Oracle VM VirtualBox has received a major upgrade, moving up to version 5.0. The new release brings a variety of features including USB 3 device support, disk image encryption, and a headless mode to start VMs in a separate process. The new features are a welcome addition to the popular, free VM software.
You can see the full list of changes since version 4.3 in the Changelog. This PDF datasheet runs through VirtualBox and includes the latest features and changes with version 5.0 in a more polished fashion. The User Manual (PDF) has also been updated to version 5.0.
You can download and install/update VirtualBox 5.0 from www.virtualbox.org.
From the Oracle Press Release:
New capabilities in Oracle VM VirtualBox 5.0:
- Paravirtualization Support for Windows and Linux Guests: Significantly improves guest OS performance by leveraging built-in virtualization support on operating systems such as Oracle Linux 7 and Microsoft Windows 7 and newer.
- Improved CPU Utilization: Exposes a broader set of CPU instructions to the guest OS, enabling applications to make use of the latest hardware instruction sets for maximum performance.
- Support of USB 3.0 Devices: Guest operating systems can directly recognize USB 3.0 devices and operate at full 3.0 speeds. The guest OS can be configured to support USB 1.1, 2.0, and 3.0.
- Bi-Directional Drag and Drop Support for Windows: On all host platforms, Windows, Linux and Oracle Solaris guests now support “drag and drop” of content between the host and the guest. The drag and drop feature transparently allows copying or opening of files, directories, and more.
- Disk Image Encryption: Data can be encrypted on virtual hard disk images transparently during runtime, using the industry standard AES algorithm with up to 256 bit data encryption keys (DEK). This helps ensure data is secure and encrypted at all times, whether the VM is sitting unused on a developer’s machine or server, or actively in use.