virtualbox.org

Hi All!

I have an application which is running only on windows, but have to use it on an OS X platform. Therefore I would like to create a VM (with win 7 guest) for it, but currently I do not have access for that OS X.
So my idea is to create this VM on a Win 7 host and then later copy it over to the OS X when it's available.

My question is, are there any pitfalls with Virtualbox on OS X, what do I have to consider when creating the VM / installing Win 7 on it? (e.g. number of CPUs, hardware virtualization settings)

Unfortunately, I do not know the exact specifications for that Mac (hardware, version), so I understand, that I could get only some general answers, but I would appreciate that as well.
I already read a few topics in this forum, and found some possible problems (e.g. disk permissions), but I would like to gather as much info as possible!

Thanks in advance!
Cheers!

Without knowing anything about the Mac it will be run on, I think your best bet is to choose the default template and settings for Windows 7. You can always tweak it later. All Macs have VT-x/AMD-V enabled so that won't be an issue. If you have an admin account on the Mac, disk permissions shouldn't be an issue.

As long as you move the entire VM folder you should be fine. I'm not sure what effect moving a guest from one host to another has on Windows' activation.

Provided you copy the entire machine folder and register it on OS X using Machine|Add... then most problems will be avoided. However the Win7 guest will still most likely see a change of CPU and that alone would require reactivation... not a problem if you delay activating it in the first place.

Be aware that absolute paths and device names are different on the two hosts, so e.g. path to VBoxGuestAdditions.iso will be broken along with any other non local media. If you bridge to a host NIC that will also be broken. All of these problems will be trivially fixable, so the tip is simply not to panic if they happen.

Thanks for the answers to both of you, we'll see how it will work!

Cheers!