virtualizes nearly all of the host's hardware. Depending on a VM's configuration, the guest will see the following virtual hardware:

• Input devices. can emulate a standard PS/2 keyboard and mouse. These devices are supported by most guest OSes.

  In addition, can provide virtual USB input devices to avoid having to capture mouse and keyboard, as described in .

• Graphics. The default graphics device for Windows guests is an SVGA device. For Linux guests, the default graphics device emulates a VMware SVGA graphics device. See .

  For legacy guest OSes, a VGA-compatible graphics device is available.

• Storage. emulates the most common types of hard disk controllers. See . Whereas supporting only one of these controllers would be enough for by itself, this multitude of storage adapters is required for compatibility with other hypervisors. Windows is very selective about its boot devices, and migrating VMs between hypervisors is very difficult or impossible if the storage controllers are different.

• Networking. See .

• USB. emulates the most common USB host controllers. See .

  The emulated USB controllers do not communicate directly with devices on the host. Instead they communicate with a virtual USB layer that abstracts the USB protocol and enables the use of remote USB devices.

• Audio. See .