If you use the Create VM wizard of the VirtualBox Manager, Oracle VM VirtualBox automatically uses the correct settings for each selected 64-bit OS type. See Section 1.7, “Creating Your First Virtual Machine”. Oracle VirtualBox is a cross-platform virtualization application. It installs on your existing Intel or AMD-based computers, whether they are running Windows, Mac, Linux or Solaris operating systems. VirtualBox can create and run a 'guest' operating system (virtual machine) in a window of the host operating system. The virtual machine provides a self-contained environment in which to experiment with new software.

Oracle VirtualBox is a cross-platform virtualization application. It installs on your existing Intel or AMD-based computers, whether they are running Windows, Mac, Linux or Solaris operating systems. VirtualBox can create and run a 'guest' operating system (virtual machine) in a window of the host operating system. The virtual machine provides a self-contained environment in which to experiment with new software without risking damaging changes to the host operating system.

We will give an instruction with step-by-step screenshots to show how to install VirtualBox with an example of installing Ubuntu OS as a guest machine. We also explain how to share files between the host and guest operating systems.

Downloads

Note the instruction here is based on the latest version of the VirtualBox. If you have already installed an earlier version of VirtualBox, your experience may be different. It is recommended to use the latest version of VirtualBox to avoid issues. The VirtualBox forum is a good place to find a solution if you see any problems.

Go to VirtualBox website here to download the binary for your current operating system. Since our host machine is running on Windows, I'll choose 'x86/amd64' from Windows hosts. When download is finished, run the executable file. Continue with the installation of VirtualBox with the defaults. This will open VirtualBox at the end of the installation.

Create Virtual Machine

Click 'New' button to open a dialog.

Type a name for the new virtual machine. Since I am planning to install Ubuntu 14.04, I'll enter 'ubuntu1404'. Note that VirtualBox automatically changes 'Type' to Linux and 'Version' to 'Ubuntu (64 bit)'. These two options are exactly what we need.

The memory size depends on your host machine memory size. In my case, I have 12GB physical RAM. I like to allocate as much as possible for Ubuntu but leave some for my Windows host machine. I pick 8192 MB for my Ubuntu. Note that VirtualBox will create a swap partition with the same amount space as base memeory you have entered here. So later when you are selecting the size of the virtual hard drive, make sure it is large enough since the hard drive will be splitted into root (/)and swap partitions. The root partition contains by default all your system files, program settings and documents.

Accept the default 'Create a virtual hard drive now' and click 'Create' button.

Continue to accept the default 'VDI' drive file type and click 'Next' button.

Change the storage type from the default 'Dynamically allocated' to 'Fixed size' to increase performance.

For the virtual hard drive space, the default value is 8GB which is too little for RNA-Seq analysis. I'll pick 100GB since I have plenty of space in my hard disk. You want to choose a good size for your RNA-Seq analysis. If you realize the drive space is not large enough, you'll need to go over these steps again to create another virtual machine.

Click 'Create' button and VirtualBox will generate Ubuntu virtual machine.

Now the virtual machine is created. We are ready to install Ubuntu in this virtual machine. Select your new virtual machine and click 'Settings' button. Click on 'Storage' category and then 'Empty' under Controller:IDE. Click 'CD/DVD' icon on right hand side and select the ubuntu ISO file to mount.

Note that if you have not downloaded 64-bit Ubuntu ISO file, you can check out this page for more information. When downloading Ubuntu ISO file, make sure to selecte 64-bit version. Also make sure the VT-x/Virtualization Technology has been enabled in your computer's BIOS/Basic Input Output System.

Since Tophat program can take an advantage of multiple processors/threads, it is a good idea to specify a large number of processors in virtual machine (default value is 1). You can change this number by clicking on 'System' category. In this case, I change the number of CPUs to 4 since 4 is the largest value shown on the green bar in my case. Now you can click 'OK' button to continue.

VirtualBox may pop up a message about 'Auto capture keyboard' option. Read the message there and check 'Do not show this message again' option before clicking OK.

Install Ubuntu

Back to Oracle VM VirtualBox Manager, click on the new Ubuntu virtual machine and hit 'Start' button. Now you shall see a 'Welcome' screen. Click 'Install Ubuntu' button. Note that the installation process may differ a little bit from version to version. The screenshots here are based on Ubuntu 14.04.1.

Click 'Continue' button.

Make sure 'Erase disk and install Ubuntu' option is selected and click 'Install Now' button.

Ubuntu will ask you a few questions. If the default is good, click 'Continue' button.

In 'Who are you?' dialog, enter your preferred name, username and password. Note that this user will have root/sudo privilege. Click 'Continue' button.

The installation will continue until it is finished.

After installation is complete, click 'Restart Now' button. When you see a screen with a black background saying 'Please remove installation media and close the tray (if any) then press ENTER:', just follow it.

Enter the password you have chosen and press 'Enter'.

The Ubuntu Desktop OS is ready. You may find the desktop screen is too small. Don't worry. You can solve this easily with 'VirtualBox Guest Additions'.

More About VirtualBox

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Guest Additions

After the Ubuntu guest machine is installed, you will find the Ubuntu OS screen size is not extendable and you are not able to share folders between the host machine and Ubuntu.

Guest Additions software provide additional capability to a guest virtual machine, including mouse pointer integration, better video support, share folders, share clipboard, et al.

Before we proceed to install Guest Additions, make sure the current user has sudo/root privilege. If the current user does not have sudo/root privilege or it is not sure, run the following terminal command from an account (such as the user created when Ubuntu was first created; see the screenshot of 'Who are you?' above) with root privileges to enable the root privilege for the current user where USERNAME should be replaced by the current user's name.

To install Guest Additions, click Devices > Insert Guest Additions CD images…

Click 'Run' button (next to 'Cancel' button) to start the installation. Note that the version of VBOXADDITIONS should be matched with the one of VirtualBox you have installed.

Installing Guest Additions requires root privilege. Enter user's password (assume the current user has sudo privilege).

When the installation is finished, press Return key to close the terminal window.

Now prepare to restart the system to enable the change. Click 'Shutdown' on the menu and then the 'Restart' button.

After rebooting Ubuntu, you will see the desktop resolution is much better.

Share Folders

Before you can enable shared folders on the host machine, make sure you have installed VirtualBox Guest Additions software on the guest machine.

When Ubuntu guest machine is on, click on Devices > Shared folders settings…

Select Machine Folders and hit the add button (plus sign).

Browse to the folder you wish to access from the guest machine. Check Auto-mount and Make Permanent options and click OK button.

Click OK button once more.

Now type 'terminal' in Dash to open a Terminal.

Type the following line in the Terminal to add a user to 'vboxsf' group. This step is necessary in order to use the VB's 'Shared Folder' feature.Replace 'brb' with your account name in Ubuntu.When you are done, restart the Ubuntu guest machine and go to /media/ directory. From Nautilus (file manager in Ubuntu), click Computer > File System > Media folder and inside it you will see a folder beginning with sf_ (the folder name is sf_Downloads in our example). Now you can transfer files between the Ubuntu guest machine and the Windows host machine in Nautilus.

Although Shared Folder system in VirtualBox is a nice feature, using VirtualBox shared folder directly for fastq data, annotation or output directorycan significantly reduce the performance compared to a native (Ubuntu) system or VirtualBox native system.

BRB-SeqTools

After Ubuntu has been successfully installed on VirtualBox, users can be go back to download and use BRB-SeqTools program.

There are a couple of methods to install Windows XP Virtual machine on Windows 10 using different platforms such as Oracle VirtualBox, Vmware and Hyper-V.

Windows XP is an old but dominated operating system of the world during its heydays. However, this Windows XP is not supported officially but available in bootable ISO image form for free to download and use. Yes, we don’t need to pay anything for Windows XP Service Pack 3 Licenses and ISO, both are available on an internet archive website.

Here we will show how to install Windows XP on Oracle VirtualBox as an emulator on Windows 10 step by step using its ISO file. This will allow you to continue to use Windows XP on Emulator without having to install it on your PC.

Windows XP virtual machine on VirtualBox

Here is the glance of the steps we are going to follow for the installation of Window XP Virtual Machine using ISO file on VirtualBox running on Windows 10. However, steps will be the same for Windows 8, Windows 7 and Windows Vista.

1. Download Windows XP ISO file and copy the license key as well and save it on a notepad. For links see the main step 1 of this article.
2. Install Oracle VirtualBox on your Windows 10/8/7 PC
3. Run the VirtualBox and click on the NEW button to create a new Virtual Machine.
4. Type the name of OS -Windows XP and rest will set by default.
5. Create Virtual Hard disk (VHD) and set RAM.
6. Select the created Windows XP virtual Machine appearing on the left side of the VirtualBox main screen.
7. Click on Settings option from the menu.
8. Select the StorageSettings
9. Click on the empty CD icon and then again from the attributes select the CD icon.
10. Navigate and select the downloaded windows XP ISO file.
11. Save it and Start the Virtual Machine and Windows XP boot menu will appear.
12. Follow the installation wizard and it will be on your Oracle Virtualbox to experience.

Step 1: Download Windows XP ISO and License

The first step towards the Virtual installation is to get an ISO image of this old operating system. As I mentioned above that it is free and avail by Microsoft itself officially along with License key. Thus, use this link which will open the page of Archive.org, where click on the ISO image link given on the right side under the Download section, this will allow you to download Windows XP Professional SP3 x86 ISO image. Just on the same page, the free but official professional key for the same will have been given. Copy that and jot down somewhere like NotePad.

Step 2: Install VirtualBox on Windows 10/8/7

So, we have now the ISO file of Windows XP professional 32-bit service pack 3, its time to get the Oracle VirtualBox. Here is the link to Download VBox. In case you already have the Vbox on your system then simply move to next.
The installation of the VBox is like any other executable software meant for Windows nothing will be complicated at all.

Step 3: Create a Virtual Machine for Windows XP

Run VirtualBox and click on the New button given on the Menu of it. Now in the Name box, type- Windows XP and its corresponding options will automatically get setup. Then click on the Next button.

Step 4: Set memory size (Virtual RAM)

Although the Windows XP perfectly works under 512 MB RAM, however, here we are assigning 1GB for better working and smooth performance.

Step 5: Create Virtual Hard disk (VHD) for XP virtual machine

To store the installation file we need to attach a Virtual Hard drive to our Virtual Machine. The VirtualBox will automatically set it to 10GB which is enough. Thus, leave the default settings and click on the NEXT.
On the Next window, it will ask you to select the type of Virtual Hardrive, by default it will be VDI, however, here we are selecting VHD. It is because in case, tomorrow we want to run it under Windows Hyper-V, we can easily use the Windows XP VHD image.
Next, Select Dynamic allocated option.
File allocation and Size: By default, the VirtualBox will save all file of the machine on C: drive, if you want to change click on the folder icon and select the place.
Finally, click on the Create button.

Step 6: Set ISO image for boot

Select the created VirtualMachine and click on the Settings button given on the top menu of VBox.
From Settings -> click on the Storage-> Empty CD icon under storage device-> again on CD icon of Attributes and then “Choose Virtual Optical Disk File“.
An explorer will open select the downloaded Windows XP ISO image.

Click on the OK button.

Step 7: Start Window XP Virtual Machine

Now, our XP Virtual Machine is ready, time to boot it up. For that select the created virtual machine from the left side of the VBox panel and click on the Start button given in the menu of the same.

Step 8: Installing Window XP

Windows XP Professional Setup will open, press the Enter button to continue.

Press F8 to accept the Windows XP Licensing Agreement.

As we are installing Windows XP on VirtualBox, thus, a single partition will appear, simply press the enter button to format the whole partition.

By default, slow formatting option will be selected, use the arrow key of the keyboard and select “ Format the partition using the NTFS file system (Quick)”.

After some time, it will ask you to enter the license key for Windows XP. Type this official serial key: MRX3F-47B9T-2487J-KWKMF-RPWBY and click on the NEXT button to complete the installation.

Once it will be done, you will get the old but very familiar interface of Windows XP with familiar startup sound.

Oracle Vm Virtualbox 32 Bit Windows 10

Thus, in this way, we can install our old Windows XP system on VirtualBox Virtual Machine for testing legacy software or learning purpose.

Free Download Virtualbox 64 Bit

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