Virtualisation Toolkit

VirtualBox update fixes Windows 7 bugs

Matthew Broersma ZDNet UK

Published: 02 Nov 2009 09:12 GMT

Sun has updated its VirtualBox virtualisation software, fixing bugs related to Windows 7 and Snow Leopard.

Virtual Box 3.0.10, released on Thursday, includes a change in the way the software works with Intel VT-x and AMD-V virtualisation technologies. The change fixes a problem related to the XP compatibility mode in the recently released Windows 7, Sun said.

In addition, the company revamped the Windows 7 installer for Windows hosts and fixed a redraw problem in dual-screen setups on Mac OS X Snow Leopard hosts. Sun added Windows 7 and Mac OS X 'Snow Leopard' support in the VirtualBox 2.2, which launched in April.

The update also fixes memory leaks, a guest multi-processing bug and USB 2.0 stability problems.

VirtualBox is designed to be a low-cost alternative to products such as VMware Workstation, and is used primarily for development and testing. A programmer can build an application on the desktop using VirtualBox, then deploy it to a production environment on a virtualised server.

In April, Oracle announced its intention to buy Sun for $7.4bn (£4.5bn), and followed that purchase a month later with the acquisition of Virtual Iron, a maker of virtualisation products based on the Xen hypervisor. The Virtual Iron buy raised questions about the future of Sun's virtualisation tools under Oracle.

VirtualBox is available for free for personal use, with a $30 per year charge for enterprises. The product is available from the VirtualBox website.