[[!meta title="Running Tails in a virtual machine"]]

It is sometimes convenient to be able to run Tails without having to restart your computer every time. This is possible using [[!wikipedia Virtual_machine desc="virtual machines"]].

Both the host operating system and the [[virtualization software|virtualization#software]] are able to monitor what you are doing in Tails.

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Traces of your Tails session are likely to be left on the local hard disk. For example, host operating systems usually use swapping (or *paging*) which copies part of the RAM to the hard disk.

This is why Tails warns you when it is running inside a virtual machine.

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Creating a virtual USB storage volume saved as a single file on the host operating system.