VirtualBox: Supports Windows on M-series Macs, but not for beginners

If you want to run Windows apps on your Mac, VirtualBox is free for personal use, but you need the technical know-how.

- BY CLIFF JOSEPH

As the name suggests, VirtualBox (in version 7.2 at the time of this review, fave.co/3JyAdyZ) is a virtualization tool—similar to Parallels Desktop and VMware Fusion—that allows you to create a virtual machine (VM) that can run Windows and Windows apps from within the macOS itself. It's fallen behind its rivals in recent years as it lacked support for Macs with Apple Silicon, but it made something of a comeback with the 7.1 update in September 2024 that finally added support for Apple Silicon alongside older Intel Macs. A number of maintenance updates have followed since then, bringing VirtualBox to version 7.2.4 at the end of October 2025.

VirtualBox is owned by database giant Oracle, but it's available as an open-source program and it's free for personal and educational use. There's also an option to buy an annual license for business and commercial use, which costs $61/£48.73 per license with a year of technical support included. However, there's a minimum order of 100 licenses for business users, so it's clear that Oracle has primarily got its sights set on its existing base of large corporate customers.

There are Linux and Windows versions of VirtualBox too, which allow you to use your virtual machines on many different types of computers. Just remember that you'll still need to pay for your own Windows license to install Windows on your VM, and that Macs with Apple Silicon will need to use a special version of Windows, called Windows On ARM, to create a Windows VM.

VIRTUALBOX VMS

Like many open-source programs, VirtualBox lacks the polished interface and ease of use you can find in commercial software such as Parallels Desktop, and this means you do need a reasonable amount of technical knowledge to figure out how it works.