How to Install "Windows 8 Consumer Preview" in VirtualBox

   Information

This will show you how to install either the 32-bit (x86) or 64-bit (x64) version of Windows 8 Consumer Preview in the free program VirtualBox.

For FAQs and more information about VirtualBox, see: End-user_documentation - VirtualBox

   Note

In order to run VirtualBox on your machine, you need:

• Reasonably powerful x86 hardware. Any recent Intel or AMD processor should do.
• Memory. Depending on what guest operating systems you want to run, you will need at least 512 MB of RAM (but probably more, and the more the better). Basically, you will need whatever your host operating system needs to run comfortably, plus the amount that the guest operating system needs. So, if you want to run Windows XP on Windows XP, you probably won't enjoy the experience much with less than 1 GB of RAM. If you want to try out Windows Vista in a guest, it will refuse to install if it is given less than 512 MB RAM, so you'll need that for the guest alone, plus the memory your operating system normally needs.
• Hard disk space. While VirtualBox itself is very lean (a typical installation will only need about 30 MB of hard disk space), the virtual machines will require fairly huge files on disk to represent their own hard disk storage. So, to install Windows XP, for example, you will need a file that will easily grow to several GB in size.
• A supported host operating system (your computer). Presently, VirtualBox supports Windows (XP and later), many Linux distributions, Mac OS X, Solaris and OpenSolaris.
• A supported guest operating system (virtual machine). Besides the user manual (see below), up-to-date information is available at "Status: Guest OSes".

   Warning

64-bit guests Requirements:
VirtualBox supports 64-bit guest (virtual machine) operating systems, even on 32-bit host (your computer) operating systems, provided that the following conditions below are met. See page 166 in manual.

• You need a 64-bit processor (CPU) with hardware virtualization support.
• You must enable hardware virtualization in your motherboard's BIOS settings.
• If you want to use 64-bit guest support on a 32-bit host operating system, you must also select a 64-bit operating system for the particular VM. Since supporting 64 bits on 32-bit hosts incurs additional overhead, VirtualBox only enables this support upon explicit request.

On 64-bit hosts (which typically come with hardware virtualization support), 64-bit guest operating systems are always supported regardless of settings, so you can simply install a 64-bit operating system in the guest.

Here's How:


1. If you have not already, then you will need to click on the link below to download either the 32-bit or 64-bit Windows 8 Consumer Preview ISO file version you want and save it to your desktop (ex: Windows 7 or Vista).


Windows 8 Consumer Preview - Download


2. If you have not already, download and install the latest version of VirtualBox (Windows hosts), download and install the VM VirtualBox Extension Pack (All platforms), then run VirtualBox. (see screenshot below)

3. In the left side of the toolbar, click on the New button. (see screenshot below)

4. Click on Next. (see screenshot below)

5. Type in a name (ex: Windows 8 Consumer Preview) for the virtual machine, select Windows 8 if have a 32-bit ISO (step 1) or Windows 8 (64-bit) if you have a 64-bit ISO, then click on Next. (see screenshots below)

6. Select or type in how much of your computer's RAM (1024MB = 1GB) you would like for the virtual machine to use when it's running, then click on Next. (see screenshot below)
NOTE: I would recommend to use at minimum 1GB. Ideally, 3GB for 32-bit and 4GB for 64-bit would be the sweet spot if you have plenty of RAM (ex: 8GB+) installed on your computer and can spare it to be used by the virtual machine.

7. Click on Next. (see screenshot below)

8. Select (dot) VHD, and click on Next. (see screenshot below)

9. Select (dot) Dynamically allocated, and click on Next. (see screenshot below)
NOTE: You could use either fixed or dynamic, but I would recommend using dynamic to help save HDD space.

10. Select how large you would like the VHD file to be, and click on Next. (see screenshot below)
NOTE: The default size is 20 GB, and is fine if you are not going to be installing a lot on the virtual machine. For 64-bit, you might use 25 GB instead since 64-bit uses a bit more space.

11. Click on Create. (see screenshot below)

12. Click on Create. (see screenshot below)

13. In the left pane, double click on the new virtual machine (ex: Windows 8 Consumer Preview). (see screenshot below)

14. Click on Next. (see screenshot below)

15. Click on the browse folder icon, select the downloaded ISO from step 1, click on Open, and click on Next. (see screenshots below)

16. Click on Start. (see screenshot below)

17. Now, you will just need to finish installing Windows 8 ConsumerPreview. (see screenshot below)

18. When you are finished installing Windows 8 Consumer Preview, click on Devices on the VirtualBox menu bar, and Install Guest Additions. (see screenshot below)

   Note

I had no issues installing the VirtualBox 4.1.12 guest additions with the 32-bit and 64-bit Windows 8 Consumer Preview on a 64-bit Windows 7.

19. When the new CD drive notification pops-up at the top right corner, click on it to open AutoPlay. (see screenshot below)

20. Click on the Run VBoxWindowsAdditions.exe option. (see screenshot below)

21. If prompted by UAC, then click on Yes. (see screenshot below)

22. Run the VBoxWindowsAdditions-amd64.exe (64-bit) or VBoxWindowsAdditions-x86.exe (32-bit) file that you selected in step 21 that is the same as the 32-bit or 64-bit Windows 8 ISO you are using, then click on Next. (see screenshot below)

23. Click on Next. (see screenshot below)

24. Click on Install. (see screenshot below)

25. When prompted twice, click on Install each time. (see screenshot below)

26. When finished, select (dot) Reboot now, and click on Finish. (see screenshot below)

That's it,
Shawn

Related Tutorials

• How to Install "Windows 8 Consumer Preview" on VMware Player
• How to Upgrade from Windows 7, Vista, or XP to "Windows 8 Developer Preview"
• How to Do a Clean Install of Windows 8
• How to Reset Windows 8
• How to Do a Dual Boot Installation with Windows 8 and Windows 7 or Vista
• How to Create a Windows 8 VHD at Boot to Dual Boot with Windows 7 or Vista