Whether you are a professional software tester or you simply like to evaluate a large array of apps before choosing the one that best suits your necessities, you probably know that a virtualized environment can save you a lot of trouble: you can install any app without worrying it might mess up your previous settings and you can get rid of it just as easily. And if you want to test the same app on several operating systems, Oracle VM VirtualBox can be quite helpful.
The application comes with an intuitive interface that allows users to add a new virtual machine and choose the OS they prefer (be it Solaris, Windows, Linux, BSD or Mac OS X), as well as the exact version. The next steps include assigning the new virtual machine the amount of RAM and HDD space it will take, as well as the type of storage, dynamic or fixed, it is to occupy on the PC.
In order to launch any virtualized OS, you simply need to press the Start button - once it is running, you can pause, reset or close your virtual machine, or even clone it or create a dedicated desktop shortcut to help you open it whenever you need it.
If you are an expert user, you can also benefit from specialized functions of Oracle VM VirtualBox, such as shared folders, seamless windows, 3D virtualization, multigeneration branched snapshots, remote machine display and modularity.
Oracle VM VirtualBox also features versatile hardware support, so that you can create virtual machines that have up multiple virtual CPUs (regardless of how many cores you have physically on your PC), that recognize USB devices or ones that come with multiscreen resolutions, integrated iSCSI support and PXE network boot.
To wrap it up, it is safe to say that Oracle VM VirtualBox can come in handy to both novices and experts: while the former can get their virtual machines up and running in no time, the latter can customize their virtualized environment to the tiniest details.
What's New in This Release:
· VMM: another TLB invalidation fix for non-present pages
· VMM: fixed a performance regression (4.2.8 regression; bug #11674)
· GUI: fixed a crash on shutdown
· GUI: prevent stuck keys under certain conditions on Windows hosts (bugs #2613, #6171)
· VRDP: fixed a rare crash on the guest screen resize
· VRDP: allow to change VRDP parameters (including enabling/disabling the server) if the VM is paused
· USB: fixed passing through devices on Mac OS X host to a VM with 2 or more virtual CPUs (bug #7462)
· USB: fixed hang during isochronous transfer with certain devices (4.1 regression; Windows hosts only; bug #11839)
· USB: properly handle orphaned URBs (bug #11207)
· BIOS: fixed function for returning the PCI interrupt routing table (fixes NetWare 6.x guests)
· BIOS: don't use the ENTER / LEAVE instructions in the BIOS as these don't work in the real mode as set up by certain guests (e.g. Plan 9 and QNX 4)
· DMI: allow to configure DmiChassisType (bug #11832)
· Storage: fixed lost writes if iSCSI is used with s...