VirtualBox is a cross-platform virtualization application. VirtualBox it installs on your existing Intel or AMD-based computers, whether they are running Windows, Mac, Linux or Solaris operating systems. Secondly, it extends the capabilities of your existing computer so that it can run multiple operating systems (inside multiple virtual machines) at the same time.

It can be installed on Windows, Mac, Linux, and Solaris. It is freely available as Open Source Software under the terms of the GNU General Public License (GPL) version 2. Go to virtualbox.org. It does not require hardware virtualization capabilities. Some older CPUs do not support virtualization, but with VirtualBox that does not matter.

The latest version of VirtualBox is now able to properly run on Windows 11. Using Windows 11 as the host works. I installed it on Windows 11.

Installing the software is not difficult. It’s easy. Right now you don’t have any virtual machines installed as the message says. If you are looking for an OS to install you could install Ubuntu or FreeDOS for example. Both of these are free and don’t expire.

After installing VirtualBox above, you’ll want to install the extension pack for VirtualBox. You can download the extension pack from the same download page. On that page, click on All supported platforms.

If you go to www.freedos.org/download/ you can read the following statements at the top of that page: “FreeDOS is a complete operating system. For new users, we recommend installing FreeDOS in a PC emulator or “virtual machine.” If you install FreeDOS on a computer directly, without using a PC emulator, you may overwrite the operating system you have now (for example, Windows.) Please be careful.”

To install FreeDOS into VirtualBox you can go to Lazy Brown Dog and follow the instructions on this page. Also it looks like you should set you execution cap also. Click the link at the bottom of the page or go here and follow the instructions.

Lazy Brown Dog says: “VirtualBox has no guest additions for DOS. That means “shared folders” are not available for any DOS guests. So how do we exchange files between your host i.e. your Operating System on your PC and the FreeDOS guest?” Go to this page for instructions if that is something that you want to do. You will probably be more interested in installing a Linux-based product or Windows. We have a port here on the topic of installing Windows Server.

If you followed the instructions regarding the VHD, you can now copy files to your virtual hard drive using File Explorer in Windows. These files will now be available to your FreeDOS virtual machine, otherwise you will not have access to your files. DOS does have some included programs. Try typing EDIT at the command prompt to open the old DOS editor. It is used for creating and editing text files.

VHD

A virtual hard disk (VHD), according to Wikipedia, “is a file format which represents a virtual hard disk drive (HDD). It may contain what is found on a physical HDD, such as disk partitions and a file system, which in turn can contain files and folders. It is typically used as the hard disk of a virtual machine. The format was created by Connectix for their Virtual PC product, known as Microsoft Virtual PC since Microsoft acquired Connectix in 2003. Since June 2005, Microsoft has made the VHD Image Format Specification available to third parties under the Microsoft Open Specification Promise.” Later on their website they say: “VHDs are implemented as files that reside on the native host file system.”

Nested Virtualization

If you are wondering whether or not you could create a VM within a VM, have a look at this article at PC Steps. Part way through they admit that: “All in all, nested virtualization with VirtualBox was nothing sort of a failure. And a miserable one, at that.” They then tried VMWare and the first level worked! They admit however: “VMware Workstation is a professional solution to create virtual machines, and it costs 250$”. They did however get “a VM within a VM within a VM.”