| 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="features-overview">
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| 4 | <title>Features Overview</title>
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| 5 |
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| 6 | <body>
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| 7 | <p>
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| 8 | The following is a brief outline of <ph conkeyref="vbox-conkeyref-phrases/product-name"/>'s main
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| 9 | features:
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| 10 | </p>
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| 11 | <ul>
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| 12 | <li>
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| 13 | <p><b outputclass="bold">Portability.</b> <ph conkeyref="vbox-conkeyref-phrases/product-name"/>
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| 14 | runs on a large number of 64-bit host operating systems. See
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| 15 | <xref href="hostossupport.dita#hostossupport"/>.
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| 16 | </p>
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| 17 | <p>
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| 18 | <ph conkeyref="vbox-conkeyref-phrases/product-name"/> is a so-called <i>hosted</i>
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| 19 | hypervisor, sometimes referred to as a <i>type
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| 20 | 2</i> hypervisor. Whereas a
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| 21 | <i>bare-metal</i> or <i>type 1</i>
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| 22 | hypervisor runs directly on the hardware, <ph conkeyref="vbox-conkeyref-phrases/product-name"/>
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| 23 | requires an existing OS to be installed. It can thus run
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| 24 | alongside existing applications on that host.
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| 25 | </p>
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| 26 | <p>
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| 27 | To a very large degree, <ph conkeyref="vbox-conkeyref-phrases/product-name"/> is functionally
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| 28 | identical on all of the host platforms, and the same file and
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| 29 | image formats are used. This enables you to run virtual
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| 30 | machines created on one host on another host with a different
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| 31 | host OS. For example, you can create a virtual machine on
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| 32 | Windows and then run it on Linux.
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| 33 | </p>
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| 34 | <p>
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| 35 | In addition, virtual machines can easily be imported and
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| 36 | exported using the Open Virtualization Format (OVF), an
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| 37 | industry standard created for this purpose. You can even
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| 38 | import OVFs that were created with a different virtualization
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| 39 | software. See <xref href="ovf.dita#ovf"/>.
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| 40 | </p>
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| 41 | <p>
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| 42 | For users of <ph conkeyref="vbox-conkeyref-phrases/oci"/> the functionality extends to exporting and
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| 43 | importing virtual machines to and from the cloud. This
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| 44 | simplifies development of applications and deployment to the
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| 45 | production environment. See
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| 46 | <xref href="cloud-export-oci.dita#cloud-export-oci"/>.
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| 47 | </p>
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| 48 | </li>
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| 49 | <li>
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| 50 | <p><b outputclass="bold">Guest Additions: shared folders,
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| 51 | seamless windows, 3D virtualization.</b> The
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| 52 | <ph conkeyref="vbox-conkeyref-phrases/product-name"/> Guest Additions are software packages which can
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| 53 | be installed <i>inside</i> of supported guest
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| 54 | systems to improve their performance and to provide additional
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| 55 | integration and communication with the host system. After
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| 56 | installing the Guest Additions, a virtual machine will support
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| 57 | automatic adjustment of video resolutions, seamless windows,
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| 58 | accelerated 3D graphics and more. See
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| 59 | <xref href="guestadditions.dita#guestadditions"/>.
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| 60 | </p>
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| 61 | <p>
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| 62 | In particular, Guest Additions provide for <i>shared
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| 63 | folders</i>, which let you access files on the host
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| 64 | system from within a guest machine. See
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| 65 | <xref href="sharedfolders.dita#sharedfolders"/>.
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| 66 | </p>
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| 67 | </li>
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| 68 | <li>
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| 69 | <p><b outputclass="bold">Comprehensive hardware
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| 70 | support.</b> Among other features, <ph conkeyref="vbox-conkeyref-phrases/product-name"/>
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| 71 | supports the following:
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| 72 | </p>
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| 73 | <ul>
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| 74 | <li>
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| 75 | <p><b outputclass="bold">Guest multiprocessing
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| 76 | (SMP).</b> <ph conkeyref="vbox-conkeyref-phrases/product-name"/> can present up to 32
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| 77 | virtual CPUs to each virtual machine, irrespective of how
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| 78 | many CPU cores are physically present on your host.
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| 79 | </p>
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| 80 | </li>
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| 81 | <li>
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| 82 | <p><b outputclass="bold">USB device support.</b>
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| 83 | <ph conkeyref="vbox-conkeyref-phrases/product-name"/> implements a virtual USB controller and
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| 84 | enables you to connect arbitrary USB devices to your
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| 85 | virtual machines without having to install device-specific
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| 86 | drivers on the host. USB support is not limited to certain
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| 87 | device categories. See <xref href="settings-usb.dita#settings-usb"/>.
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| 88 | </p>
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| 89 | </li>
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| 90 | <li>
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| 91 | <p><b outputclass="bold">Hardware compatibility.</b>
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| 92 | <ph conkeyref="vbox-conkeyref-phrases/product-name"/> virtualizes a vast array of virtual
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| 93 | devices, among them many devices that are typically
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| 94 | provided by other virtualization platforms. That includes
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| 95 | IDE, SCSI, and SATA hard disk controllers, several virtual
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| 96 | network cards and sound cards, virtual serial and parallel
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| 97 | ports and an Input/Output Advanced Programmable Interrupt
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| 98 | Controller (I/O APIC), which is found in many computer
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| 99 | systems. This enables easy cloning of disk images from
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| 100 | real machines and importing of third-party virtual
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| 101 | machines into <ph conkeyref="vbox-conkeyref-phrases/product-name"/>.
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| 102 | </p>
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| 103 | </li>
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| 104 | <li>
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| 105 | <p><b outputclass="bold">Full ACPI support.</b> The
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| 106 | Advanced Configuration and Power Interface (ACPI) is fully
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| 107 | supported by <ph conkeyref="vbox-conkeyref-phrases/product-name"/>. This enables easy cloning of
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| 108 | disk images from real machines or third-party virtual
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| 109 | machines into <ph conkeyref="vbox-conkeyref-phrases/product-name"/>. With its unique
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| 110 | <i>ACPI power status support</i>,
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| 111 | <ph conkeyref="vbox-conkeyref-phrases/product-name"/> can even report to ACPI-aware guest OSes
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| 112 | the power status of the host. For mobile systems running
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| 113 | on battery, the guest can thus enable energy saving and
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| 114 | notify the user of the remaining power, for example in
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| 115 | full screen modes.
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| 116 | </p>
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| 117 | </li>
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| 118 | <li>
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| 119 | <p><b outputclass="bold">Multiscreen resolutions.</b>
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| 120 | <ph conkeyref="vbox-conkeyref-phrases/product-name"/> virtual machines support screen resolutions
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| 121 | many times that of a physical screen, allowing them to be
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| 122 | spread over a large number of screens attached to the host
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| 123 | system.
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| 124 | </p>
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| 125 | </li>
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| 126 | <li>
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| 127 | <p><b outputclass="bold">Built-in iSCSI support.</b>
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| 128 | This unique feature enables you to connect a virtual
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| 129 | machine directly to an iSCSI storage server without going
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| 130 | through the host system. The VM accesses the iSCSI target
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| 131 | directly without the extra overhead that is required for
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| 132 | virtualizing hard disks in container files. See
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| 133 | <xref href="storage-iscsi.dita#storage-iscsi"/>.
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| 134 | </p>
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| 135 | </li>
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| 136 | <li>
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| 137 | <p><b outputclass="bold">PXE Network boot.</b> The
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| 138 | integrated virtual network cards of <ph conkeyref="vbox-conkeyref-phrases/product-name"/> fully
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| 139 | support remote booting using the Preboot Execution
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| 140 | Environment (PXE).
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| 141 | </p>
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| 142 | </li>
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| 143 | </ul>
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| 144 | </li>
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| 145 | <li>
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| 146 | <p><b outputclass="bold">Multigeneration branched
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| 147 | snapshots.</b> <ph conkeyref="vbox-conkeyref-phrases/product-name"/> can save arbitrary
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| 148 | snapshots of the state of the virtual machine. You can go back
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| 149 | in time and revert the virtual machine to any such snapshot
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| 150 | and start an alternative VM configuration from there,
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| 151 | effectively creating a whole snapshot tree. See
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| 152 | <xref href="snapshots.dita#snapshots"/>. You can create and delete
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| 153 | snapshots while the virtual machine is running.
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| 154 | </p>
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| 155 | </li>
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| 156 | <li>
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| 157 | <p><b outputclass="bold">VM groups.</b> <ph conkeyref="vbox-conkeyref-phrases/product-name"/>
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| 158 | provides a groups feature that enables the user to organize
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| 159 | and control virtual machines collectively, as well as
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| 160 | individually. In addition to basic groups, it is also possible
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| 161 | for any VM to be in more than one group, and for groups to be
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| 162 | nested in a hierarchy. This means you can have groups of
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| 163 | groups. In general, the operations that can be performed on
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| 164 | groups are the same as those that can be applied to individual
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| 165 | VMs: Start, Pause, Reset, Close (Save state, Send Shutdown,
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| 166 | Poweroff), Discard Saved State, Show in File System, Sort.
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| 167 | </p>
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| 168 | </li>
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| 169 | <li>
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| 170 | <p><b outputclass="bold">Clean architecture and unprecedented
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| 171 | modularity.</b> <ph conkeyref="vbox-conkeyref-phrases/product-name"/> has an extremely modular
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| 172 | design with well-defined internal programming interfaces and a
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| 173 | clean separation of client and server code. This makes it easy
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| 174 | to control it from several interfaces at once. For example,
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| 175 | you can start a VM simply by clicking on a button in the
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| 176 | <ph conkeyref="vbox-conkeyref-phrases/product-name"/> graphical user interface and then control that
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| 177 | machine from the command line, or even remotely. See
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| 178 | <xref href="frontends.dita#frontends"/>.
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| 179 | </p>
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| 180 | <p>
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| 181 | Due to its modular architecture, <ph conkeyref="vbox-conkeyref-phrases/product-name"/> can also
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| 182 | expose its full functionality and configurability through a
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| 183 | comprehensive <b outputclass="bold">software development kit
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| 184 | (SDK),</b> which enables integration of <ph conkeyref="vbox-conkeyref-phrases/product-name"/>
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| 185 | with other software systems. See
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| 186 | <xref href="VirtualBoxAPI.dita"><ph conkeyref="vbox-conkeyref-phrases/product-name"/> Programming Interfaces</xref>.
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| 187 | </p>
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| 188 | </li>
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| 189 | <li>
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| 190 | <p><b outputclass="bold">Remote machine display.</b> The
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| 191 | VirtualBox Remote Desktop Extension (VRDE) enables
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| 192 | high-performance remote access to any running virtual machine.
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| 193 | This extension supports the Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP)
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| 194 | originally built into Microsoft Windows, with special
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| 195 | additions for full client USB support.
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| 196 | </p>
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| 197 | <p>
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| 198 | The VRDE does not rely on the RDP server that is built into
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| 199 | Microsoft Windows. Instead, the VRDE is plugged directly into
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| 200 | the virtualization layer. As a result, it works with guest
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| 201 | OSes other than Windows, even in text mode, and does not
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| 202 | require application support in the virtual machine either. The
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| 203 | VRDE is described in detail in <xref href="vrde.dita">Remote Display (VRDP Support)</xref>.
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| 204 | </p>
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| 205 | <p>
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| 206 | On top of this special capacity, <ph conkeyref="vbox-conkeyref-phrases/product-name"/> offers you
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| 207 | more unique features:
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| 208 | </p>
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| 209 | <ul>
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| 210 | <li>
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| 211 | <p><b outputclass="bold">Extensible RDP
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| 212 | authentication.</b> <ph conkeyref="vbox-conkeyref-phrases/product-name"/> already supports
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| 213 | Winlogon on Windows and PAM on Linux for RDP
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| 214 | authentication. In addition, it includes an easy-to-use
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| 215 | SDK which enables you to create arbitrary interfaces for
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| 216 | other methods of authentication. See
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| 217 | <xref href="vbox-auth.dita">RDP Authentication</xref>.
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| 218 | </p>
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| 219 | </li>
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| 220 | <li>
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| 221 | <p><b outputclass="bold">USB over RDP.</b> Using RDP
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| 222 | virtual channel support, <ph conkeyref="vbox-conkeyref-phrases/product-name"/> also enables you
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| 223 | to connect arbitrary USB devices locally to a virtual
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| 224 | machine which is running remotely on an <ph conkeyref="vbox-conkeyref-phrases/product-name"/> RDP
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| 225 | server. See <xref href="usb-over-rdp.dita">Remote USB</xref>.
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| 226 | </p>
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| 227 | </li>
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| 228 | </ul>
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| 229 | </li>
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| 230 | </ul>
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| 231 | </body>
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| 232 |
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| 233 | </topic>
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