Download Manual - Oracle Software Downloads

4 The VirtualBox Guest Additions
Time synchronization With the Guest Additions installed, VirtualBox can ensure that
the guest’s system time is better synchronized. This fixes the problem that an
operating system normally expects to have 100% of a computer’s time for itself
without interference, which is no longer the case when your VM runs together
with your host operating system and possibly other applications on your host. As
a result, your guest operating system’s timing will soon be off significantly. The
Guest Additions will re-synchronize the time regularly.
Shared folders These provide an easy way to exchange files between the host and
the guest. Much like ordinary Windows network shares, you can tell VirtualBox
to treat a certain folder as a shared folder, and VirtualBox will make it available
to the guest operating system as a network share. For details, please refer to
chapter 4.6, Folder sharing, page 61.
Seamless windows With this feature, the individual windows that are displayed on
the desktop of the virtual machine can be mapped on the host’s desktop, as if
the underlying application was actually running on the host. See chapter 4.7,
Seamless windows, page 63 for details.
Shared clipboard With the Guest Additions installed, the clipboard of the guest operating system can optionally be shared with your host operating system; see
chapter 3.7.1, General settings, page 44.
Automated Windows logons (credentials passing; Windows guests only). For
details, please see chapter 9.2, Automated Windows guest logons (VBoxGINA),
page 118.
4.2 Windows Guest Additions
The VirtualBox Windows Guest Additions are designed to be installed in a virtual
machine running a Windows operating system. The following versions of Windows
guests are supported:
• Microsoft Windows NT 4.0 (any service pack)
• Microsoft Windows 2000 (any service pack)
• Microsoft Windows XP (any service pack)
• Microsoft Windows Server 2003 (any service pack)
• Microsoft Windows Vista (all editions)
Generally, it is strongly recommend to install the Windows Guest Additions.
55