8.10. VBoxManage startvm

This command starts a virtual machine that is currently in the "Powered off" or "Saved" states.

Note

This is provided for backwards compatibility only. We recommend to start virtual machines directly by running the respective front-end, as you might otherwise miss important error and state information that VirtualBox may display on the console. This is especially important for front-ends other than VirtualBox, our graphical user interface, because those cannot display error messages in a popup window. See Section 7.1.2, “VBoxHeadless, the remote desktop server” for more information.

The optional --type specifier determines whether the machine will be started in a window (GUI mode, which is the default) or whether the output should go through VBoxHeadless, with VRDE enabled or not; see Section 7.1.2, “VBoxHeadless, the remote desktop server” for more information. The list of types is subject to change, and it's not guaranteed that all types are accepted by any product variant.

The following values are allowed:

gui

Starts a VM showing a GUI window. This is the default.

headless

Starts a VM without a window for remote display only.