Disk2vhd is a great tool that lets you create a virtual machine image from your existing hard disk setup. The tool does all this from within the operating system without requiring you to boot from a CD. You can easily take your current computer and run it as a virtual machine on another computer. One thing you would require is free hard disk space.

What do you think of it? Do you know about similar tools? Share them with everyone in the comments.

Test Drive Linux Operating Systems with VirtualBox

Jorge Sierra — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 15:01:43 +0000

VirtualBox is a great way to test out new operating systems, without having to configure your machine to dual-boot. You can even install Windows 7 on VirtualBox. There are two ways to obtain free operating systems for VirtualBox: using virtual disk images (VDIs) or actual installation disks.

Downloading virtual disk images is probably the quickest and easiest way to test out a new operating system on VirtualBox. Downloading and using a virtual disk image is the equivalent of installing a new physical hard drive into a computer, with the hard drive already having the operating system on it.

If you have two computers with identical underlying hardware, it should theoretically be possible to move the hard drive from one to the other. That is exactly what you are doing when you download and use a virtual disk image on VirtualBox. This is because a VirtualBox system on one computer is essentially identical to a VirtualBox system on another.

There is a website called VirtualBoxImages that has a number of free virtual disk images for free operating systems available to download. You can simply download the virtual disk images, set up your virtual machine to use them, power up the virtual machine, and you’re all set!

There are more detailed instructions on VirtualBoxImages for using the VDIs. The instructions on that page describe how to install their Puppy Linux VDI, but the steps are the same for other operating systems as well. You will just use a different VDI file, rather than the one for Puppy Linux. VirtualBoxImages has a number of free virtual disk images available, including:

They also have some disk images that are labeled as “premium downloads” where you pay a nominal fee to download them. I’m not sure why they’ve decided to make some VDIs available for free and they require you to pay for others. Some of the premium VDIs available are:

Regardless of whether VirtualBoxImages has them labeled as premium or not, all of the VDIs they have for download are for free operating systems. You may not be able to find the VDIs you want for free, but you can still download the installation media and install the operating systems yourself.

Although doing so involves more work on your part since you need to run the full installation, it allows you to avoid the cost of paying for one of the premium VDIs. Here are some links for the installation disks:

Once you download the installation disk images, the installation process is very much the same as installing Windows 7 onto VirtualBox. You’ll just be using different file names for the installation disk images, and the process for installing the VirtualBox guest additions will be slightly different.

Have you installed any of these operating systems on VirtualBox? Have you found .torrent links for any of VirtualBoxImage’s premium VDIs? If so, please do share them with us! Do not share .torrent files for operating systems that are not free.

How To Install Windows 7 on a Virtual Machine with VirtualBox

Jorge Sierra — Mon, 26 Jan 2009 17:01:42 +0000

Earlier this month, Microsoft made the Windows 7 beta available for anyone to download and test drive it. Unless you have a spare computer, it can be somewhat inconvenient to test out new operating systems on your main system. Although it is possible to dual boot Windows 7 with Vista or XP, you may still prefer to install it on a separate machine. VirtualBox is just the separate machine you’ve been looking for, and it’s free! So, how to install windows 7 on a virtual machine using Virtualbox?

VirtualBox is a free and open source virtualization program. Essentially, it is like having a complete and separate computer within your computer. You can install any operating system on it, including Windows 7. The latest version of VirtualBox (2.1.2) has support for Windows 7, which makes it very easy and convenient to install.

First, you’ll want to download VirtualBox and install it. VirtualBox is available for multiple platforms: Windows, OS X, Linux, and Solaris. During the installation on a Windows system, you may receive a warning that untested software is being installed. Be sure to click continue when those boxes appear, as essential components for VirtualBox to function properly are being installed.

You’ll also need to download the Windows 7 beta. It is a large file, so it may take quite a while to download depending on your connection. The file you will download is a CD disk image. Fortunately, since you’re going to use it on a virtual machine, you won’t have to actually burn it to a CD to use it.

Once you have VirtualBox installed and you have the Windows 7 beta CD image, you’re ready to create your virtual machine amd install Windows 7 beta. Launch VirtualBox and create a new machine. Be sure to select Windows 7 as your operating system.

Click Next. On the following screen you will select how much memory you would like the virtual machine to have. I believe the minimum requirement for Windows 7 is 1GB of RAM, so be sure to set it to at least 1024MB.

Click Next. On the following screen you will create a new virtual drive for the system. I would recommend using the default option of a Dynamically expanding storage. This way you won’t use any more disk space (on your main system) than necessary. Since you’re using a dynamically expanding drive, the size of the disk is somewhat arbitrary. You just want to be sure not to make it too small, so set it to 100GB to be safe.

Once you’re done creating the virtual machine, you’ll need to configure it to use the Windows 7 disk image you downloaded. Select your virtual machine, click Settings, and navigate to the CD/DVD-ROM section. Check the Mount CD/DVD Drive checkbox and click the ISO Image File radio button. Then click the folder icon and then browse to where you saved your ISO image and select it.

If you have a multi-core processor, there’s an option you’ll want to enable to speed things up on the virtual machine. Go to the General section and on the Advanced tab enable the Enable VT-x/AMD-V checkbox. This allows VirtualBox to take advantage of machine virtualization capabilities of your processor, and improves the performance of the virtual machine.

You may also want to add sound to the virtual machine as well. Go to the Audio tab, and click the Enable Audio checkbox and select Windows DirectSound for the Host Audio Driver. Once you have the machine configured, click the Start button to turn on the virtual machine.

You should see the Windows 7 installation begin. Just follow all the prompts and install Windows. If you need to get back to your main computer at any time, the hotkey to release control of the virtual machine is the Ctrl key on the right side of your keyboard.

Once you’ve installed Windows 7, you can install the guest additions. The guest additions will provide better video and audio support to the virtual machine. The guest additions also allow you to better integrate the virtual machine with your main system.

To install the guest additions, press the right Ctrl key on your keyboard, go to the Devices menu and select Install Guest Additions”¦

During the guest additions installation, when prompted if you would like to install drivers, click the Install button. Once you’ve installed the guest additions, reboot the virtual machine. Upon rebooting, all of the virtual devices should be working.

Now that you have the guest additions installed, you will be able to share the clipboard, access to files on the main system, and move the cursor seamlessly in and out of the virtual machine. You can press the Right Ctrl-F and see the virtual machine full screen. What a pretty fish!

Have you tried Windows 7 with other free virtualization programs? Did you try to install Windows 7 as a virtual machine with Virtualbox? If so, let us know which ones and what sort of hacks were required to get it to work.