Oracle has announced the release of Oracle VM VirtualBox 5.0, a significant update for its free, open-source virtualisation package.

Guests get a big speed boost with new support for hardware virtualisation.

Full USB 3.0 support – courtesy of a new xHCI controller in the extension pack –  means guest operating systems recognise USB 3.0 devices and can use them at their full 3.0 speeds.

Windows, Oracle Solaris and Linux guests now support bi-directional drag and drop of content between the host and the guest.

VirtualBox 5.0 should see most guests running significantly faster

Disk images may be encrypted during runtime with up to 256-bit AES, so your data remains secure at all times.

Some interesting low-level options include USB capturing, and there are various GUI tweaks to explore, including the ability to customise the menu and status bar.

Oracle VM VirtualBox 5.0 is available now for Windows, Linux and Mac.