{"id":180569,"date":"2025-08-02T17:37:35","date_gmt":"2025-08-02T17:37:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/linuxiac.com\/?p=180569"},"modified":"2025-08-02T17:37:43","modified_gmt":"2025-08-02T17:37:43","slug":"how-to-change-os-icons-for-virtualbox-guests","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/linuxiac.com\/how-to-change-os-icons-for-virtualbox-guests\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Change OS Icons for VirtualBox Guests"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

VirtualBox is a fantastic piece of software and one of the leaders in its space, with a huge following\u2014especially among home users. But even with all its strengths, there\u2019s one area where it still feels a bit stuck in the past: the icons used to represent guest operating systems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From a purely aesthetic standpoint, the icons look kind of outdated\u2014but that\u2019s not the only issue. If you\u2019re running multiple types of virtual machines, for example, Linux distros beyond the mainstream ones, VirtualBox just uses the same generic icon for all of them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And let\u2019s be honest, that can get pretty confusing. It makes it harder to quickly tell things apart when you open up the VirtualBox UI. I mean this.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Confusingly
Confusingly similar icons in VirtualBox.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The good news is, this is super easy to fix\u2014and I\u2019m about to show you how.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Set Custom OS Icons for VirtualBox Guests<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Staying true to the saying \u201ca picture\u2019s worth a thousand words,\u201d here\u2019s the goal we\u2019re aiming for\u2014just take a look at the image below.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"VirtualBox<\/a>
VirtualBox with custom icons for guest VMs.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The first thing you\u2019ll want to do is get your image files ready\u2014these are what we\u2019ll use to replace the default icons for VirtualBox guest OSes. Below are a few examples I used myself for this guide’s purposes. As you\u2019ll see, they\u2019re nothing fancy\u2014just simple, standard-looking icons.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Custom<\/a>
Custom icons prepared in advance for each guest VM.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

You can easily find tons of similar images online, or if you\u2019re feeling creative, go ahead and design your own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Use PNG files (SVG also works) and stick with square images for best results. A good size to aim for is 128×128 pixels, but it\u2019s totally fine to go a bit bigger or smaller. VirtualBox will scale the image to the sizes it needs. The key is just to keep them square.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Once you\u2019ve got your files ready, it\u2019s time actually to swap out the icons\u2014and guess what, it only takes one simple command. The syntax is as follows:<\/p>\n\n\n

vboxmanage modifyvm \"<vm-name>\"<\/span> --iconfile <full-path-to-the-image-file><\/code><\/span>Code language:<\/span> Bash<\/span> (<\/span>bash<\/span>)<\/span><\/small><\/pre>\n\n\n
For example, to override the icon for the Mint virtual machine:<\/p>\n\n\n
vboxmanage modifyvm \"Mint\"<\/span> --iconfile .\/vbicons\/mint.png<\/code><\/span>Code language:<\/span> Bash<\/span> (<\/span>bash<\/span>)<\/span><\/small><\/pre>\n\n\n
Even though you can see the names of your virtual machines in the VirtualBox UI, you can also list them from the command line by running:<\/p>\n\n\n
vboxmanage list vms --sorted<\/code><\/span>Code language:<\/span> Bash<\/span> (<\/span>bash<\/span>)<\/span><\/small><\/pre>\n\n\n
\"List<\/a>
List of available VirtualBox VMs.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
And that\u2019s it, my friends. From here on out, it\u2019s all up to you and your creativity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Bottom Line<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
As you\u2019ve seen, changing the default icons for your VirtualBox guest VMs is super easy\u2014and it not only makes your VM list look better, but also makes it a lot easier to navigate. All you need is an image file and the vboxmanage<\/code> command.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Speaking of which, there’s a lot more you can do with vboxmanage<\/code>. It\u2019s actually just one of several powerful tools VirtualBox offers\u2014and with it, you can even run and manage a completely headless VirtualBox server. If you\u2019re not convinced, go ahead and check out our guide on the topic<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Thank you for your time and for following our guide! I hope you find it helpful. As always, any feedback is much appreciated.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Learn how to set your own custom OS icons for VirtualBox guests to make your virtual machines more visually organized and easier to identify.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":180698,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,4417],"tags":[3194,4075,1440],"class_list":["post-180569","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-tips","category-linux-knowledge","tag-icons","tag-virtualbox","tag-virtualization"],"blocksy_meta":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/linuxiac.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/180569","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/linuxiac.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/linuxiac.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/linuxiac.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/linuxiac.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=180569"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/linuxiac.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/180569\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/linuxiac.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/180698"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/linuxiac.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=180569"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/linuxiac.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=180569"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/linuxiac.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=180569"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}