VirtualBox 4.3.0 Adds Windows 8.1, Virtual Multi-Touch and Webcam Support

Oracle has released version 4.3.0 of VirtualBox. This release introduces a virtual multi-touch user interface, supports additional devices and platforms. It also provides enhanced networking capabilities enabling developers to virtualize modern post-PC era operating system features while maintaining compatibility with legacy operating systems.


Overview
Oracle VM VirtualBox (aka VirtualBox) is a powerful x86 and AMD64/Intel64 virtualization product for enterprise as well as home use. Not only is VirtualBox an extremely feature rich, high performance product for enterprise customers, it is also the only professional solution that is freely available as Open Source Software under the terms of the GNU General Public License (GPL).

As of version 4.3, VirtualBox introduces the Extension Pack mechanism which allows Oracle and 3rd parties to deliver additional functionality on top of the standard Open Source product.

Presently, VirtualBox runs on Windows, Linux, Macintosh and OpenSolaris hosts and supports a large number of guest operating systems including but not limited to Windows (NT 4.0, 2000, XP, Server 2003, Vista, Windows 7), DOS/Windows 3.x, Linux (2.4 and 2.6), Solaris and OpenSolaris, and OpenBSD.

What's new in VirtualBox 4.3?
VirtualBox 4.3 provides support to run the most modern guest and host platforms.
Enhancements include:

New operating system platform support:
VirtualBox 4.3 supports the input device features, of the latest platforms such as Windows 8.1, Windows Server 2012 R2 and Mac OS X 10.9 in a virtual environment. For Windows 8.1, the new release can also simulate a 10 point multi-touch device. Additionally, improved 3D acceleration accommodates the translucent effects in the latest Linux distributions from Ubuntu and Fedora, and enhanced multi-monitor support allows users with multiple screens to use them from within the virtual environment.

Windows 8.1 Virtual Machine

USB Multi-Touch Tablet

New devices and management utilities:
A new virtual USB webcam device enables video conferencing applications such as Skype or Google Hangouts to run in virtual machines. New recording session capabilities allow users to record part, or all, of a virtual machine session using a new video-capture facility. For easy playback, movies are created in WebM format by a range of movie-players.

 Video Capture

Networking improvements:
A new Network Address Translation (NAT) option allows virtual machines to talk to each other on the same host, and communicate with the outside world. IPv6 is now offered across Bridged, Host-only, Internal and the new NAT networking modes. In addition, the remote display server built-in to VirtualBox can accommodate RDP connections over IPv4 and IPv6 networks.

NAT Network

Download VirtualBox 4.3.0 Build 89960
The links in following website correspond to files available for this download. Download the files appropriate for you.

What's new in VirtualBox 4.3.0 Build 89960?
The following major new features were added:
  • VMM: major rewrite of the VT-x code and the AMD-V code including many bug fixes and performance improvements (for example bug #9659)
  • VMM: introduced a lightweight instruction interpreter for situations not handled by hardware virtualization
  • GUI: extended messaging mechanism (new non-modal popup overlays used to show non-critical warnings and provide user with additional information)
  • GUI: keyboard shortcuts management (input page of global preferences extended with possibility to edit general keyboard shortcuts for VirtualBox Manager and Virtual Machine)
  • GUI: video capturing support (bug #4766)
  • Added USB touch device emulation
  • Added experimental support for webcam passthrough complementing USB passthrough (see the manual for more information)
  • Added SCSI CD-ROM emulation, including boot support
  • VRDP: support for IPv6
  • Guest Control: guest sessions now are running in dedicated, impersonated session processes (needs at least Guest Additions 4.3 installed)
  • Guest Control: implemented IGuestFile support
  • NAT: experimental virtual router mode: several VMs are attached to the same internal network and share one NAT service (see the manual for more information)

Full details about changes that are in this version of VirtualBox are available in the Changelog for VirtualBox 4.3

Reference:
Oracle's Virtualization Blog

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