Oracle VM VirtualBox is a type 2 hypervisor maintained by Oracle that is very easy to use, this makes it the favorite choice of many users when they want to virtualize resources on their machine, and that is also why we will see how to install it on Windows systems.
Download VirtualBox
The first thing to download Oracle VM VirtualBox is to access its official website, once there, just click on “Download VirtualBox (Version)” it is clear that the version will change progressively over time, at this time the most current and stable version is 6.1, but if you read this in a while and there is a new version, always download the latest.
After clicking on the button, you must select the platform for which you want to download the application, in this case, as we said, we will use Windows.
In addition to downloading the executable application, you must also download the “Oracle VM VirtualBox Extension Pack”, this extension is very useful and necessary to improve the interaction with virtual machines, in addition to adding more integrations to VirtualBox, note that for this download you do not have to select the platform, because this extension works at the level of VirtualBox that we already have installed, in addition, this extension has a license which allows its use if it is for user-level use or evaluation, it is not equal to Oracle VM VirtualBox that has the GPLv2 license.
Installing VirtualBox on Windows 10
With both executables downloaded, we just run the Oracle VM VirtualBox and the installation wizard will open, the installation is very simple, in most cases is just click “Next” and leave the options that come by default, likewise if you want to change something you can do it, but as I said, generally, the default settings are more sufficient.
At the end of the installation, you will have a panel like this one.
Now, having already Oracle VM VirtualBox installed, we execute the extension file, the operating system will interpret that this file can be opened by default with VirtualBox (and already having it installed) will simply let us install the extension just by executing the file corresponding to the extension, when doing so, you will see that a new VirtualBox window opens with a message asking us if we want to install the extension in question.
At this point, we must click on “Install” and we will be shown another window with the license of this extension, (what we commented before).
Then it will show us another window, but this time confirming that we have installed the extension correctly.
With this done, you have the type 2 hypervisor ready to start virtualizing operating systems, always remember to keep the application updated, both the application as such as the extension and remember that VirtualBox is not the only type 2 hypervisor that exists, for example there are also the VMWare hypervisors, in this case the most recommended to start is VirtualBox, plus it allows you to create very quickly an isolated environment so you can test and they are safely.
