VirtualBox 1.6.2 Information

Some of the features of VirtualBox are:

• Modularity. VirtualBox has an extremely modular design with well-defined internal programming interfaces and a client/server design. This makes it easy to control it from several interfaces at once: for example, you can start a virtual machine in a typical virtual machine GUI and then control that machine from the command line, or possibly remotely. VirtualBox also comes with a full Software Development Kit: even though it is Open Source Software, you dont have to hack the source to write a new interface for VirtualBox.
• Virtual machine descriptions in XML. The configuration settings of virtual machines are stored entirely in XML and are independent of the local machines. Virtual machine definitions can therefore easily be ported to other computers.
• Guest Additions for Windows and Linux. VirtualBox has special software that can be installed inside Windows and Linux virtual machines to improve performance and make integration much more seamless. Among the features provided by these Guest Additions are mouse pointer integration and arbitrary screen solutions (e.g. by resizing the guest window).

What's New in version 1.6.2:

• GUI: fixed a bug which prevented to add more than one SATA drive from the GUI
• GUI: fixed a regression introduced in 1.6.0: the fullscreen mode was left on every guest video mode switch
• GUI: fixed several minor issues
• Networking: fixed a host interface networking regression introduced in 1.6.0
• VMM: fixed starting of VMs with AMD-V enabled
• VMM: massive performance enhancements for AMD-V
• VMM: stability improvements for AMD-V on Windows hosts
• VMM: correctly detect AMD CPUs with erratum 170 (AMD-V)
• VMM: detect inconsistent timestamp counters on certain AMD Phenom CPUs (Windows host only)
• VMM: fixed KVM check (Linux hosts only) XPCOM: fixed several races
• VMM: ?xed a regression introduced in 1.6.0: Windows stuck during installation
• SATA: improved performance with Vista guests
• SATA: fixed statistics counter
• Shared Folders: several fixes (iTunes download, speed up browsing)
• ATA/IDE: fixed boot from CDROM if a medium was added while the boot menu was active
• Networking: provide an Intel PRO/1000 T Server (82543GC) network device emulation which is recognized by Windows XP guests
• Networking: fixes for the E1000 emulation (don't crash if not attached, fixed a bug in the statistics counter implementation)
• NAT: don't crash if the guest sent a DHCPRELEASE message with an invalid IP address
• NAT: fixed ARP reply for the NAT gateway and for the NAT name server if the guest IP range was changed
• Internal Networking: fixed shutdown if more than two VMs are connected to the same network
• BIOS: allow to change the DMI informatiton (see chapter 9.13, Con'guring the BIOS DMI information, page 125)
• RTC: fixed UIP emulation to prevent jumping of time in Solaris guests
• Windows host: VirtualBox installation directory corrected for 64 bits Windows
• Windows host: fixed VBoxVRDP.exe symlink
• Windows host: solved locking problems in raw partition VMDK support
• Windows host: fixed stability during high system load (page fault in KeQueryActiveProcessors)
• Shared Folders: limited users without admin rights now also can use Shared Folders on Windows guests