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