virtualbox.org

Given your scenario I assume you would NOT want to use VBox to start the physical system off your disk.
So with this in mind I would say: NO, won't work.
VirtualBox without guest operating system is like a PC without operating system. How many applications do you know that can run off an empty pc by inserting the cd into the drive? I don't know any.

You need a guest operating system to test applications within a guest.

Cheerio,
Martin

Thanks for the reply Martin.
It is just what I thought it it would be, I just wanted it confirmed.
Would I need an I.S.O. disk for whatever OS I needed to run my program?
I am using a PC running Ubuntu 10.4LTS ( but not the one I am using now to write this) but need to run a windows program that does not have Linux equivalent.

Have you thought about Wine to run the Windows application? Else you need a Windows license to install it in a VM and then test the application.

Wine will not run my program. It causes the PC to freeze.

In that case you would need a Windows licence, get a copy of the install media (.iso or physical DVD) and setup Windows in the vm.

Cube wrote:Can I use Virtualbox without guest OS? I just want to run a program to see if I like it without it installing it onto my PC and then taking ages to uninstall it and all it's tentacles.

VirtualBox won't do much for you before you install an OS. A newly created virtual machine is like a newly manufactured physical machine. There is very little it can do before you install the OS. It certainly won't run an application program.

Installing an OS in a guest vm won't have any tentacles into the host machine or the host OS. The OS installs into the virtual machine and the changes it makes only affect the vm, not the host. If you delete the vm and its virtual hard disk, nothing of that install remains.

Depending on what OS you want to use, you may be able to boot and run from a .iso file (but not Windows).