Oracle gives its free hypervisor VirtualBox a major update. Version 7.2 adds support for Windows 11 on ARM systems, both as host and guest.
Oracle introduces VirtualBox 7.2. This major update of VirtualBox comes a year after the introduction of version 7.1 and focuses largely on ARM compatibility. The hypervisor can now run virtual machines on Windows ARM hosts. This includes the ability to virtualize Windows 11 for ARM as a guest operating system.
There are also improvements for macOS systems with ARM chips. Experimental support for 3D acceleration is now provided. This functionality is new.
The update enables ARM virtualization on a broad scale. This makes VirtualBox more relevant for newer systems such as Macs with ARM-based Apple Silicon CPUs and Windows devices with Qualcomm chips.
Oracle warns that saved states of ARM VMs from version 7.1 are not compatible with 7.2. Users must first completely shut down these virtual machines before upgrading.
More than ARM
Besides the ARM extension, version 7.2 also brings other innovations. The user interface has been modified with more accessible settings, NVMe storage emulation gets a place in the open source base package, and there are bug fixes for network functionality, video acceleration, and BIOS, among others. On Linux, support has been added for kernel versions 6.16 and 6.17.
VirtualBox remains freely available for desktop use and competes with VMware Fusion and Microsoft Hyper-V, among others. Oracle’s consistent support of the free version makes it a useful tool for anyone wanting to virtualize an OS.