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<topic xml:lang="en-us" id="ct_snapshots">
   <title>Snapshots</title>
   <body>
      <p>With snapshots, you can save a particular state of a virtual machine for later use. At any later time, you can revert to that state, even though you may have changed the VM considerably since then. A snapshot of a virtual machine is thus similar to a machine in Saved state, but there can be many of them, and these saved states are preserved.</p>
      <p>To see the snapshots of a virtual machine, click the VM name in the <uicontrol>Machines</uicontrol> list in <ph conkeyref="vbox-conkeyref-phrases/vbox-mgr"/>, and then click <uicontrol>Snapshots</uicontrol>.</p>
      <p>If you select multiple VMs in the machine list, all snapshots are listed for each VM.</p>
      <p>Until you take a snapshot of the virtual machine, the list of snapshots will be empty, except for the <b outputclass="bold">Current State</b> item. This item represents the current point in the lifetime of the virtual machine.</p>
      <p>The <uicontrol>Snapshots</uicontrol> toolbar includes the following snapshot operations:</p>
      <ul>
         <li>
            <p><b outputclass="bold">Take.</b> Takes a snapshot of the selected VM. See <xref href="snapshots-take-restore-delete.dita#snapshots-take-restore-delete"/>.</p>
         </li>
         <li>
            <p><b outputclass="bold">Delete.</b> Removes a snapshot from the list of snapshots. See <xref href="snapshots-take-restore-delete.dita#snapshots-take-restore-delete"/>.</p>
         </li>
         <li>
            <p><b outputclass="bold">Restore.</b> Restores the VM state to be the same as the selected snapshot. See <xref href="snapshots-take-restore-delete.dita#snapshots-take-restore-delete"/>.</p>
         </li>
         <li>
            <p><b outputclass="bold">Properties.</b> Displays the properties for the selected snapshot. The <b outputclass="bold">Attributes</b> tab is used to specify a Name and Description for the snapshot. The <b outputclass="bold">Information</b> tab shows VM settings for the snapshot.</p>
         </li>
         <li>
            <p><b outputclass="bold">Clone.</b> Displays the <b outputclass="bold">Clone Virtual Machine</b> workflow. This enables you to create a clone of the VM, based on the selected snapshot.</p>
         </li>
         <li>
            <p><b outputclass="bold">Settings.</b> Available for the Current State snapshot only. Displays the <uicontrol>Settings</uicontrol> window for the VM, enabling you to make configuration changes.</p>
         </li>
         <li>
            <p><b outputclass="bold">Discard.</b> For a running VM, discards the saved state for the VM and closes it down.</p>
         </li>
         <li>
            <p><b outputclass="bold">Start.</b> Start the VM. This operation is available for the <b outputclass="bold">Current State</b> item.</p>
         </li>
      </ul>
   </body>
</topic>
