We just rolled out Boxes 3.7.92 and have now entered code freeze. This means that apart from translations and doc updates, Boxes is ready for the stable 3.8 release (due next Monday). So whats new you ask? Since Boxes 3.6, we have been hard at work, making Boxes an app that is so awesome that it makes you want to use virtual machines if you are not already. :) Boxes is now a lot more reliable, has improved and more impressive UI and has cool new features:

• Add USB redirection support in new VMs and option to add it into existing VMs. i-e You can use your USB devices (camera, flash drive etc) plugged into host from the guest operating system.

• Smartcard support. This means if you have an appropriate reader device, you can use that to read information from your smart cards (credit/bank cards etc) from your virtual machine boxes.
• Automatically download and installation of all virtio and QXL drivers, and spice-vdagent as part of Windows XP and Windows 7 express installation. This means following working out of the box:
• Copy&paste between host and VM.
• Guest resolution automatically adjusted to fit the Boxes window.
• Very efficient disk I/O (helps in reducing installation time e.g).

Here is a screencast of Windows XP with QXL in action.

• oVirt support. This means you can now access all your virtual machines running on a (most likely remote) oVirt broker from Boxes by simply providing it's URL. Christophe blogged about it last year.
• Improved selection view:
• Option to pause VMs.
• Options to select all, none and running boxes.
• Allow accessing properties for non-running VMs.
 

Here is a screencast of new selection view in action.

• Allow tweaking properties for remote machines in the wizard.
  
• UI looks a lot more like UI mockups and more consistent with Documents.
• Add initial experience greeting. As a consequence, we don't auto-launch wizard on first time usage anymore.
  
  

  Please ignore the notification about box deletion. You don't get that on first use, I promise!

  
  
• Support for changing the CD-ROM device/ISO from properties. You can see this option in  the screenshot above along with USB redirection options.
• Selecting item when maximized automatically enters fullscreen view. You see this in action in the QXL demo screencast I pointed to above.
• Mark recommended RAM and storage of guest OS (when known) in properties.
  
  
  
  
  
• Allow search with multiple terms. A search like "foo bar" now means name containing "foo" and "bar". This is nicer, and what you expect from e.g. gnome-shell search.
• Allow drag to unfullscreen Boxes.
• Troubleshooting log viewer to system properties.
• For Developers:
  • We now make use of libosinfo for express/automated installations. Support for new OSes/distros can be added through libosinfo. No Vala or C hacking needed, only XSL/XML.
• Loads of other fixes and minor improvements. For more details: http://git.gnome.org/browse/gnome-boxes/tree/NEWS