After more than four years, VirtualBox has finally shipped a major release. Version 7 brings big performance gains, full Windows 11 support and—at long last—native Apple M1/M2 compatibility.
What is VirtualBox 7?
VirtualBox is a free, open-source hypervisor that lets you run guest operating systems inside Windows, macOS or Linux hosts—ideal for testing software, trying new distros or simply running legacy apps safely.
Originally created by German firm Innotek, it was later acquired by Sun and then by Oracle—yet it has remained 100 % free and open-source throughout every hand-off.
Key new features
- Official support for Windows 11 and macOS 12 Monterey
- Run multiple OSes side-by-side: e.g. Windows 11 on Apple Silicon, Ubuntu on Windows 10, etc.
- Developer preview already ships with an ARM build for Apple M-series chips
- 3-D acceleration with DirectX 11, USB 3.0 (xHCI), improved CPU utilisation and encrypted disk images
- Snapshots, linked clones, para-virtualised drivers for Windows & Linux guests, and more
Guest OS compatibility
Host support: Windows, macOS, Linux.
Popular guests include:
- Windows: 11, 10, 8.1, 7, Vista, XP, 2000, NT, Server 2003-2022, DOS
- Linux: Ubuntu, Kylin, CentOS, Oracle Linux, Deepin, Elementary OS, RHEL, Debian, Fedora, SUSE, openSUSE, Mandriva, Arch …
- Others: Solaris, FreeBSD, OpenBSD, OS/2, macOS guests*, Android-x86
Installation tips
VirtualBox 7 is multilingual (Chinese included) and uses a familiar wizard. Create a new VM, point it at your ISO, install, then export the appliance for instant clones later. Even modest hardware delivers smooth results for office, dev or light gaming.
*On Apple Silicon the current build is still a developer preview—expect lower performance until the final release.
Best for casual use
If you need Windows on ARM occasionally for testing or dev work, VirtualBox is fine. For daily, performance-critical workloads a commercial product like Parallels Desktop will feel snappier—especially on macOS hosts.
License & business use
VirtualBox remains GPL-licensed and free for personal and commercial use. Its code base has already spawned multiple Android emulators and enterprise appliances—feel free to hack, embed or redistribute.