Oracle released VirtualBox 7, the new version of the virtualization software, which is the biggest news adds full support for Windows 11. It is also compatible with macOS 11 (Big Sur) and macOS 12 (Monterey), while for Linux Ubuntu 20.04 LTS, Ubuntu 22.04 LTS or Debian 11 is now supported, among others.

We repeat ourselves. Virtualization is one the ideal technology for software testing and especially operating systems. It’s been in use since the 1960s, and just as it was then, it’s still a fast, convenient, and secure way to run software. With the advent of cloud computing infrastructure, its use in companies has increased, but it is also a very interesting technology for clients, whether they are professionals or consumers.

Using virtualization requires a client application (hypervisor), a loaded operating system image, and a computer that acts as a host and transfers part of the hardware resources to the virtual machines. The operating systems supported by virtual machines are huge (Windows, FreeBSD, GNU/Linux, OpenBSD, OS/2 Warp, Solaris, MS-DOS, OS X…) and are only limited by the support of the virtualization software to use..

A few months ago, we offered you a tutorial on how to install Windows 11 in a virtual machine using the commercial version of WMware Workstation Pro. In this article, we will offer you something similar, but with an even more popular, free and open source client that was not available until now. It offered full support for the latest Microsoft operating system.

How to install Windows 11 with VirtualBox 7

Using the new version launch, we virtualized Windows 11 on a PC running Windows 10, supporting the advanced requirements required by Microsoft (TPM and Secure Boot) and having enough hardware for the aforementioned resource transfer.

1. Previous step:

Modern processors include hardware virtualization features that help speed up virtual machine applications. For AMD processors this feature is called AMD-V, while for Intel it is known as Intel VT-x. In both cases, you’ll need them enabled by default in BIOS/UEFI. Follow this tutorial if you need to. From there the process is very simple as you will see.

2. Download the Windows 11 image:

• Go to the Windows 11 page.
• Select the third available option “Download Windows 11 Disc Image (ISO)”.
• Select “Windows 11 (multi-edition ISO)” from the drop-down list.
• Select the Spanish language.
• Confirm and download the “Win11_Spanish_x64v1.iso” image that we will use later for the virtual machine.

3. Install VirtualBox 7:

• Download VirtualBox 7 Beta1 for Windows and install like any other executable.

• In addition to Windows, you have other versions on the official download page to install the version from a PC with Linux, macOS, Solaris or others.

4. Load the virtual machine:

• Open VirtualBox and you will be greeted with a slightly redesigned but recognizable interface.

• Click “New” to create a virtual machine and select the path to the downloaded Windows 11 ISO image.

• We have chosen an automatic assistant as an example.
• Configure the name and password to access the system. No product key is required for this step.

• Select the RAM and CPU the VM will use. (You know, the more you allocate, the better performance you get.)

• Select the storage size. 60 GB is enough for tests.

• The machine summary that the wizard creates.

5. Install Windows 11:

• Start the newly created virtual machine and the wizard will start installing Windows 11.

• It’s a process similar to a clean local install, but faster and more automated.

• In a few minutes we will have Windows 11 ready to use.

Although VirtualBox 7 is still in beta, installation was seamless. From an operational perspective, we expect Oracle to fine-tune Windows 11 support before the final release, adding more supported drivers, graphics acceleration, and the rest of the sections needed to make the virtual machine have enough power to use it. in production and not just for testing.

If you want to give it a try… VirtualBox is completely free and open source development. An efficient hypervisor, perhaps the most popular on the consumer market, with versions for Windows, macOS and Linux.