64 bit guests in VirtualBox

You can operate 64-bit guest systems in VirtualBox. This article describes the necessary prerequisites for this.

64 bit guests

As of version 2.0, VirtualBox supports 64-bit guest systems. Since version 2.1 you can even run 64 bit guest systems if VirtualBox runs under a 32 bit operating system.

Requirement for 64 bit guests:

1. You need a 64-bit CPU with hardware virtualization support (Intel-VT or AMD-V). Support must also be enabled in the BIOS - see Activating the Intel VT Virtualization Feature.
2. You must enable hardware virtualization for the affected VM. VirtualBox does not support software virtualization for 64 bit guests.
3. If you want to use 64 bit guests on a 32 bit operating system, you have to confirm this explicitly in VirtualBox (because the operation of 64 bit guests with 32 bit operating systems causes an additional overhead).

References

Author: Thomas Niedermeier Thomas Niedermeier working in the product management team at Thomas-Krenn, completed his bachelor's degree in business informatics at the Deggendorf University of Applied Sciences. Since 2013 Thomas is employed at Thomas-Krenn and takes care of OPNsense firewalls, the Thomas-Krenn-Wiki and firmware security updates.