VirtualBox v4.0.0 Beta 1

[Az7]

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Version 4.0.0 will be new major release. The following major new features were added:

* New settings/disk file layout for VM portability; see the manual for more information.
* Open Virtualization Format Archive (OVA) support; see the manual for more information.
* VMM: support more than 1.5/2 GB guest RAM on 32-bit hosts
* Language bindings: uniform Java bindings for both local (COM/XPCOM) and remote (SOAP) invocation APIs
* Chipset: added support for the Intel ICH9 chipset with 3 PCI buses, PCI express and Message Signaled Interrupts (MSI)
* Audio: Intel HD Audio is now available as guest hardware, for better support with modern guest operating systems (e.g. 64-bit Windows; bug #2785).
* GUI: redesigned user interface with guest window preview
* GUI: new display mode with downscaled guest display
* Resource control: added support for limiting a VM's CPU time and IO bandwidth.
* Storage: support asynchronous I/O for iSCSI, VMDK, VHD and Parallels images
* Storage: support for resizing VDI and VHD images
* Windows Additions: support for automatically updating the Guest Additions (requires installed Windows Guest Additions 4.0 or later)
* Guest Additions: support for copying files into the guest file system

In addition, the following items were fixed and/or added:

* VMM: Enable large page support by default on 64-bit hosts (applies to nested paging only)
* VMM: fixed guru meditation when running Minix (VT-x only; bug #6557)
* GUI: the guest VM list is now sortable
* GUI: add the possibility to delete all harddisk attached to an VM, when this VM is deleted (bug #5511)
* GUI: built-in creation of desktop file shortcuts to start VMs on double click (bug #2322)
* GUI: add configuration dialog for port forwarding in NAT mode (bug #1657)
* GUI: show the guest window content on save and restore
* GUI: certain GUI warnings don't stop the VM output anymore
* Settings: deleting a machine now automatically deletes all snapshots and saved states as well, it is no longer necessary to manually delete snapshots first; VBoxManage unregistervm --delete can do the same now
* Snapshots: added screenshots
* 3D support: allow use of CR_SYSTEM_GL_PATH again (bug #6864)
* 3D support: fixed various clipping/visibility issues (bugs #5659, #5794, #5848, #6018, #6187, #6570)
* 3D support: guest application stack corruption when using glGetVertexAttrib[ifd]v (bug #7395)
* 2D Video acceleration: multimonitor support
* VRDP: fixed rare crash in multimonitor configuration
* Display: fixed occasional guest resize crash
* NAT: port forwarding rules can be applied at runtime
* SATA: allow to attach CD/DVD-ROM drives including passthrough (bug #7058 )
* Floppy: support readonly image files, taking this as the criteria for making the medium readonly (bug #5651)
* Audio: the DirectSound backend now allows VMs to be audible when another DirectSound application is active, including another VM (bug #5578 )
* EFI: support for SATA disks and CDROMs
* BIOS: reduce the stack usage of the VESA BIOS function #4F01 (Quake fix)
* OVF/OVA: significant performance improvements during export and import
* OVF/OVA: creation of the manifest file on export is optional now
* OVF/OVA: allow overwriting the target disk format on import
* OVF/OVA: fixed export of VMs with iSCSI disks
* Storage: Apple DMG image support for the virtual CD/DVD (bug #6760)
* Linux host USB support: introduced a less invasive way of accessing raw USB devices (bugs #1093, #5345, #7759)
* Guest Additions: Shared Folders now can be marked as being auto-mounted on Windows, Linux and Solaris guests
* Linux Additions: Shared Folders now support symbolic links (bug #818 )
* Linux Additions: combined 32-bit and 64-bit additions into one file
* Windows Additions: automatic logon on Windows Vista/Windows 7 is now able to handle renamed user accounts; added various bugfixes

[Night_Raven]

That's all well and good but I'm starting to think I'm not gonna live to see drag 'n' drop support.

[erikloman]

I agree. Drag & Drop is a must have!

[m00nbl00d]

It's one of the things that always kept me from using VirualBox in detriment of VMware. Some apps work as we wish them to work, others not really. (This latter sentence is regarding VirtualBox, and not any apps that I run inside VMs. lol)

[Night_Raven]

Well, the developers dont' seem to think drag 'n' drop is a must. It has been on their 'to do' list for years now and it doesn't look like they have any intention to ever implement it. I've seen stuff like: "we don't know how Virtual PC does this so we can do it", "it's not really worth our time as there is already the option to share files", "it's a potential security risk", etc. Lame excuses all the way.
I don't like VirtualBox very much and I find it rather buggy, but in my case there really isn't an alternative. Microsoft Virtual PC 2007 doesn't support some features that I really need, best example would be snapshots. Windows Virtual PC only runs on Windows 7, and I'm using Windows XP. VMware Player is just so crippled in terms of saving/discarding changes after a session. No flexibility whatsoever. VMware Workstation and the Parallels' one cost money.