Running Windows in Linux: VirtualBox Configuration

Installing VirtualBox 6.1 in Linux and setting up a Windows virtual machine with Guest Additions, shared folders, shared clipboard and USB support.
The process shown in this video will work in any modern x86 Linux distribution, including Linux Mint, Ubuntu and Zorin OS. However, you cannot run VirtualBox on an ARM-based computer, such as a Raspberry Pi.
The VirtualBox website is at: www.virtualbox.org/
If you like this video, and/or are considering transitioning to Linux, you may find useful my videos:
Linux Mint 19 for Windows Users:
• Linux Mint 19 For Wind...
Zorin OS 15 for Windows Users:
• Zorin OS 15 for Window...
Note that the virtual Windows 10 machine shown in this video was created for test purposes only, and deleted after a few hours. I therefore decided not to go through the activation process, although I did have an FPP license available to cover its use. A Windows virtual machine needs to be licensed like any other Windows installation.
You can download a Windows 10 ISO file from Microsoft here: www.microsoft.com/software-do... Note that this link will take you to the Update Assistant if accessed from Windows, but directly to the ISO download page (as shown in the video) if accessed from Linux.
More videos on computing and related topics can be found at: / explainingcomputers
You may also like my ExplainingTheFuture channel at: / explainingthefuture
#VirtualBox #Linux #Windows #ExplainingComputers

[@brightbaelfire7232]

This is how windows is meant to be used...

[@djkarthik3109]

In a window

[@004amansagar5]

Not signing up in the windows I have tried many times

[@004amansagar5]

I have ubuntu 20.04 please tell me sir what version to install here 2:52 ?

[@redpilltaoist4160]

@Hand Grabbing Fruits They mean, not signing a contract to hand over your first-born son with every third update

[@iamtembo]

Underrated comment

[@digicinematic]

"I almost lost the will to live during that installation." - Christopher Barnatt

[@ExplainingComputers]

I think Microsoft should put this quote in their marketing.

[@spectrophage]

oh indeed, I fell out of my chair laughing at that one. priceless. :D

[@korrupted80]

I wholeheartedly agree with Christopher. 😁 Especially with the current state of the Windows OS and the updates!

[@jacobsan]

Indeed. Tried just today. Had to deny like 20 different data sharing settings.

[@ExtraLargeWindow]

im only gonna use windows vm for schoolwork

[@dougr.8653]

Another nice video, Chris. Because of this channel, I've been using Linux Mint for a year and I've had a nice experience with it. Thank you, sir.

[@ExplainingComputers]

Great to hear.

[@TheAnkMan]

Agreed. Chris' videos might helped a lot Windows (or even Mac?) users to migrate to Linux. He explains things in a way beginners can understand and follow. Although I am using Linux since more than 20 years (really? Now I feel old) I still learn new things watching his channel.

[@SmedleyButler1]

Did you pgp qnd sha verify integrity? Then analyze via "static and dynamic analysis tools? And somehow verify other pros did packet analysis etc on updates? Nobody talks about these huge security loopholes

[@SmedleyButler1]

Mint and others have had nefarious code injected at the repositories

[@corvoattano9303]

@@SmedleyButler1 I would like to know more about this. Could you elaborate?

[@DailyBeatings]

I've been running Windows in VMs under Ubuntu for the last ten years. It's so much easier to handle Windows in a VM, especially when an update chokes and borks everything. At that point you just restore from backup and a few minutes later you're back in business.

[@chrwl007]

As a long-time Virtualbox user, I must say that this video did not disappoint. Cutting straight to the pertinent information as we've come to expect from your channel, Chris. Providing support at work requires me to use Windows, and this is the solution I use every day (albeit currently with Ubuntu 18.04 LTS as the host).

[@JoseLopez-oz1xm]

Chris, that was the best VB tutorial I've ever seen thanks so much. Great work as always.

[@ExplainingComputers]

Thanks. :)

[@keithmarsh8120]

This really is one of the simplest and nicest guides out there. You should be commended sir.

[@ExplainingComputers]

Thanks.

[@spodule6000]

I just followed this guide step-by-step to install Windows 7 on my Linux Mint laptop. Brilliant and simple guide which got everything working for me, even though a few little things have changed since this video was made. Thanks so much Mr. Barnatt.

[@FrasSmith]

Starts watching video, even though already set up with Windows in Virtualbox. Notices in video that version 6.1 is out. Downloads and installs the deb file. Everything falls apart because version 6.0 was installed from Ubuntu repo and wasn't uninstalled before installing 6.1. Pauses video. Spends hectic 20 minutes purging Virtualbox 6.0, then purges 6.1. Kills all Virtualbox tasks. Re-installs 6.1, re-installs extension pack. Starts Windows. Breathes. Restarts video... Thanks for another entertaining and informative video. :-)

[@kingneutron1]

Worth mentioning is that all VMs should have "VMSVGA" or "VBOXSVGA" for their graphics adapter, or they *will not boot* starting with virtualbox 6.1. This includes booting from snapshots and saved states!

[@Tux.Penguin]

kingneutron1 Good to know. I will have to check that when I get back to my computer. I’m still using vbox 5.x and I really want to upgrade after watching this video.

[@AndrewJackson2000]

I like the way you explain all this tutorial... Very clear and straight to the point. Greetings from Romania(ex-Roumania)

[@albundy7718]

Best Video for a Windows-User planning moving to Linux, but still needs some Stuff from Windows.

[@PS_Tube]

One of the best video to setup a perfect Windows Virtual Machine. EC Sundays never disappoints. Thank you for making these videos.

[@KowboyUSA]

This could be very helpful in running Windows applications while switching to Linux as a primary OS.

[@ExplainingComputers]

Certainly my use for it! :)

[@Tux.Penguin]

That’s how I use it too. Eventually I hope to migrate away from Microsoft completely, but there are still a couple of sticking points.

[@aguswidi9316]

It's very very very helpfull. Thank E.C.

[@SuperHaunts]

In my humble opinion, one of your finest videos! I'm definitely bookmarking this to keep it handy to share with others as well. You've managed to cover a couple of items that I have missed attempting to get past in Linux Mint prior to your nicely detailed training video!

[@ExplainingComputers]

Thanks Dean, most appreciated.

[@alexk1480]

this is great for people that still run win7 and think of switching to linux but need to use some windows only programms!

[@aiden_macleod]

VMWare is really just a novelty. I wouldn't seriously run it to do anything productive, as I can be more productive in a non-virtual session.

[@alexk1480]

@@aiden_macleod if your hardware is capable of running a windows vm decently and you set up everything correctly its pretty easy to do work inside, just fullscreen the vm and its almost like youre running on bare metal. obviously if you require a lot of horsepower for whatever work you need to do virtualisation may not be perfect but it still could be done. linus from linus tech tips for example runs all of his computers, including gaming-pc's, virtualized off of a server in his home!

[@aiden_macleod]

@@alexk1480 That's because Linus has a $10,000 supercomputer in his home. He has top of the line hardware from all his sponsors. Me, I have an i7 CPU, 16GB RAM, GTX 1070 and I'm perfectly capable of running what I want, virtualized or not.

[@alexk1480]

@@aiden_macleod yeah exactly, he has expensive hardware to run multiple vm's. but also regular desktops or laptops with enough ram and cpu cores are capable to run a well working windows vm to do work in

[@aaronrennyvargheseOriginal]

@@aiden_macleod I have i3 CPU, 4GB RAM. Too low, but I can still do virtualization.

[@RichardiOS275]

I remembered when you made a video of virtualbox a few years ago and when you didn't know about guest addition and stuff this video covered a lot of things you can do in virtualbox especially for the people who don't get using the program, the way you explained it is easy to understand and at the right tempo, keep the great work!

[@ExplainingComputers]

I did know about Guest Additions when I made the previous video -- there were notes in the video description about it -- but as always, I had to decide what to include and not include. I can never cover everything. In retrospect, I should have mentioned it in the last video.

[@zorro315754442]

@@ExplainingComputers I like this 20 min video more than the previous short version.

[@bobhopper609]

SATA ANDAGII

[@spikekent]

Written by Mr Scissors? Surely that would be cut out (edited) by Mr Scissors. Another superb video Chris, thank you.

[@silviocesarsilvaoliveira]

Congratulations Chris your explanations are just fantastic, just unbelievable the domain and security that you demonstrate when making your videos !!!!! congratulations continue to bring excellent quality content to KZbin !!!

[@aqmohra4]

And there's me watching this video on a Linux Mint install within virtual box installed on a Windows 10 machine

[@ExplainingComputers]

Cool.

[@samuelhulme8347]

J*ker which the win10 machine is a vm on Mac

[@dalriada842]

I had the same on one of my machines. Then I had the bright idea to play around with Hyper-V. Not only couldn't I get it to work, but it stopped Virtualbox from running!

[@samuelhulme8347]

dalriada842 I made a win10 vm on mac to play Windows only games

[@christianholmstedt8770]

How about installing Windows on a Virtual Linux Machine running on a Windows machine.:D VirtualBox is great. I'm using it to run Win2K on my Win10 machine. It's fast as hell and it's nice to see the old task manager in in Win2K saying only 60 Mb is used by Windows.... compared to 1.9 Gb for Win10. Dafug happened LOL.

[@geoffreyjohnstone5465]

Brilliant video....I have tried to do a lot of OS "emulation" using VMWare and Windows and have had mixed results. Never thought of doing it the other way round using a different host OS and running Windows through it. Another easy to follow tutorial, nice one CB

[@andrewcottrell9811]

Same here. Great video 👍 Thanks, Chris

[@richardcreese]

Had to laugh at the repeated use of the word 'hopefully' when installing Windows drivers. Very retro.

[@armandrenaudngaamounana2311]

Cause .. Well you better cross ur fingers when installing those

[@chrwl007]

Plug and pray?

[@oceania68]

@@chrwl007 lmao true

[@dominicg2456]

Setting up a virtual box can be a daunting task and I wasn't looking forward to it even though I knew I needed it. You made this much easier for me, even though some steps were slightly different because of newer updates. This was relatively painless, thank you.

[@BharatMohanty]

Thankyou for that USB device support thing.....this is why I love this channel, every time i learn something new.

[@waynerobarge8543]

Totally agree. Took me forever to figure that one out.

[@BharatMohanty]

@@waynerobarge8543 yes...

[@johnjennison2118]

Me too!

[@dwmac2010]

Yes. Thank you for the sudo usermod tip. Just yesterday, I was trying to get my W10-64 vm (on Mint host) to read a USB stick. Couldn't do it. Your example was exactly what I needed.

[@happysunshinydays6349]

Whenever I've searched for computer vids to assist me, your videos have helped, this one's another good one, cheers.

[@flowntn1989]

VirtualBox - this crystal clear video whilst Linux focused is equally applicable to any OS host, with the guest being any OS including a virtual machine of the host OS for testing and other firewalled purposes . My usage scenario is Mac OS10 host, with a need to be able to run Windows only apps (current and legacy going back to WIndows Xp era). My virtualisation journey began with Parallels on my desktop, but have been blown away by VirtualBox on my MacBook running W10 pro. And it’s FREE.

[@bluehornet6752]

Brilliant video CJB, absolutely first-rate. I've done all these things over the years, but not for awhile...so your video was VERY helpful. I just created a new KDE-based dev machine, and need to be able to run some Adobe software--so the part about the shared folders was awesome. Thanks so much for making this video. It saved me a lot of time!

[@ExplainingComputers]

I'm glad this was helpful.

[@MaggieKeizai]

Thank you, sir. Right as I've just ordered a fresh new laptop with plans for a win7 VM on it. I never understood why USB wouldn't work on my dabbling with VMs before, so this was just what I needed.

[@gilberttorres2655]

Thank you so much, I have been searching a long time for a video like this. I felt that virtual machines were useless because of not having access to properly functioning shared folders, USB drives and printers. You have now changed the game for me.

[@ExplainingComputers]

Glad I could help. :)

[@user-qn2ow9yt1y]

Hi Chris, I don't comment very often although I avidly watch all your videos. Having used Mint from a live iso on and off for a number of years, I have finally taken the plunge and ditched Windows when I built my latest PC. This tutorial has been invaluable in allowing me to run the, surprisingly few, programs I have not found a Linux replacement for. I used VB 7 and Win 10. Although VB7 looks not exactly like the version you were using, all the bits are there, just maybe not where they used to be, but it all installed perfectly and first time, thanks to you!

[@ExplainingComputers]

Thanks for watching, and great to hear of your success. :)

[@paurano]

Brexit or not, you will always remain my main source of information technology ideas. Thanks a lot, Chris

[@heedmywarning2792]

Your videos are very informative. Always a pleasure to learn.

[@Uniblab8]

Oddly enough I did this on my own before the video was released. I placed it within the MXLinux OS. My machine, while fairly powerful, not really up to today's standards. 4Cores &16 GB RAM. The installation of VB was painless. The installation of Win 10 was perfect. I was lucky I had an extra product code lying around. The whole experience is very enjoyable. WIN 10 runs smoothly. I gave it 12 GB of RAM and kept 4 GB for MXLinux. I've taken to using Linux more than Windows but 4 GB RAM in Linux is more than enough. I love this arrangement and for those watching this video...TOTALLY WORTH IT!!!

[@chriholt]

Great presentation Chris. I didn’t know about the USB setup steps - I always appreciate learning something new, thanks!

[@BagusSumanjaya]

yes that would be an alternative way for the common applications such as Microsoft office to running on windows 10 box, thanks Mr. Barnatt...

[@SeanBZA]

Wine will run quite a few versions of Office quite well, but you always have issues with mail, simply because it is so intertwined with the OS itself.

[@Tux.Penguin]

When I need to run software that is only available for Windows I find that spinning up a Windows vm is better than trying to use Wine. It seems to be more stable, and I prefer the idea of keeping Microsoft locked in a box rather than giving it access to my Linux system through Wine.

[@TheAnkMan]

I'd go with LibreOffice native in Linux unless people experience problems with MS Word or Excel files. As already mentioned by SeanBZA, WinE might be less of a hassle than VirtualBox to run Windows software.

[@BagusSumanjaya]

SeanBZA yes Mr SeanBZA wine will run Office on Linux as well. But some times i just want to run like windows 98 instead. So long ago it was full of virus 😆 on windows 98

[@BagusSumanjaya]

J Kane it is good idea Mr J Kane. To keep Office lock out. Cause some times malware comes up when we are not upgrade the Office

[@rickbhattacharya2334]

Very easy yet very helpful video explained in simple way. Thank you 😀

[@centurion8446]

Great stuff as always. Has started me on putting other VM's on like Ubuntu. The USB explanation was very helpful too

[@kdkdsapdx1945]

Very helpful video. Thank you. I've been trying Linux Mint in a dual-boot setup for about 6 weeks, and I really love it. Now having VirtualBox with Windows 10 working for the few programs I use, I'm ready to wipe my original setup and go with just Linux Mint and not dual-boot any longer. Thank you for your step by step video to make this possible.

[@paulmilligan3007]

Excellent, you cover all the important and necessary tweaks. I've been a VMware user in the past but their licensing means the free-to-use product is more limited whereas VirtualBox now seems to allow all features for personal use. I may finally have my dev-system run windows on linux rather than linux on windows.

[@pedrobenfica4438]

i use virtualbox and i have learn something, how to configure the usb drivers for windows. continue with these awesome videos!!! thank you very much.

[@DanCalloway]

Very nice, as usual! You always knock your video subjects "out of the park". I'm running FerenOS Jan, 2020 Snapshot and will setup Windows 10 Pro for which I have a valid product key from when I was running Windows 7 Pro in the VBox VM of Windows 10 Pro. I have moved to Linux as the default OS on my main PC and have decided that if I want to run Windows for any reason, I'll use the option you most elegantly portrayed in this video.

[@juga7]

I always enjoy the very professional and structure way that your videos are presented. Thank you very much for the info. This is quite useful to me and I always be grateful.

[@donporter8432]

Wow, a great video to absorb and use. Extremely useful. 👍👍

[@Obamjur]

I just want to thank you very much! Fantastic tutorial ! Cheers !

[@HPLeft]

Extremely informative video. I've played with Windows VMs in Linux and never got it quite right. But next time I do it, I will head to your page and rewatch this video first.

[@nurzhantemirbek6911]

I've found this amazingly helpful! Thank you very much, sir! And the way you articulate words is just top-notch!

[@ExplainingComputers]

Glad it was helpful!

[@guilhermeteixeira7095]

Thank you so much. I've never seen a tutorial that worked so perfectly like this !

[@ExplainingComputers]

Great to hear!

[@TheAnkMan]

Chris could had mentioned the fact that you can also freeze the content of a virtual machine. You freeze (or suspend?) it in virtual box while Windows is running and terminate VirtualBox. Restarting VB it picks up right where you left it. I find this to be a very handy feature. There should also be a follow up video. After installing Windows in VirtualBox get VirtualBox for this Windows itself to install Linux in it. In this Linux in a VB in Windows itself in a VB in Linux, install an Amiga emulator in which you install a Commodore 64 emulator. ;-)

[@philipbrady7635]

A lot of info and ideas here, its great to see that there now exists "simple" ways to communicate between 2 operating systems while 1 is running in virtual box, sharing docs and drives etc. i take my hat off to you, i bet you could explain anything.

[@charlesgraves2147]

Save this video a couple of days after you made it. Finally built a linux machine and applied this virtual box application to the letter. Everything turned out just as you said. GREAT TUTORIAL.!!!

[@ExplainingComputers]

Great to hear!

[@blackmennewstyle]

Very nice video :) I honestly prefer KVM and Qemu when it comes to virtual machines but probably a bit away from beginning with VMs and Virtualbox is definitely the way to go when you just start :) Happy midweek and keep it up the great job

[@CorvusNumber6]

Great video! Thank you Christopher!

[@nafeesomar]

Never felt so breezy with a VB setup tutorial before! Brilliant!!

[@ravagingwolverine]

I mentioned when you announced this video that I had used VirtualBox in order to run a specific program back in the day, but it was a very simple setup. While I no longer need to do that, I anticipate I will need to have Windows running in VirtualBox(I'd prefer to avoid dual booting, but it's an option as well) for a more complex task including accessing peripherals and such. So my knowledge and experience with VirtualBox was very limited, and I said I expected to learn a thing or five from this video. That is indeed the case here. This video likely saved me several headaches in the future and I will be referring to it when I have to actually set it up. Very nice tutorial, and thank you.

[@strongangel]

Another excellent presentation .... Thank You.

[@rogerkoh1979]

Another great video. It would be useful as some software only run in Windows.

[@krishnajain292]

This man is just amazing. I enjoy watching his channel and i also enjoy his channel's retro type opening.

[@theshowman8478]

Brilliant. Was planning to go through this process myself next week. I'm sure this will save me heaps of time. Many thanks and much appreciated.

[@ExplainingComputers]

Good luck!

[@docslinux2]

Great, well done video, but in 1998 I decided that I would to as Windows free as I can, and with progress of linux/open source it has become easier every day.

[@BernardoHenriquez]

It is not necessary to reboot computer when adding user to a grupo (vboxusers), just logout and login is more than enough

[@ExplainingComputers]

True.

[@rickbhattacharya2334]

Or kill -9 -1

[@CalebHawn]

That makes sense since you're only changing the user. I was thinking, "just run 'shutdown -r' to reboot."

[@rickbhattacharya2334]

@@CalebHawn or you can simply run reboot

[@CalebHawn]

@@rickbhattacharya2334 Oh, is that a separate command? I never knew that; thanks!

[@lynguist]

"let's celebrate by going back into full-screen mode here in windows..." love it, that was a very entertaining and helpful video, thank you very much!!

[@dizzygreencow2010]

Just wanted to say thank you for doing this video, it was very helpful whilst getting virtualbox set up. I bought a sat nav that has included 'map updates' without even considering the software wouldn't work with Linux. Thanks to the video, I have been able to get the sat nav updated and will hopefully now be able to travel to meet my 8 week old granddaughter for the first time (covid 19 lockdown has prevented this up until now). Thank you very much, I'm extremely grateful for the easy to follow and informative video.

[@ExplainingComputers]

This is great to hear. I hope that you get to meet your new granddaughter soon. :)

[@LDWilliams]

Thank you for this, it was explained very well, could be Very useful for a firend who runs a dual boot system atm as she has a few progs that Still require Windows usage,

[@biffzinker7994]

Lorry from Techpowerup forums?

[@LDWilliams]

@@biffzinker7994 it's a fair cop, I give up 😂

[@rautamiekka]

Not sure if it happens with Linux host, but with Win host designating an USB drive causes it to be taken from the host by force, so one needs to be sure the drive ain't doing anything.

[@ExplainingComputers]

This is true.

[@CalebHawn]

Ah, that's a good tip. Wouldn't want anything to be corrupted.

[@DebsMcDougall]

Thanks. That was a great tutorial for a newbie. I have successfully set up my windows 10 installation and managed to download iCue and get my RGB fans all working, brilliant!

[@ExplainingComputers]

Great to hear!

[@jameslawrence8734]

I love your channel and somehow missed this video. It was recommended as I was going through KZbin vids on VM installation. I've already given you a thumbs up before watching :)

[@ExplainingComputers]

Awesome, thank you!

[@peterjansen4826]

The password is "linuxmint" , isn't it?

[@BenMitro]

no plausible deniability

[@JohnKhalil]

I can already tell from the sound of key strikes

[@TheAnkMan]

@@BenMitro As Chris typed it fast it got to be "123456789" ;-)

[@t4ky0n]

He hearted it :o

[@Prakhar_Choubey]

If you have well experience with root kit and password cracking, once could guess this one

[@LMacNeill]

That crazy Mr. Scissors! Editing text at random! What will he do next?! 😂 Seriously, though -- excellent tutorial on setting up Virtual box. This will certainly come in handy -- thanks!

[@jamierogers294]

Crazy? Mr Scissors is ideal for cutting text from documents for pasting to another :)

[@jamesmanuel4706]

best quick vid on adding the extras to virtual box

[@Nerd3927]

Excellent video, thanks again! 10:29 Yes, making all the settings to be only mildly shafted in stead of being taken without any lubricants makes me feel that way too.

[@NewAgeDIY]

Will, it back to school today! Let the lessons begin..... 📗📕📖📚📐📏🖊

[@ExplainingComputers]

Hi Dale. :)

[@donaldmarks8707]

An interesting and informative presentation Chris.I'm a win 7 user (because I hate 10) and this maybe the work around for me to continue using the copy I paid good money for. Thanks. Look forward to the next one. :-)

[@grantsgamesandtech312]

Yes. I would do that except for the fact that I did not buy a retail copy when it was $70.00 USD. Oh how I wish I had gotten it. I just run windows 7 on an old OEM PC disconnected from all the World Wide Malware.

[@donaldmarks8707]

@@grantsgamesandtech312 I can always copy mine and send it to you after all Microsoft can't object because they've basically thrown win7 away. :-)

[@grantsgamesandtech312]

@@donaldmarks8707 I don't do piracy, even if Microsoft is wrong. I want to run linux and run the windows apps with my OEM copy in a VM. The only issue is that the host is an old intel celeron 900, and modern tasks are just too resource heavy. If it were are core 2 duo, I could do it. I have plans to upgrade it. If all else fails, I will convert it into a virtual hard disk to preserve this historical software, for years to come...

[@donaldmarks8707]

@@grantsgamesandtech312 It was a joke. Knock the cool off your name mate. :-)

[@twmbarlwmstar]

@@donaldmarks8707 They haven't thrown it away. The support has ended, just like every Windows edition before it, hardly a surprise. If you need more copies of W7 all you have to do is buy W10 Pro, and exercise your downgrade rights, just like every edition of Windows...

[@alber_rs6]

Massive thank you for your contribution. Really helped me out after spending hours trying to figure all out by myself and with crappy videos!!!

[@yanonmouse7765]

absolute best linux tutorial channel keep it up mate thankyou!!!

[@bobh5261]

i love using this type of setup, it's really the only way i trust using windows. since windows is not as secure i only use the virtualbox for the necessary apps from when needed. but everything else i use in linux. I never surf the web in windows i don't think its secure enough at all.

[@rwprime1]

Heads up for everyone. At 14:36 go with that Settings / Display / Graphics Controller / VBoxVGA I can't tell you how many problems and hours going with the default VMSVGA has caused me. In an Arch build, I couldn't get lightdm or lxdm login managers to work and just tonight I chanced on that being the fault / problem / culprit! EDIT - Oh, and there's more! It's always a good idea after making a base-build of Arch ('done the Arch way'), to clone it. Then you can go with xfce4, Mate, OpenBox etc. Well, of course I name it Arch base clone 1, ditto clone 2 and then when I went back and renamed one of them Arch xfce, VBox took it on its own to revert to VMSVGA and didn't even notify me and I had forgotten that you get a totally black screen with a tiny white underline upper-left-ish!

[@tuulymusic3856]

What an amazing tutorial. It is very foreign to me to have processes such as this be so easy and painless! Thank you.

[@jeremiah7431]

This was the most improtant video because it helped me get control of the usb drives and share the clipboard between machines. Thanks a lot!

[@alyeakitty]

Adding a like for probably written by Mr Scissors!

[@-martintheengineer-7465]

Yes, and now the same again with qemu, kvm and virt-mnager :-D. Thanks a lot.

[@pzftw]

And let's not forget attaching LVM volumes for the best possible performance.

[@strugglebusbonsai]

Thanks for the great video, Christopher! I started using RedHat Linux when it still fit on a single cd. OpenSUSE user now. I've never tried to use VMs until this video. You made the process very easy to understand. I had Windows up and running in a VM in no time at all. BTW, I bought a Raspberry Pi 4 and have been running PiHole for two weeks. Looking forward to more videos & projects from you!

[@ExplainingComputers]

All great to hear!

[@martyburgess341]

Thank you sir! I've had a lot of trouble running Vbox. Now i can set it up to run smoother! All hail the PC Guru!

[@johnsweda2999]

Nice video man very useful for people wanting to run Windows 7 still securely. Do you still get the updates or can you disable it in virtualbox for Windows 10? And if you're running Windows 10 natively I think you can disable it in the registry that used to be * in dos is that still the case on the tree? Why mint are not Debian ? somebody told me Debbie is used in the International Space Station.

[@ExplainingComputers]

If the Windows 10 VM is online, it will get updates. It's like any other Windows machine.

[@derekp2674]

Mint is one of the nicest Linux distros for home users migrating from Windows. Debian is really designed for use by Linux experts and can require a lot more effort to get it running decently on a wifi laptop.

[@christianblack9651]

Oh, how the tables have turned!

[@doctorsocrates4413]

This is the very best virtualbox tutorial i have seen to date.fantastic video and thank you.

[@GoStraightToGulag]

Can I just say, you earned a subscriber. I spent the entire evening scratching my head how to use other virtual machines and I really couldn't figure out how to get any of them running smoothly. I knew of VB seeing my boyfriend use it on MACos but I wasn't entirely sure how to install it properly with extensions onto Mint. I didn't want to set up another partition and go about it the traditional way as I only want to install a few dos and retro games on a burner laptop. Other videos were just so dated, or so chopped that I couldn't understand where I was going wrong. This video was a bloody lifesaver. So stupidly easy to follow that I'm nearly positive that even someone with 0 experience operating and running linux could of done it. Cheers mate. I look forward to future content.

[@ExplainingComputers]

Great to hear this -- welcome aboard! :)

[@normang.827]

Perfect timing as I am using Linux more and Windows less but still need a few options in Windows.

[@SusanAmberBruce]

Great video thanks :)

[@belaruscitizen]

The best tutorial I've ever seen in KZbin or elsewhere.

[@pato90v86]

After years switching from both systems and struggling to play around with different softwares for my work/dev (on data) needs. I found the correct key words to be googlelized and then came your tuto. You've just released tons of frustations... thank you so much. From a Froggy

[@ExplainingComputers]

Glad to help!

[@mybean1096]

If people only knew the power of the Virtualbox. You can do so much with it especially if you know how to install it on Ubuntu(OS) which gets tricky and sometimes confusing when installing; many companies give money to Ubunu including Amazon who has exclusive access so their on the front line when it comes to fresh ideas from new young programmers ( other people who code(program) that dont know that everything they type is being studied ) or used as an idea. Anyway VirtualBox can made to do anything as long as Oracle maintains updates and programmers upgrade efficiently. Ubuntu just makes it so hard to install it; we believe this is because they want to install it on Windows instead. Also PaaS can be achieved using the command line tools for VirtualBox which means that some feel threatened by its potential GUI capability.

[@bertnijhof5413]

To improve performance, also use 3D acceleration and a 256MB video memory for the display and use bridged networking. 3D acceleration might not work with AMD Vega graphics. It works on my Intel laptop, but it garbles the display on my AMD Ryzen 3 2200G. You can also install the extension pack by simply double clicking it.

[@TheZomako]

Yes

[@jupiterflambay4284]

Brilliant. I got this working in Zorin 16 and now I can install a couple of windows programs that don't work in WINE. Well explained.

[@rjy8960]

Hi Chris, I was looking to do exactly this for an SDR project (uplink / downlink to the QO-100 satellite) - run Windows on a Mint machine with USB pass-through. Got it working with no hitches and just wanted to say thank you for putting this together!

[@ExplainingComputers]

Great to hear! :) I'm glad it worked.

[@DFX2KX]

I've been meaning to do this for AGES. I'm running Linux on the gaming machine, and it works well, however, some utilities don't work quite right.

[@dirgosalga]

Can you tell me your experience when you're done? I would probably try it myself soon, but I don't have Linux on this machine yet. Also, do you have an Nvidia card? I heard they don't play nice with VirtualBox.

[@Xeno_Bardock]

Can you do a video on QEMU/Virt-Manager and how to passthrough GPU to Windows virtual machine so you can use graphics intensive applications and games inside a virtual machine? Also check whether it is possible to passthrough Thunderbolt 3 card to virtual machine so you can use External GPU in case if internal GPU passthrough is not possible due to GPU's being in the same IOMMU group. Also check if it is possible use onboard/integrated GPU for Linux host and passthrough internal GPU to virtual machine so you don't need to buy another GPU. Also check this software called Looking Glass and hardware called KVM Switch by Level1Techs so you don't need second monitor, keyboard and mouse.

[@VidClips858]

This video was extremely helpful to me in getting Windows running on my virtual machine under Linux, thereby causing me to remember why I left Windows in the first place.

[@ExplainingComputers]

:)

[@MarkTheMorose]

Hello from the future! This video was invaluable when I wanted to test out a virtual machine for running Windows as a test. Thanks!

[@ExplainingComputers]

Glad it helped!

[@anshul4589]

Hi Chris, can you tell me how much performance differs in running an OS in a virtual machine versus running directly on the hardware.

[@ExplainingComputers]

Aside from graphical apps (like games, 3D packages or a video editor), performance is good -- if you give the VM half of the machines resources (eg 2 or 4 CPU cores and half the RAM), it will operate pretty much at half the speed of the hardware.

[@anshul4589]

@@ExplainingComputers Thanks for the reply You are the best

[@anonylesss]

good tutorial. why do you keep shutting down Windows? freezing ("save machine state") a VM is quicker and works very well. and saves everything you were working on the VM

[@ExplainingComputers]

I would not personally use freeze when changing virtual machine settings. Freezing is fine for final use, not for setup. Also, frozen machines may hang on to resources (like USB drives).

[@jerrydavisjr.9765]

awesome video here...you hit all the issues I was running into with your step by step process! Thanks!

[@MrKoontzm]

Very helpful even if 3 years old. VirtualBox 7 has made it a bit easier, particularly with USB support. The interface has moved actions around a little, but this video helped me make sure I did all I needed to do, and the only problem was finding where. Thank you.