VirtualBox 7.2.0 Beta 2 is out with Improved Windows Arm Guest Support

VirtualBox 7.2.0, the next major release of Oracle’s virtualization software, is now in second beta testing stage.

VBox 7.2.0 Beta 1 redesigned its UI with vertical menu options in left, allowing to navigate between Machines, Extensions, Media, Network, Cloud, Resources, as well as Home to get started.

It also added support running Windows 11 ARM as guest, and updated Windows installer with Arm virtualization support built-in.

VirtualBox 7.2.0 Beta

The second Beta improved Windows Arm guest support by adding WDDM (Windows Display Driver Model) Graphics driver for virtual memory management for the GPU, though it so far only tested in 2D mode. And, it added Shared Folder feature for sharing files between host and guest.

When using Windows Hyper-V as the virtualization engine, the release added xsave/xrestor instruction handling, offering the x86_64-v3 instruction set extensions on recent CPUs for better multi-tasking support. As well, it improved x86_64 and Arm CPU feature reporting.

For Linux, it added initial Kernel 6.16 support for both host and guest, fixed guest additions for kernel 2.6 and older, and vboxvideo kernel module handling in init script.

Other changes in VirtualBox 7.2.0 Beta 2 include:

Fix Nested Virtualization (run VM inside of another VM) on Intel CPUs.
Improved keyboard LED handling in the Soft Keyboard (aka on-screen keyboard).
Remove IO-APIC from Arm VM settings
NAT network improvements
Frame synchronization, small memory leak and other bug fixes for video recording.
Add workaround for Grub boot-loader bug causing guest OS crashes.
And more. See official announcement.

How to Install VirtualBox 7.2.0 Beta2

Note: the saved state of ARM VMs from VBOX 7.1 is NOT compatible with VBox 7.2, you need to shut-down such VMs in saved state before upgrading to 7.2.

The official installers for the new release is available to download at the link below:

Download VBox 7.2.0 Beta2

For Ubuntu, just select download the .deb package, focal for 20.04, jammy for 22.04, or noble for 24.04. Then, click open with either Ubuntu Software or App Center then install.