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🛠️ Advanced Configuration

The full VM configuration editor. It opens from three places, all landing on the same screen: Advanced Create when creating a VM, a VM's own Configuration row in VM Details, and a template's Configure action.

Advanced Configuration hub with the Hardware section's rows visible

It covers general info, CPU & memory, display & sound, hardware (disks, networks, CD/DVD, serial ports, network block devices, boot device), and system settings (security, auto snapshots, schedule, startup & shutdown, webhooks, SSH) — plus restore image, provisioning and Rosetta for macOS/Linux as applicable. Windows 11 is available on supported Apple silicon Macs — see Windows Virtual Machines for what differs. Every new network starts with its own MAC address.

A few fields worth knowing about:

  • Memory Balloon lets a running Linux or Windows guest give memory back to the Mac when it's idle, instead of holding onto it permanently.
  • Display has two resolution modes: Auto Resolution follows the window/screen you're viewing from, while Force Resolution locks the guest to a fixed size regardless of viewer.
  • Networks — editing a VM's network here is also how you set a static IP or add port forwarding rules for a Custom/Shared network, and where a network's MTU is set. For Windows, choose USB (NCM) (the default, using Windows' built-in driver) or VirtIO (PCI) (requires NetKVM, installed by install.cmd on the VirtualProgTools drive).
  • Security toggles control whether this VM allows Clipboard sharing, Screenshots, Screen Recording, and Dashboard Logs (usage/session tracking) — turning one off also disables the matching feature in the Live Screen and Statistics.
  • Auto Snapshots sets a frequency (on start, daily, weekly, monthly, on shutdown) and how many to keep; restoring any snapshot offers an optional Safety Snapshot of the current state first, in case you need to undo the restore itself.
  • Provisioning (macOS 27+ host) creates the guest's first account automatically on boot — the guest username must be different from every username already on the Mac, or it silently fails to run.
  • Nested Virtualization and Entropy Device (Linux, Apple Silicon M3+) are off by default; turning off the Entropy Device can noticeably slow down anything that generates cryptographic keys in the guest, including SSH.

Note: Read-only while the VM is running or when your token is an Operator token.

Editable rows have a trailing trash button for removing disks, CD/DVD drives, serial ports, network block devices, networks, webhooks, and port-forwarding rules on iPhone, iPad, and Mac. These buttons are hidden in read-only mode;