Windows 8 VirtualBox Guide
I have documented how I installed Windows 8 Consumer Preview using VirtualBox. It’s actually very easy to do if you have installed Windows 7 before.
If you have not tested Windows 8 Consumer Preview yet, download the ISO here and follow the easy steps below to guide you through the installation process. You can click on one image to get a bigger version and click the edge of that picture to see the next one.
Create the Virtual Machine
Just download VirtualBox and install it. Create New Virtual Machine. Click "New" or go to Machine -> New (CTRL+N)
- On Virtual Hard Disk options, tick “Start-up Disk” and choose “Create new hard disk”
On VM Name and OS Type, you can type any name you prefer but it's good to name it something you'll recognize easily like "windows 9 Consumer Preview". Os Type should be Microsoft Windows, Windows 8. I have downloaded 64-bit and it works as well.
Virtual disk creation wizard will start. You can choose VDI (the default)
On the next dialogue box, choose dynamically allocated so that it will start small.
You can set the size of the virtual hard disk.The default 20 GB is good enough.
Click Create and you're done
Go to Machine Settings and change the Display options. Change the video memory to the maximum.If you have multi-core processor you can go to System settings and change the number of processors that will be used for your VM.
If you have multi-core processor you can go to System settings and change the number of processors that will be used for your VM.
Go to Storage settings and on the IDE controller, change the attribute to Choose a virtual CD/DVD disk file. Choose the Windows 8 Consumer Preview ISO that you have downloaded.
Install Windows 8 Consumer Preview
Windows 8 will boot and you will get this Windows setup similar to Windows 7
You can use the product key provided by Microsoft to active Windows
You might be given an option to upgrade or to do custom installation. Choose Custom and use the unallocated space to install Windows 8
Wait for the installer to complete
You can personalize the background color of your PC and you can give it a name
Sign in using a Microsoft account or using a local account
What welcomes you is the tiled interface, Metro. We're done!
Enjoy Windows 8 Consumer Preview on VirtualBox.
If you want my opinion about it…. fine. It feels like like a copy of what Apple has been doing in iOS for so long, but with a twist. What bothers me is the whole idea about Metro UI on top of Windows Aero interface. Metro looks like an independent program that you can toss anytime you want. It serves as the start menu at this point and I don’t know if that is good or bad. If I want a desktop operating system, I still want my icons and traditional menus, not Metro UI.
Apple could have included the iOS interface, with all those cute squarish app icons instead of OS X dock long ago but they did not. Perhaps not until Macs get a touch screen. They have kept the interface optimized for different user experience. OS X with mouse, gestures and keyboards; iOS with touch interface. With Windows 8 Consumer Preview I am confused if it is trying to do both desktop and tablet interface at the same time. I sure it will mature and develop over time. It is just a consumer preview anyway.
Windows 8 is promising and it could be the only chance Microsoft has to redeem the post-PC era.
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