A couple of ideas, not an exaustive list:
  - use SSH to log in to your Linux box and control the VirtualBox service with the `VBoxControl` command (think headless)
  - use SSH with X forwarding (with Cygwin/X installed on Windows) to log in to your Linux box, start the VirtualBox GUI and run them directly there
  - use the RDP protocol to connect to individual, running VMs
  - use a remote desktop of some sort, like VNC, to create a remotely-activated VM instance to which you can drop/reconnect to at will.

HIH.

thanks so much sefwolf. I think I will go with the slitaz openVZ install. it seems much faster and less resources  thanks again