| 1 | <?xml version='1.0' encoding='UTF-8'?>
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| 2 | <!DOCTYPE topic PUBLIC "-//OASIS//DTD DITA Topic//EN" "topic.dtd">
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| 3 | <topic xml:lang="en-us" id="Introduction">
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| 4 | <title>First Steps</title>
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| 5 |
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| 6 | <body>
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| 7 | <p>
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| 8 | Welcome to <ph conkeyref="vbox-conkeyref-phrases/product-name"/>.
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| 9 | </p>
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| 10 | <p>
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| 11 | <ph conkeyref="vbox-conkeyref-phrases/product-name"/> is a cross-platform virtualization application. What
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| 12 | does that mean? For one thing, it installs on your existing Intel or
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| 13 | AMD-based computers, whether they are running Windows, macOS, Linux,
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| 14 | or Oracle Solaris operating systems (OSes). Secondly, it extends the
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| 15 | capabilities of your existing computer so that it can run multiple
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| 16 | OSes, inside multiple virtual machines, at the same time. As an
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| 17 | example, you can run Windows and Linux on your Mac, run Windows
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| 18 | Server on your Linux server, run Linux on your Windows PC, and so
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| 19 | on, all alongside your existing applications. You can install and
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| 20 | run as many virtual machines as you like. The only practical limits
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| 21 | are disk space and memory.
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| 22 | </p>
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| 23 | <p>
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| 24 | <ph conkeyref="vbox-conkeyref-phrases/product-name"/> is deceptively simple yet also very powerful. It can
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| 25 | run everywhere from small embedded systems or desktop class machines
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| 26 | all the way up to datacenter deployments and even Cloud
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| 27 | environments.
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| 28 | </p>
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| 29 | <p>
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| 30 | The following screenshot shows how <ph conkeyref="vbox-conkeyref-phrases/product-name"/>, installed on an
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| 31 | Apple Mac computer, is running Windows Server 2016 in a virtual
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| 32 | machine window.
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| 33 | </p>
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| 34 | <fig id="fig-win2016-intro">
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| 35 | <title>Windows Server 2016 Virtual Machine, Displayed on a macOS Host</title>
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| 36 | <xref href="images/vm-vista-running.png" format="png" platform="htmlhelp">
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| 37 | <image href="images/vm-vista-running.png" width="14cm" placement="break">
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| 38 | <alt>Windows Server 2016 Virtual Machine, Displayed on a macOS Host</alt>
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| 39 | </image>
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| 40 | </xref>
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| 41 | <image platform="ohc" href="images/vm-vista-running.png" width="14cm" placement="break">
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| 42 | <alt>Windows Server 2016 Virtual Machine, Displayed on a macOS Host</alt>
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| 43 | </image>
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| 44 | </fig>
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| 45 | <p>
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| 46 | In this User Manual, we will begin simply with a quick introduction
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| 47 | to virtualization and how to get your first virtual machine running
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| 48 | with the easy-to-use <ph conkeyref="vbox-conkeyref-phrases/product-name"/> graphical user interface.
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| 49 | Subsequent chapters will go into much more detail covering more
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| 50 | powerful tools and features, but fortunately, it is not necessary to
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| 51 | read the entire User Manual before you can use <ph conkeyref="vbox-conkeyref-phrases/product-name"/>.
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| 52 | </p>
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| 53 | <p>
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| 54 | You can find a summary of <ph conkeyref="vbox-conkeyref-phrases/product-name"/>'s capabilities in
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| 55 | <xref href="features-overview.dita#features-overview"/>. For existing <ph conkeyref="vbox-conkeyref-phrases/product-name"/>
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| 56 | users who just want to find out what is new in this release, see the
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| 57 | <xref href="https://docs.oracle.com/en/virtualization/virtualbox/7.0/relnotes/relnotes-ChangeLog.html" format="html" scope="external">Change Log</xref>.
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| 58 | </p>
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| 59 | </body>
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| 60 | </topic>
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