In addition to the files for the virtual machines, Oracle VM VirtualBox maintains global configuration data in the following directory:

• Linux and Oracle Solaris:$HOME/.config/VirtualBox.

• Windows:$HOME/.VirtualBox.

• macOS:$HOME/Library/VirtualBox.

Oracle VM VirtualBox creates this configuration directory automatically, if necessary. You can specify an alternate configuration directory by either setting the VBOX_USER_HOME environment variable, or on Linux or Oracle Solaris by using the standard XDG_CONFIG_HOME variable. Since the global VirtualBox.xml settings file points to all other configuration files, this enables switching between several Oracle VM VirtualBox configurations.

In this configuration directory, Oracle VM VirtualBox stores its global settings file, an XML file called VirtualBox.xml. This file includes global configuration options and a list of registered virtual machines with pointers to their XML settings files.