virtualbox.org

Do I need to have a serial port configured on the guest OS?
I installed Win 98SE on the Virtual Box and the com port had not been installed

Regards,
Sudden6

I'm not sure I understand your question. No operating system needs a serial port, however if you need a serial port then you should add one to the VM settings.

My Win 7 computer has serial/com ports listed in the Device Manager. My other Win XP computer has serial/com ports listed in the Device Manager.
I use a serial/com port on both these computers to connect and program a Amateur radio transceiver. So where do you get the idea that OS,s don't need serial ports.
When I installed win XP on the Virtual Box the serial port was not installed.
The question is 'Does the guest OS need a serial port in it's setup to connect to the host machine serial port'?

If you want the VM to have a serial port then yes, you have to add one to the recipe.

The features of the host machine don't have much to do with what features are included in a VM.