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VirtualReactor Help

VirtualReactor is a sandboxed macOS app for creating and running virtual machines on Apple Silicon Macs, built on Apple's Virtualization.framework. It can install and manage:

• macOS guests (from Apple's official restore images)
• Linux guests — Debian, Ubuntu, Alpine
• Custom guests — any ARM64 ISO or disk image

VirtualReactor is delivered as a single Xcode-built .app. There are no command-line tools, daemons, or kernel extensions involved.

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Documentation

Getting started

• Getting Started — system requirements, first launch, default file locations
• Creating a VM — step-by-step walk through the New VM flow
• Operating Systems — what guests are supported and how each is installed

Daily use

• Managing Virtual Machines — list view, detail view, start/stop/duplicate/delete
• The Display Window — opening the screen, full-screen, keyboard capture
• Hibernation and State Saving — pause vs. hibernate vs. shutdown

Configuration

• VM Configuration Reference — every setting in the Configure dialog
• Disks — multi-disk support, virtio/NVMe/USB, hot-plug
• Networking — NAT, MAC address, enabling/disabling
• Shared Directories and Integration — VirtioFS folders, clipboard, Rosetta, memory balloon
• Serial Console — connecting via Unix socket

Reference

• Settings and Preferences — base directory, downloads, display presets, custom OS list
• Storage Layout — where VirtualReactor puts files on disk
• Keyboard Shortcuts
• Troubleshooting
• Sandboxing and Permissions

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External links

• Product website: https://s1apps.de/virtualreactor/
• Issue tracker: https://github.com/sektioneins/VirtualReactor-support/issues

These links are also available in the app's Help menu.