Because virtual machines can be quite large, this is often many gigabytes in size. It doesn’t really matter if you delete the virtual machine from the command line or from the VirtualBox application directly, both get the job done.ĭeleting a virtual machine from VirtualBox will free up any storage space that was taken up by that VM and associated OS, including the associated VDI, VMDK, VHD or HDD files. VBoxManage unregistervm -delete 'Name of Virtual Machine'ĭeleting a VM from VirtualBox by command line is very thorough and removes all associated virtual hard disk image files, saved states, xml files, backups, VM logs, and all associated directories with the target VM to delete. To use this approach, launch the command line (Terminal in MacOS) and then use the VBoxManage command tool with the following syntax: (note the flag –delete has two dashes) If you prefer to use the command line, you can also completely delete a virtual machine from VirtualBox from a terminal. Thus if you actually want to delete the VM and associated files, choose ‘Delete all files’ How to Delete a Virtual Machine from VirtualBox by Command Line * If you choose “Remove only” than the virtual machine is simply removed from the VirtualBox VM manager, but none of the actual files or associated VM, OS, VDI, or anything else is deleted.

Repeat with other virtual machines to delete them as needed.

To completely delete the operating system and virtual machine from VirtualBox, choose “Delete all files” *.Right-click on the virtual machine name in the list and choose “Remove”, or optionally pull down the “Machine” menu and choose “Remove”.Select the virtual machine and OS you want to delete (quit the VM if it’s currently active first).Open VirtualBox and go to the VM VirtualBox Manager screen.To completely delete any virtual machine from VirtualBox on Mac, Windows, or Linux, simply do the following: How to Completely Remove an OS and Delete a Virtual Machine in VirtualBox We’ll also show you how to delete a virtual machine from VirtualBox by using the command line. The instructions we’ll cover here work for completely removing an OS and deleting the associated virtual machine from within VirtualBox on Mac OS, Windows, and Linux.

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