- Pros
Free and open-source. Creates emulated machines for almost any Windows, Linux, OS/2, Solaris, and Unix-based system. Highly customizable, but without excessive default integrations of commercial services.
- Cons
Simple integration features like printing require advanced-user skills. Some viewing options don't yet work with Windows 10. No easy support for macOS or OS X guest systems. Less powerful graphics than Parallels or VMware.
- Bottom Line
VirtualBox is free, open-source, and works well for developers and hobbyists, but it's less ideal for anyone who wants to seamlessly run Windows and Linux apps on a Mac.
With Parallels Desktop, you can switch between Mac and Windows without ever needing to reboot your computer. If you have already installed Windows 10, Windows 8.1, Windows 8, or Windows 7 on your Mac using Boot Camp, you can set Parallels Desktop to run Windows from the Boot Camp Partition or import Windows and your data from Boot Camp into. Like VMWare Fusion and VirtualBox, Parallels Desktop allows you to create a 'virtual machine' (VM) that runs Windows within macOS itself, and you can either run the VM within a window on the Mac. Bootcamp/Parallels/Vmware Fusion/VirtualBox to run Windows? Discussion in 'MacBook' started by kingc0bra, Aug 20. I am using Parallels 10 to run Windows 10 on my MacBook. I find the performance and integration features a bit better than VMWare Fusion. I haven't used VMWare on the Mac in a while to know how they compare like that. OSX: Converting Parallels or VMWare to VirtualBox. I have tried a few methods found on the net today to transfer a Parallels 5 WinXP VM to VirtualBox on a Mac and have spent HOURS watching 24GB files transfer back and forth between my PC & Mac. Your method took well under an hour and worked (second time – after.
VirtualBox 6.0 is the no-cost, open-source virtualization app that may be all you need for running Windows or Linux apps on your Mac, especially if you're willing to get your hands dirty. Compared with the subscription-based Parallels Desktop and the buy-once use-forever VMware Fusion, Oracle's VirtualBox offers fewer automated conveniences, uses less elegant menus, and lacks as many deep integration features. That said, this free utility makes up for these shortcomings with speedy performance, access to a vast third-party library of prebuilt VirtualBox emulated systems, and all the flexibility that advanced users could want.
- $79.99
- $79.99
- $39.99
- $0.00
Both Fusion 3 and the new Parallels Desktop 5 both support Aero under Windows Vista and 7 guests, and Parallels introduces 'skinning' to Windows applications and dialogs, making them appear Mac-like, whereas Fusion and VirtualBox do not offer such a high-level of integration. Like VMWare Fusion and VirtualBox, Parallels Desktop allows you to create a 'virtual machine' (VM) that runs Windows within macOS itself, and you can either run the VM within a window on the Mac. I am trying to convert VirtualBox.vdi file to Parallels virtual machine but unable to do so. In some cases conversion from vdi is not supported by Parallels Desktop.
Price and Platforms
Like VMware Fusion, Virtual Box is available in Mac, Windows, and Linux versions, and supports almost any Intel-based emulated system you could want, including ancient ones like DOS and OS/2. As mentioned earlier, it's free to use. A license for Parallels Desktop, by comparison, costs $79.99 per year. VMWare Fusion also costs $79.99 (for the least expensive Basic version), but that gets you a permanent license to the software.
VirtualBox Basics
Like other virtualization apps, VirtualBox lets you run one or more guest systems from its VirtualBox Manager menu. You can run a guest machine in a window, so that a full Windows desktop appears in a window on your Mac or you can run a Windows desktop full-screen on a Mac, almost as if your Mac was a true Windows machine. Alternatively, you can run a single Windows application in what VirtualBox calls Seamless mode. In this mode, the Windows desktop becomes invisible and that single Windows app lives in its own frame.
At least, this is the way VirtualBox is designed to work and how it works with older Windows versions and the Linux versions that I tried. At the time of this review, however, some VirtualBox features weren't working correctly with Windows 10 and the workarounds that I found on the web didn't solve the problems. The problems, which I describe later in this story, were more annoying than fatal, but until Oracle solves them, you should probably choose a commercial alternative if you want to run Windows 10 on your Mac.
VirtualBox Set Up and Use
Vmware Or Virtualbox For Mac
You can get started with VirtualBox by downloading any of the dozens of prebuilt Linux and Unix guest systems from the OSBoxes site. If you want to run Windows in VirtualBox, the safest method is to install Windows from an installer disk image that you can download from Microsoft. Unlike Parallels or VMware, VirtualBox doesn't automatically install Windows for you if have an activation code. Instead, you have to go through the same manual installation procedure that you would on a real hardware system. If your Mac uses a retina screen, you'll be frustrated by the unreadably tiny size that VirtualBox displays by default while you're installing Windows. You can solve this problem by going to the Display tab on the Settings dialog for your emulated system and increasing the scale factor to 200 percent—this is a typical example of VirtualBox's do-it-yourself methods. Parallels and VMware automatically adjust for Retina screens.
Parallels and VMware both make it easy to install an emulated Mac system on your Mac, which you might want to have for testing or development. Users can install macOS either from their Mac's recovery partition or from an installer downloaded from the Mac App Store. It's possible to run an emulated Mac in VirtualBox, but it isn't easy and you'll need to search the web for detailed instructions.
Unlike Parallels and VMware, VirtualBox won't automatically install the guest-system tools that let you drag and drop files between your Mac host and an emulated Windows or Linux guest. To install these, you have to click the 'Insert Guest Additions CD Image' item on the Device menu—not exactly an intuitive choice—and then figure out how to find the setup program on the emulated CD in the guest system, and which of three different versions of the tools to install. Expert users will find this easy, but unskilled users will be mostly lost.
I am impressed by VirtualBox's performance. It needed only 35 seconds to boot an emulated Windows 10 system, about the same as Parallels Desktop, and almost twice as fast as VMware Fusion. I am also impressed by VirtualBox's smooth operations with an emulated Windows 7 system. I found it simple to switch instantly among VirtualBox's three display modes: full-screen, windowed (which VirtualBox calls 'Scaled Mode'), and single-application-window mode (which VirtualBox calls 'Seamless Mode'). The same view options in a Windows 10 emulated system mostly didn't work. For example, when I tried to switch Windows 10 to Seamless Mode, it continued to display the Windows desktop, only without a frame. Parallels and VMware keep their software tools updated for current Windows systems, but VirtualBox users are doomed to wait.
Emulation Features
VMware and Parallels automatically provide bidirectional clipboard support for text and images, and bidirectional support for dragging and dropping files between the Windows or Linux guest and the Mac host desktop. VirtualBox offers the same feature, but you need to turn it on manually. However, VirtualBox offers more fine-tuned control over bidirectional sharing than its commercial rivals. In all these virtualization apps, you can turn off clipboard sharing and drag-and-drop, but only VirtualBox lets you configure the clipboard or drag-and-drop features to operate one-way only, either from the host to guest, or vice versa. This can enhance security if you're experimenting with potentially harmful software on the guest, but you want to be able to import files or other items from the host system.
If you want to print from a guest system, your host Mac system will need to be set up to print to a networked printer, not a printer connected via USB cable. You may very well need to search for help on the web before you can start printing. Briefly, use the VirtualBox settings dialog to switch from the networking method from NAT to Bridged (and also make sure that networking is enabled). Then, inside your guest Windows system, use the Settings app to search for a networked printer. You may need to install the Windows driver from the manufacturer's website if Windows doesn't have a driver already available.
Another potential problem is that VMware sets up networking through one specific network interface on your Mac, and won't switch automatically between interfaces if (for example) you plug an Ethernet cable into your MacBook when you don't have access to fast Wi-Fi. If you do this, you'll have to go to the VirtualBox settings window and switch the network adapter setting to match your Mac's networking. Parallels and VMware make the switch automatically and invisibly.
A similar glitch got in the way of shutting down Windows guest systems. Like Parallels and VMware, VirtualBox has a top-line menu item that lets you shut down the guest machine smoothly and easily, as if you had clicked on the Start menu and chosen Shut Down from the power options. In VirtualBox, this menu item does nothing until you dig into the Windows guest settings and set the option that tells Windows to shut down when the Power button is pressed. As with so much else in the freeware VirtualBox, you don't get conveniences that you don't pay for.
One integration feature that VirtualBox lacks is the ability to open files on your Mac system with Windows applications or open files on your emulated Windows system with Mac apps. In Parallels or VMware, this means you don't need to buy a Mac version of high-powered software that you already own for Windows. Instead, you can tell your Mac to use the Windows app in your emulated machine to open any files on your Mac that you would otherwise need to edit in a Mac-based copy of the software.
Virtualization Freedom
Although oftentimes annoying to use, VirtualBox is an impressive app that shares enough features with its commercial rivals to make it worth considering—especially in security-conscious settings that insist on open-source software instead of proprietary apps. If want to run the latest Windows 10 apps on a Mac, then Parallels Desktop is your best choice and VMware Fusion is a good second option. However, if you only need Windows or Linux from time to time and you're willing to put up with minor inconveniences and limitations, then VirtualBox can be an indispensable tool.
Oracle VM VirtualBox (for Mac)
Bottom Line: VirtualBox is free, open-source, and works well for developers and hobbyists, but it's less ideal for anyone who wants to seamlessly run Windows and Linux apps on a Mac.
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