In this informative piece, you will be guided on installing a new virtual machine utilizing the Oracle VM VirtualBox 6 software on the Windows 10 operating system.
Oracle VM VirtualBox is a free virtualization program and can be easily installed on Windows, Linux, and even macOS systems. If your host computer’s processor supports virtualization, you can run a Linux operating system virtually on your Windows 10 computer using VirtualBox.
Although setting up a virtual computer with VirtualBox is easy, you must set the systems you will install correctly. These settings can be boot order, enabling virtualization, or virtual disk controller.
Before installing VirtualBox on your host computer, use VTx control software to ensure your Intel or AMD processor supports virtualization. If your computer has an Intel processor, you can check the VTx feature using Intel’s Processor Identification Utility tool. You can use the AMD-V with the RVI Hyper-V Compatibility Utility tool if you have an AMD processor.
First, check the virtualization feature of your Intel or AMD-based host CPU with one of the software below. You can create a new virtual PC by following this video or the steps below.
- Intel Processor Identification Utility
- AMD-V with RVI Hyper-V Compatibility Utility
Step 1: If your host CPU supports virtualization, open the VirtualBox program and click Machine / New from the menu.
Step 2: When the Create Virtual Machine wizard opens, type the operating system version you will install in the Name section, and the settings in the Type and Version section will be automatically configured.
Step 3: In the VM wizard, you can increase performance by setting the default storage location in the Machine Folder section to an external disk or SSD. Therefore, change the installation location of the virtual machine and click Next.
Step 4: In the next window, you must configure a RAM value for the VM according to the RAM capacity of your host machine in Memory Size settings. For example, 4 GB or 8 GB will be enough for a Windows 10 virtual computer.
Step 5: You will see three options in the Hard Disk window. The first option is if you don’t want to create a new virtual disk, you can choose. If you continue with the third option, you must add an existing virtual disk you have previously installed. If you want to install a virtual PC from scratch, select the “Create a new virtual hard disk now” option and continue.
Step 6: After creating a new virtual hard disk, select VDI (VirtualBox Disk Image) as the file type of the virtual disk and click Next.
Step 7: In the Storage on physical hard disk window, you can configure the virtual machine’s virtual disk dynamically or fixed. When you configure it with Fixed, a fixed size will be allocated for the virtual disk from your host disk. Dynamically option, you can set the capacity the virtual disk needs to be assigned automatically from your host disk.
Step 8: When you change the location where the virtual disk will be backed up in the File Location and Size window, the location of the virtual disk will also be that location. In this window, specify a disk capacity for the virtual system you will run and click the Create button.
Step 9: Before running the virtual machine, click Settings and configure the “Shared Clipboard” and “Drag and Drop” options as Bidirectional in the General / Advanced tab to enable file copying between the host and VM.
Step 10: In the System / Motherboard tab, choose the Boot Order setting as the first device and turn off the Floppy device. If you install a 32-bit operating system, enable the PAE/NX option in the Processor tab.
Step 11: Enable the 3D Acceleration feature in the Display / Screen tab and configure the Video Memory value as 256 MB.
Step 12: Select the virtual hard disk with VDI extension after clicking the Storage setting and tick Solid-State Drive in the Attributes section. Finally, to add the ISO file to the virtual machine, select Empty, click the CD/DVD icon, click the “Choose a disk file” option, select the image file, and add it to the VM.
Step 13: After adding the ISO file, run the virtual machine and select the image file as the startup disk. After clicking the Start button, you can start the system setup.