VMware Player - Install Windows 8

How to Install Windows 8 and 8.1 on VMware Player
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   Information

This will show you how to install either the 32-bit (x86) or 64-bit (x64) version of Windows 8 and 8.1 as a virtual machine in the free program VMware Player.

   Note

Host System Requirements
The physical computer on which you install Player is called the host system and its operating system is called the host operating system. To run Player, the host system and the host operating system must meet specific hardware and software requirements.

Processor Requirements for Host Systems
You must install Player on a host system that meets certain processor requirements.

Supported Processors

• The host system must have a 64-bit x86 CPU that meets the following requirements.
• LAHF/SAHF support in long mode
• 1.3GHz or faster core speed
• Multiprocessor systems are supported.
• When you install Player, the installer performs checks to make sure the host system has a supported processor.
• You cannot install Player if the host system does not meet the processor requirements.

Processor Requirements for 64-Bit Guest Operating Systems
The operating system that runs inside a virtual machine is called the guest operating system. To run 64-bit guest operating systems, the host system must have one of the following processors. You can also run a 64-bit guest on a 32-bit host if the host computer meets these requirements.

• An AMD CPU that has segment-limit support in long mode enabled in BIOS or UEFI
• An Intel CPU that has VT-x support enabled in BIOS or UEFI
• 4 GB of RAM

   Tip

If you have problems running VMware Player while logged in a standard user account, then log out of the standard user account, log in as an administrator, and add the user name of the standard user account to be a member of the __vmware__ group. When you log back on to the standard user account, you should be able to run it without issue now.


How to Add or Remove User Accounts from Groups in Windows 7 and Vista

Videos:
NOTE: Videos provided by our member Wolfgang (aka: whs). Thank you.

[video=youtube;CRjXC-eHCOk]

[video=youtube;Cf3slP0pgN8]

[video=youtube;KP5I1PKNl4k]

Here's How:


1. If you have not already, then you will need the 32-bit or 64-bit Windows 8 or 8.1 ISO file version you want, and save it to your desktop (ex: Windows 7 or Vista).


2. If you have not already, then download and install the latest version of the free VMware Player.
NOTE: If you already have VMware Player installed, then you can click/tap on Help (menu bar) -> Software Updates to update it to the latest version.


3. When you run VMware Player, click/tap on the Create a New Virtual Machine option in the right pane. (see screenshot below)

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4. Select (dot) the I will install the operating system later. option, and click/tap on Next. (see screenshot below)

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5. Select (dot) Microsoft Windows, select Windows 8 if you have a 32-bit ISO (step 1) or Windows 8 (64-bit) if you have a 64-bit ISO, then click/tap on Next. (see screenshots below)

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6. Type in a name (ex: Windows 8) for the virtual machine, click/tap on Browse, select the folder that you want to install the virtual machines's VHD file to and click/tap on OK, then click/tap on Next. (see screenshot below)

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7. Select how many GB (ex: 60GB) that you want for the maximum size of the virtual disk, select (dot) Store virtual disk as a single file, and click/tap on Next. (see screenshot below)
NOTE: The default size is 60 GB. For 32-bit Windows 8, 20 GB should be the minimum. For 64-bit Windows 8, 25 GB should be the minimum.

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8. Click/tap on the Customize Hardware button. (see screenshot below)

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9. Click/tap on Memory in the left pane, 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. (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.

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10. Click/tap on Processors in the left pane, select or type in how many of your computer's CPU processor cores you would like for the virtual machine to use when it's running. (see screenshot below)
NOTE: By default, you will use at minimum 1. Ideally, 2 to 3 cores would be the sweet spot if you have a multicore CPU with enough cores to spare to be used by the virtual machine instead of your computer (host).

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11. Click/tap on New CD/DVD in the left pane, select (dot) Use ISO image file, then click/tap on Browse. Navigate to and select the Windows 8 ISO from step 1 above, and click/tap on Open. Click/tap on Close. (see screenshot below)

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12. Click/tap on Finish. (see screenshot below)

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13. In the left pane double click/tap on the new Windows 8 virtual machine to play (start) it.

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14. If prompted to install the VMware Tools for Windows 2000 and later, then click/tap on Download and Install. When it's finished, click/tap on Close. (see screenshots below)

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15. From here, you will just need to finish doing a clean install of Windows 8 as you normally would install it.


16. When you are finished installing Windows 8 and logged on to Windows 8, click/tap on either the Install Tools button at the bottom, or the Virtual Machine (menu bar) -> Install VMware Tools option at the top. (see screenshot below)

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17. Click/tap on the DVD Drive (D) DVD Drive VMware Tools toast notification at the top right corner. (see screenshot below)
NOTE: If you do not see this, then click on the Windows Explorer app on the Metro Start screen, click on Computer in the navigation pane, and double click on DVD Drive VMware Tools to Autorun it.

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18. Click/tap on the Run.... AutoPlay option to start installing the VMWare Tools. (see screenshot below)

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19. If prompted by UAC, click/tap on Yes. (see screenshot below)

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20. Click/tap on Next. (see screenshot below)

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21. Select (dot) Typical, and click/tap on Next. (see screenshot below)

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22. Click/tap on Install. (see screenshot below)

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23. When VMware Tools is finished installing, click/tap on Finish. (see screenshot below)

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24. Click/tap on Yes to restart the Windows 8 virtual machine to apply the VMware Tools. (see screenshot below)

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25. Enjoy your new 32-bit or 64- bit Windows 8 virtual machine on VMware Player.



That's it,
Shawn

Related Tutorials

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• How to Install Windows 8 and 8.1 on VirtualBox
• How to Upgrade from Windows 8, Windows 7, Vista, or XP to Windows 8 or 8.1
• How to Download and Run the "Windows 8 Upgrade Assistant"
• How to Create or Download a Windows 8 and Windows 8.1 ISO
• How to Do a Clean Install of Windows 8 or Windows 8.1
• How to Do a Clean Install with Windows 8 Upgrade
• How to Reset Windows 8 and 8.1
• 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
• How to Boot from a VHD using Windows 7 and Windows 8
• How to Expand a Virtual Hard Disk of a Virtual Machine in VMware Player
• How to Share Partitions Between Host and Guest in VMware Player
• How to Speed Up Performance of a Virtual Machine

 

[whs]

The nice part with the partition sharing is that it also works for my Linux (Zorin) VMware partition. Here it is even more useful right now because I have not yet figured out how to get the VMware tool installed in the Zorin partition. That is another todo.
.

I have Zorin as well.

Just "install tools" and the cd will get mounted to desktop in Zorin.
You have to locally extract the tar/gz archive.

Then open a terminal cd (change directory) to the extracted tools folder and run the*.pl file as root ("sudo ./file.pl) then just enter yes or no (the defaults are great choices to begin with) and then reboot the VM and you are done.

Thanks, I'll try again. My problem was that I could not find the damn CD.

 

[JA1]

Hello, I signed up just to ask this, I really want to get my hands on this new preview and I have had this same issue before installing other versions of windows so I really don't want to tackle this annoying problem all over again, anyways here is my info:

Installing on VMware Player:
4gb Ram
Dual Core
75 GB HDD
Iso from here: Windows 8.1 Preview ISO files - Microsoft Windows
64bit Version
I partitioned my Hard Drive and made a 80gb one and I installed it on here, now the problem is it boots up and when I click "Install' it says "No device drivers were found. Make sure that the installation media contains the correct drivers, and then click OK." It gives me two option:
Browse
Rescan
Nothing more, the next button is faded out. Any suggestions?

 

[DavidE]

Thanks Shawn for another great tutorial.

I'm not sure if this is somewhere in the replies to the tutorial, but here is something I'll note ...

I installed Win 8.1 x64 in a Win 7 x64 Host.
I had problems with Windows Updates where some updates succeeded and some failed (and it was slow).
It took me at least 5 Update/Reboot cycles to get all updates installed.

I created a new 8.1 VM and reinstalled the same ISO.
I changed the default VMware Network Adapter setting from NAT to Bridged.
With this setting, I have no problems with Windows Updates.
One Update/Reboot installed all 28 updates ...

 

[Brink]

Thank you David.

What type of network connection/setup do you have on the computer?

 

[DavidE]

I have at&t Uverse 12 Mbps Down / 1.5 Mbps Up, with a at&t supplied 2Wire Gateway (modem).
The PC specs I'm testing on are my specs in Seven Forums user DavidW7ncus.

 

[Brink]

Doesn't seem to be anything out of the ordinary, but glad to hear that bridging helped for you and hopefully others with the same issue.

I'm using Hyper-V in Windows 8.1, and so far I find it much better. You might give it a play with to see how you like it.

http://www.eightforums.com/tutorials/2493-hyper-v-how-use-windows-8-a.html

 

[DavidE]

Perhaps I'm confused, but isn't Hyper-V used if Win 8.1 is the Host ?
I'm using Win 7 as the Host and Win 8 is a Guest OS.

 

[bawldiggle]

Have read through this thread following whs advice elswhere in sevenforums.com.

As a beginner (doing my research first)

Q1: Some questions to older posts ...
VMware does not recognise eSATA ... my laptop is USB2 only.
I am seriously considering eSATA (to replace a twitchy USB2 portable spinner) for my laptop data (most of it anyway)
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Q2: Post #62 by Hopachi has made me little concerned about host-data loss (if I understand the implications correctly).
My intended test machine is a basic Toshiba laptop (Satellite C665) USB2 only
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Q3: If VMware Player is installed on my PC/laptop can guests be created on an external drive ? eg USB2 drives or eSATA
-----
Q4: If I use a Win7 ISO for any guest, is the installed ISO a trial version.
I have read elsewhere to make an image of the guest, and if the guest falls over I just re-instate the image ?
- am I on the right path ?

-----
GrayGhost2 on sevenforums.com

I would appreciate any help ... thank you

 

[bawldiggle]

Is VMware Player installed as Administrator or User account ?

 

[Brink]

Hello Bawldiggle, would you like your user name changed to "GrayGhost2" to match at SF?

This tutorial is for installing Windows 8/8.1 in VMware Player on an internal drive on the host computer. I wouldn't even try to install it on a USB 2.0 drive. It would run way to slow to be usable if you did.

 

[whs]

After you installed Windows under VMware Player on your internal disk (it usually ends up to be a folder in Documents), You can copy this folder to a USB or eSata device. If the device is a SSD, it performs perfectly under USB3 and eSata. From a 7200RPM HDD you still get acceptable performance. But HDDs on USB2 or a flash drive as external device (even a fast one on USB3) is not acceptable. A SSD on USB2 works so, so once it is going but boot and shutdown are very slow.

 

[Hopachi]

Have read through this thread following whs advice elswhere in sevenforums.com.

As a beginner (doing my research first)

Q1: Some questions to older posts ...
VMware does not recognise eSATA ... my laptop is USB2 only.
I am seriously considering eSATA (to replace a twitchy USB2 portable spinner) for my laptop data (most of it anyway)
-----
Q2: Post #62 by Hopachi has made me little concerned about host-data loss (if I understand the implications correctly).
My intended test machine is a basic Toshiba laptop (Satellite C665) USB2 only
-----
Q3: If VMware Player is installed on my PC/laptop can guests be created on an external drive ? eg USB2 drives or eSATA
-----
Q4: If I use a Win7 ISO for any guest, is the installed ISO a trial version.
I have read elsewhere to make an image of the guest, and if the guest falls over I just re-instate the image ?
- am I on the right path ?

-----
GrayGhost2 on sevenforums.com

I would appreciate any help ... thank you

I'll try to answer here.
From what I read above, you're either planning to use a real disk as a VM disk OR install a VM on an external disk. Those are two different things with different difficulty levels.
In the second case VMs can be run from any disk as long as the virtual disk size limit is respected for the particular file system. In the first case (using physical disks in VMs) it gets more advanced and I wouldn't advise that if you are a beginner with VMs, and not all disks are allowed for the operation.

Q1: The eSATA support isn't needed for a virtual disk, virtual disks can be used from any allowed disk with a supported filesystem by the OS. For a real disk, if the host OS detects it an can be used, VMware will be able to use it as well if the host can see it. I hope this is understandable text.

Q2: VMware also shows a nice warning for that.
That is logic: any program can write to the disk, if the VM gets full control of a full partition or disk, formats and deletions can be performed from there hence the risk of data loss (if for instance you use a disk that still contains valuable data). If a VM is infected with viruses is another good example: the disk gets used by the infected system but when the VM is shutdown the same disk will be visible and most likely useed by the host (indexation page filing user data read write) which could spread the viruses further in your main system. A virtual disk is simply a file that stores all the disk data inside but the host itself wouldn't be able to open it and spread the content without extra user knowledge and commands.

Q3: Yes, give the VM a name and browse/specify a location. If the host can see the disk, Player that is installed on the host can use the disk of course.
VMware KB: Creating a new virtual machine in VMware Player

Q4: Is the first line a question as well? You can say that the OS is trial mode without a key and activation.
You are on the right path, imaging works for VMs as well but it would be easier to directly backup the VM folder (turn the VM off first) or the VMDK disk directly on the host by simply copying it: if something messes up the VM, replace the messed up disk with the backuped disk. I'm mentioning this because VMware Player doesn't have a built in imaging solution. Or you could image the VM with Macrium or Acronis or whatever you use as well, but it would take more steps getting going that the simple copy/paste.

Cheers!
Hopachi

 

[SaggyMaggyPoo]

I was reading this tutorial following my ongoing research into backup and restore options.

So far I am making regular System Image backups through Windows for my 2 Dell laptops, mounting and exploring them (i.e. opening files, videos etc.). I'm also planning to do the same using another program.

But I'm very aware that I have not fully tested the process - I don't know if my backups will work if needed. And I don't really want to try restoring them to their original location (my laptops).

A suggestion was made that I could use a virtual machine to test these.

So what I want to learn is:

Can I use VMware Player to create a virtual machine (guest) on an external HDD that could then be used to test my backups?

My Dell laptops are the same spec. Each has 2 cores and 4 logical processors, plus 4gb RAM and 500gb hard drive. Each has around 350gb free space currently. They came with Windows 8 preinstalled so I have no installation media.

The external HDD is 1tb, some of which is used to store data so if I can use it I would need to set it up with this data protected (partition it?). It is NTFS formatted. More than half the HDD is empty.

My System Image backups are generally around 80gb or less and currently stored on 2 different HDDs (i.e. not the one I am considering using for the test). I would only want to use the virtual machine to test the backups, which are run approx. twice a month. I would want to install newer backups over older ones so that I don't fill up the space on the virtual machine.

As I would want to test the backups from both machines I am wondering if I would need to create 2 virtual machines (1 to emulate each laptop).

So would my idea work OR is there an alternative way to achieve what I want?

Thanks

 

[whs]

It's a lot easier. Create a small 1GB of 2GB partition and populate it with copies of some folders. Then image and restore that. Before you restore, modify the folders a bit so that you can clearly id the restored image.

 

[SaggyMaggyPoo]

Thank you for the suggestion whs.

If I understand, you are saying I could create a small partition on my laptop to populate with folders, then take an image of this onto the external HDD and then restore this image to the laptop?

I am not sure I understand what you mean about modifying the folders - are these the original ones in the small partition on the laptop which I would modify after making the system image, so I can see that they have changed once the restoration is complete?

I can see that this would enable me to practice the process of imaging and restoring (which would be good for me to do), but what I was hoping to do was to be able to restore the complete laptop image in a virtual environment to check it is okay, and I don't think it achieves this .

 

[adamf]

If you want to convert your existing laptop disk to a virtual disk image then you can use Disk2vhd

 

[whs]

I am not sure I understand what you mean about modifying the folders

This is just a little added test to make sure it worked right. If you restore the image into the partition where the data was not changed, you don't know whether you got the result of the image restoration or the original partition. If you change the content of the partition before restore (but after imaging), then you know you got the image if the data that you deleted has been rstored.

There is no need to restore the complete laptop content just for practicing.

 

[SaggyMaggyPoo]

If you want to convert your existing laptop disk to a virtual disk image then you can use Disk2vhd

I wanted to know if I can create a virtual disk environment that mirrors my laptop on an external HDD and then use this to restore a system image from my laptop. I think this is different

 

[SaggyMaggyPoo]

This is just a little added test to make sure it worked right. If you restore the image into the partition where the data was not changed, you don't know whether you got the result of the image restoration or the original partition. If you change the content of the partition before restore (but after imaging), then you know you got the image if the data that you deleted has been rstored.

There is no need to restore the complete laptop content just for practicing.

Okay, I understand that, thanks.

But I'm not really looking at just practicing. I've read comments that say there's no use making system images if they don't work when/if you need them, so I want to find a way that I can check that mine (yes, the whole laptop content) are okay and can be restored. I was hoping to find a method other than just restoring it straight back onto the laptop (when I would have to modify some files in between the image and restoration to know it had worked, as you say).

So I thought if I had a virtual machine environment I could maybe restore onto that. I had thought it would be similar to starting with a clean OS (like a factory reinstall scenario) and then putting a recent system image onto it.

But in the tutorial it talks about putting an OS onto the virtual machine, and I don't have installation media for this (Windows 8 preinstalled with no disks) so I'm not sure how I would achieve that.

And I'm perfectly willing to accept that I may be getting myself totally confused by the whole process.

In which case can someone please explain how those of you who regularly create system images check that these images can and will restore.

 

[whs]

In which case can someone please explain how those of you who regularly create system images check that these images can and will restore.

I don't really check. I just keep enough images (father, grandfather, etc.) to make sure I have at least 1 recent image that is valid. But after appr. 100 restores, I have yet to find one that did not work.

I do, however, check whether my recovery discs work. And that I do with the 2GB test partition.