petri[.]com/how-to-improve-network-performance-in-windows-virtualbox-guests
Background - Microsoft's Hyper-V...
Windows 7 came with the optional Virtual PC to run the Microsoft XP VM provided for the non-Home [e.g. Pro] versions of win7. It was a bit of an oddity, integrated into Windows using Remote Desktop. Microsoft bought parts of and developed their Virtual Machine tech a LOT since then, with a focus on the enterprise & the cloud, and today we have Hyper-V. Designed mainly for servers, they provide a *workable* version in non-Home versions of win10, while Microsoft is working to use the virtualization tech they've developed for better Windows security and features like win10's Sandbox.
docs.microsoft[.]com/en-us/virtualization/hyper-v-on-windows/quick-start/enable-hyper-v
docs.microsoft[.]com/en-us/virtualization/hyper-v-on-windows/about/
techcommunity.microsoft[.]com/t5/ITOps-Talk-Blog/Step-By-Step-Enabling-Hyper-V-for-use-on-Windows-10/ba-p/267945
VirtualBox...
VirtualBox is a free and open source Virtual Machine host spun off by Oracle that's better suited to running on the average PC/laptop than the somewhat limited version of Hyper-V Microsoft provides for win10. As Smith notes in his article, it's more user friendly, and as I found out, it's faster -- the same VM runs Much better, faster in VirtualBox than in Hyper-V. There are more networking features & options in Hyper-V, though setting it up is more complicated. Networking in VirtualBox has lagged behind, and Smith shows you how to improve networking performance at least by changing the emulated network adapter your VMs use. While his example uses a win10 VM, it works in win7 VMs just the same. Networking is doubly important in VMs because that's how you get files in & out of them.
virtualbox[.]org