3 Configuring virtual machines • Audio. See chapter 3.7, Audio settings, page 48. 3.3 General settings In the Settings window, under “General”, you can configure the most fundamental aspects of the virtual machine such as memory and essential hardware. There are three tabs, “Basic”, “Advanced” and “Description”. 3.3.1 “Basic” tab Under the “Basic” tab of the “General” settings category, you can find these settings: Name The name under which the VM is shown in the list of VMs in the main window. Under this name, VirtualBox also saves the VM’s configuration files. By changing the name, VirtualBox renames these files as well. As a result, you can only use characters which are allowed in your host operating system’s file names. Note that internally, VirtualBox uses unique identifiers (UUIDs) to identify virtual ma- chines. You can display these with VBoxManage. Operating system / version The type of the guest operating system that is (or will be) installed in the VM. This is the same setting that was specified in the “New Virtual Machine” wizard, as described in chapter 1.7, Creating your first virtual machine, page 16. Whereas the default settings of a newly created VM depend on the selected operating system type, changing the type later has no effect on VM settings this value is then purely informational and decorative. 3.3.2 “Advanced” tab Snapshot folder By default, VirtualBox saves snapshot data together with your other VirtualBox configuration data see chapter 10.1, Where VirtualBox stores its files, page 153. With this setting, you can specify any other folder for each VM. Shared clipboard You can select here whether the clipboard of the guest operating system should be shared with that of your host. If you select “Bidirectional”, then VirtualBox will always make sure that both clipboards contain the same data. If you select “Host to guest” or “Guest to host”, then VirtualBox will only ever copy clipboard data in one direction. Clipboard sharing requires that the VirtualBox Guest Additions be installed. As a result, this setting has no effect otherwise see chapter 4, Guest Additions, page 53 for details. Removable media: remember runtime changes If this is checked, VirtualBox will save the state of what media has been mounted between several runs of a virtual machine. Mini toolbar In full screen or seamless mode, VirtualBox can display a small toolbar that con- tains some of the items that are normally available from the virtual machine’s menu bar. This toolbar reduces itself to a small gray line unless you move the mouse over it. With the toolbar, you can return from full screen or seamless mode, control machine execution or enable certain devices. If you don’t want to see the toolbar, disable this setting. 3.3.3 “Description” tab Here you can enter any description for your virtual machine, if you want. This has no effect on the functionality of the machine, but you may find this space useful to note down things like the configuration of a virtual machine and the software that has been installed into it. 42