Oracle released VirtualBox 4.3 today with some exiting new features such a new virtual multi-touch USB interface to support touch-based operating systems, video capturing support and more.
Probably the most important new feature in the latest VirtualBox 4.3.0 is the addition of a virtual multi-touch USB interface (VM settings > System > Pointing Device: select USB Multi-Touch Tablet), but that's not all.
With VirtualBox 4.3, there's also a new video capturing feature which allows you to record the session (WebM is used), new popup overlays that display various info or warnings on top of a running machine window, support for editing general keyboard shortcuts for VirtualBox Manager and Virtual Machine as well as a new virtual USB webcam device that enables video conferencing applications such as Skype or Google Hangouts to run in virtual machines.
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| New VirtualBox 4.3 features: video capturing and popup overlays |
Other changes in the latest VirtualBox 4.3.0:
- major rewrite of the VT-x code and the AMD-V code including many bug fixes and performance improvements;
- introduced a lightweight instruction interpreter for situations not handled by hardware virtualization;
- added SCSI CD-RO;M emulation, including boot support;
- support for IPv6
- guest sessions now are running in dedicated, impersonated session processes (needs at least Guest Additions 4.3 installed);
- experimental virtual router mode: several VMs are attached to the same internal network and share one NAT service;
- made live snapshots work again;
- use the XDG standard configuration folder instead of .VirtualBox on systems where it is appropriate;
- improved 3D acceleration for Ubuntu and Fedora;
- enhanced multi-monitor support;
- support for Windows 8.1, Windows Server 2012 R2 and Mac OS X 10.9;
- more.
You'll find the complete Oracle VirtualBox 4.3 changelog HERE.
Download VirtualBox
Download VirtualBox 4.3 (for Linux, Windows and Mac OS X). Remember to also download and install the VirtualBox Extension Pack which provides some extended functionality such as USB 2.0 Host Controller support, VirtualBox RDP, PXE and ROM with E1000 support, etc.
To install the extension pack, firstly install VirtualBox 4.3, then simply double click the downloaded vbox-extpack and it should open with VirtualBox, allowing you to install it. If that doesn't work, open VirtualBox and go to File > Preferences > Extensions and browse for the downloaded vbox-extpack and install it.
Install VirtualBox via repository in Ubuntu
Ubuntu users (Saucy, Raring, Quantal and Precise): you can install VirtualBox 4.3 by using the official VirtualBox repository. To add it and install VirtualBox, use the commands below:
echo "deb http://download.virtualbox.org/virtualbox/debian $(lsb_release -sc) contrib" | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/virtualbox.list
wget -q http://download.virtualbox.org/virtualbox/debian/oracle_vbox.asc -O- | sudo apt-key add -
sudo apt-get update
killall VBoxSVC VBoxXPCOMIPCD #just in case
sudo apt-get remove virtualbox-4.2
sudo apt-get install virtualbox-4.3
wget http://download.virtualbox.org/virtualbox/4.3.0/Oracle_VM_VirtualBox_Extension_Pack-4.3.0-89960.vbox-extpack -O /tmp/Oracle_VM_VirtualBox_Extension_Pack-4.3.0-89960.vbox-extpack
sudo VBoxManage extpack install --replace /tmp/Oracle_VM_VirtualBox_Extension_Pack-4.3.0-89960.vbox-extpack
