Virtualbox viewer mode.

[JFQueralt]

Hi, everbody.

I´ve been wondering if there was any way to configure virtualbox guests and disable users´ ability to change the configuration.
Mostly Virtualbox acting like a viewer.
I plan to massively deploy several OSes images across our school network for pedagogical purposes. However, there are certain limitations that I want to impose on the VMs so I need the users to not be able to modify their config (memory size, network access, etc.).

I´ve been looking around and haven´t found any info about this topic so any hint will be appreciated.

Regards.

Jean

[Sasquatch]

There isn't a 'reader' like VMWare Player (though that allows some settings to be changed). The only thing I can think of, is make the config files read only. The only downside to that is that the users can't use snapshots or saved states, as they aren't allowed to write to the config file to include the additional data.

Another option is to remove any link to the main program and put a shortcut on the desktop and/or start menu to start the VM directly (on Windows, use VirtualBox.exe startvm <vmname>, so you don't get a command prompt that needs to stay open).

[JFQueralt]

Hi there.

Thanks for the advices.
I was considering that option you mention about the shortcut.

I have to consider the security implications about allowing users to have virtual machine software installed on the computers so they can bring their own VM machines from home.

Then again, they could use some U3 device and start playing around the network so...

Thanks for the help in any case.

Jean