VirtualBox 7.1: Share files more easily between Windows and Linux

In VirtualBox 7.1, users can expect a revised GUI and, above all, better integration with Oracle's cloud (Oracle Cloud Infrastructure, OCI). The performance dashboard now shows the resource usage of the virtual machines (VMs) running in the cloud. In addition, compute instances can now be cloned and reset.

There are also some changes to the VirtualBox Extension Pack, also known as the guest extension. The extension adds many practical functions to the virtualization software, but does not appear as open source software – and version 7.1 is an update to the Personal Use and Evaluation License (PUEL): Oracle is removing the evaluation option in VirtualBox. If you want to continue using the Extension Pack in this way, you must download it directly from the Oracle Software Delivery Cloud.

Copy files more easily

For macOS ARM hosts, the new release adds ARM virtualization of Linux and BSD VMs. And for Linux hosts with Wayland, there is now a shared clipboard that makes it easier for users to share copied content between systems. Files can now be exchanged between Windows and Linux hosts or VMs via the shared clipboard. However, this requires an extension pack to be installed.

VirtualBox 7.1 also brings a new NAT engine (Network Address Translation) with support for IPv6. There is also a revised encoding pipeline for screen recordings: The screen recorder should now utilize the CPU significantly less during recordings. Here too, the Extension Pack is a prerequisite for Windows guests. The new Qt 6 GUI, which was the first to be announced in the release notes, now distinguishes between Basic and Expert mode; the former displays fewer settings, the latter all.

Finally, there are many small updates and bug fixes listed in the release notes. Version 7.1 comes almost two years after the last major release 7.0, which added fully encrypted VMs, cloud integration and 3D support to VirtualBox.

(fo)