Applications can be started in the Guest machine from the Host. The “guest properties” provide a generic string-based mechanism to exchange data bits between a guest and a host, some of which have special meanings for controlling and monitoring the guest. Generic host/guest communication channels: The Guest Additions enable you to control and monitor guest execution.

Seamless windows: The individual windows that are displayed on the desktop of the virtual machine can be mapped on the host’s desktop, as if the underlying application was actually running on the host.The video resolution in the guest will be automatically adjusted, as if you had manually entered an arbitrary resolution in the guest’s Display settings. It also allows you to resize the virtual machine’s window.

Better video support: The custom video drivers that are installed with the Guest Additions provide you with extra high and non-standard video modes, as well as accelerated video performance.

You can tell VirtualBox to treat a certain host directory as a shared folder, and the program will make it available to the guest operating system as a network share, irrespective of whether guest actually has a network.

Shared folders: My favorite feature this feature allows you to exchange files between the host and the guest.

Drag and drop: You can also drag and drop files between the host and the guest OS.

Shared clipboard: With the Guest Additions installed, you can copy-paste between the guest and the host operating systems.

Mouse pointer integration: You no longer need to press any key to “free” the cursor from the Guest OS.

Don’t believe me? Here are the important features that the Guest Additions offer: With VirtualBox Guest Additions enabled, using the virtual machine becomes a lot more comfortable. Why should you use VirtualBox Guest Additions? The guest system is the virtual machine you have installed inside your host operating system.īefore you see the steps to install VirtualBox Guest Additions in Ubuntu, let’s first talk about its features. The host system is your actual operating system installed on your physical system.

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