VMWare Workstation Player vs Oracle VirtualBox

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I have decided to switch from VMWare Workstation Player to Oracle VirtualBox, and here is why.

The OS on my main computer is Linux Mint 20.1, with the xfce interface. I used to run Mint 18.1, but when support ended, I decided to upgrade to the latest version of Mint, which at the time was 20.1.

Why did I stick with 18.1 for so long? One reason – VMWare Workstation Player. I run Windows 8.1 in a virtual machine in my Linux computer. Everything ran perfectly when I was running Mint 18.1. But when I upgraded to anything newer than 18.1, I had problems with VMWare Workstation Player. Basically, something in VMWare didn’t interact well with the newer version of Mint, and whenever I ran my Windows VM, it would hang – in fact, it had slowed to a crawl.

I tried VMWare versions 14, 15, and 16 with the newer versions of Mint; none of them ran well. As I recall, all of them ran well with Mint 18.1. (I know for sure that version 14 ran well with Mint 18.1.)

I kept my old hard drive around, the one with Mint 18.1 installed on it, in case I ever needed to run Windows. And it ran like a champ. But I got tired of having to shut down the computer, switch hard drives, then boot it back up again. So I decided to try Oracle VirtualBox.

Let me tell you, Windows 8.1 runs like a champ in Oracle VirtualBox! Everything is FAST! It was very easy to configure. And everything just worked after I installed it. I can’t get the video to go full-screen in VirtualBox; full-screen video for the VM works perfectly in VMWare; but I’m sure I will eventually figure it out.

So I have finally moved up to Mint 20.1. Life is good!

Group "L" (Linux Mint)
with Windows 10 running in a remote session on my file server

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AlexEiffel

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[JohnW]

MrJimPhelps wrote:

I can’t get the video to go full-screen in VirtualBox; full-screen video for the VM works perfectly in VMWare; but I’m sure I will eventually figure it out.

Don’t forget to install the Guest Additions for your Windows guest.

Guest Additions are designed to be installed inside a virtual machine after the guest operating system has been installed. They consist of device drivers and system applications that optimize the guest operating system for better performance and usability.

In the menu in the virtual machine’s menu bar, Oracle VM VirtualBox has a menu item Insert Guest Additions CD Image, which mounts the Guest Additions ISO file inside your virtual machine. A Windows guest should then automatically start the Guest Additions installer, which installs the Guest Additions on your Windows guest.

https://www.virtualbox.org/manual/ch04.html#guestadd-intro

Windows 10 Pro 22H2

• This reply was modified 3 years, 4 months ago by JohnW. Reason: Removed html
• This reply was modified 3 years, 4 months ago by JohnW. Reason: Fixed typo

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MrJimPhelps

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I installed Guest Additions, and it helped a bit, but I still can’t get my VM window to go full screen without stretching it, and if I do that, everything looks stretched; nothing looks normal size or normal proportion.

Group "L" (Linux Mint)
with Windows 10 running in a remote session on my file server

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I’m not familiar with VMWare, but in Parallels there are a couple of places in the VM configuration settings that refer to full screen. One is in the startup settings, and one under “Full Screen. I run all my VMs full screen. It may also have to do with the aspect ratio of the display of the host vs the guest.
See screenshots – maybe you have similar settings.

 

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MrJimPhelps wrote:

I installed Guest Additions, and it helped a bit, but I still can’t get my VM window to go full screen without stretching it, and if I do that, everything looks stretched; nothing looks normal size or normal proportion.

Sorry to hear you are still having trouble with full screen. The only Windows OS I currently have running as a VM guest is Windows XP SP3.

The keyboard shortcut ‘Host (right ctrl) +F’ always gets me to full screen.

Scaled mode is ‘Host + C’.

There are some display settings in the VM you might want to check. https://www.virtualbox.org/manual/ch04.html#guestadd-video

Windows 10 Pro 22H2

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MrJimPhelps

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Update: I installed my retail copy of Windows 8.1 in Oracle Virtual Box; I then later discovered that it was not activated when my main 8.1 screen changed to one asking me for the activation code! I put in the activation code, but it told me I was already using that code in another install – this was true, but I wasn’t sure how to move the activation from one to the other.

I then found on EightForums.com how to do it – Open a command prompt in the activated install of Windows 8, and run the following command:
slmgr /upk

This will deactivate the install. You can now use the same activation code on another retail install of Windows 8 to activate it, since you have removed it from the first install.

* This is a retail copy of Windows 8, not an OEM copy, which means that you can move the license from one install to another, although you can’t use it in more than one install at the same time.

Even after doing that, it wouldn’t allow me to use the activation code on the other install, so I had to call Microsoft, enter the code I saw on the screen, then enter the code they gave me. It was activated after I did that.

Group "L" (Linux Mint)
with Windows 10 running in a remote session on my file server

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