How to Install BigBlueButton on Windows 11

BigBlueButton is an open source web conferencing system for online learning. It is compatible with Windows 11, and in this tutorial, we will guide you through the steps of installing BigBlueButton on your computer running Windows 11.

Prerequisites

Step 1: Install Oracle VirtualBox

Before we can install BigBlueButton, we need to install Oracle VirtualBox, which is a free and open source virtualization software that enables us to run a virtual machine on our computer.

You can download the latest version of Oracle VirtualBox from their official website here: https://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/Downloads

Once you have downloaded the installation file, double-click it to launch the installer. Follow the prompts and accept the default settings.

Step 2: Create a Virtual Machine

Now that we have Oracle VirtualBox installed on our computer, we can create a virtual machine to install BigBlueButton.

To create a virtual machine, open Oracle VirtualBox and click on the "New" button. Give your virtual machine a name and select the type and version of the operating system you want to install (in this case, we will be installing Ubuntu). Allocate the amount of RAM and hard disk space you want to assign to your virtual machine, and then click on the "Create" button to complete the setup.

Step 3: Download and install Ubuntu

Download the latest version of Ubuntu Server from their official website here: https://ubuntu.com/download/server

Once you have downloaded the ISO file, go back to Oracle VirtualBox and select your virtual machine. Then click on the "Settings" button and go to the "Storage" tab. Click on the "Empty" CD icon under "Controller: IDE", and then click on the CD icon under "Attributes" and select "Choose Virtual Optical Disk File". Navigate to the folder where you saved the Ubuntu ISO file and select it.

Next, click on the "Start" button to launch your virtual machine. Follow the prompts to install Ubuntu on your virtual machine.

Step 4: Install BigBlueButton

Once Ubuntu is installed on your virtual machine, you can now install BigBlueButton.

Open the terminal on your Ubuntu virtual machine and enter the following commands:

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install -y bigbluebutton

Follow the prompts to complete the installation.

Step 5: Access BigBlueButton

Now that BigBlueButton is installed, you can access it by opening a web browser on your Windows 11 computer and navigating to the IP address of your virtual machine, followed by ":80". For example, if your virtual machine's IP address is 192.168.0.10, you can access BigBlueButton by entering "http://192.168.0.10:80" into your web browser's address bar.

Congratulations! You have successfully installed BigBlueButton on your Windows 11 computer using Oracle VirtualBox.

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Alternatively, for the best virtual desktop, try Shells!