1 First steps • A fixed-size file will immediately occupy the file specified, even if only a fraction of the virtual hard disk space is actually in use. While occupying much more space, a fixed-size file incurs less overhead and is therefore slightly faster than a dynamically expanding file. For details about the differences, please refer to chapter 5.2, Disk image files (VDI, VMDK, VHD, HDD), page 73. To prevent your physical hard disk from running full, VirtualBox limits the size of the image file. Still, it needs to be large enough to hold the contents of your operating system and the applications you want to install – for a modern Windows or Linux guest, you will probably need several gigabytes for any serious use: After having selected or created your image file, again press “Next” to go to the next page. 5. After clicking on “Finish”, your new virtual machine will be created. You will then see it in the list on the left side of the Manager window, with the name you entered initially. 1.8 Running your virtual machine To start a virtual machine, you have several options: • Double-click on its entry in the list within the Manager window or • select its entry in the list in the Manager window it and press the “Start” button at the top or • for virtual machines created with VirtualBox 4.0 or later, navigate to the “VirtualBox VMs” folder in your system user’s home directory, find the subdirectory of the machine you want to start and double-click on the machine settings file (with a .vbox file extension). This opens up a new window, and the virtual machine which you selected will boot up. Every- thing which would normally be seen on the virtual system’s monitor is shown in the window, as can be seen with the image in chapter 1.2, Some terminology, page 10. In general, you can use the virtual machine much like you would use a real computer. There are couple of points worth mentioning however. 18