Installing Windows 8 Release Preview on Oracle VM VirtualBox

[ramsun]

I always install new and pre release software on virtual machines and I think that’s a better idea for testing purpose. I have see many people installing pre release software directly on their system and running in to issues later. Here I am sharing workaround for installing Windows 8 Release Preview on Oracle VM VirtualBox steps by steps. For installing Windows 8 Release Preview on VirtualBox you will need to download .ISO image so make sure that you are having it.

• First download Oracle VM VirtualBox from Oracle official website and install the same in your system. If you want then you can use Windows 7 computer or any compatible operating system for installing VirtualBox, These steps are for Windows 7 computer.

• Once you have downloaded and installed VirtualBox successfully, launch it with administrative privileges. After launching it you will get below screen:

• Now click on "New" icon on the toolbar and then follow the further instructions for creating new virtual machine, when you get below screen then give it a name you like, I gave it “Test”.

• You have to choose Microsoft Windows for Operating system field and windows 8 for version. Generally Oracle VM VirtualBox will select Operating system field and version automatically but make sure that you are keeping an eye on the same and it’s correct. If you are installing 64-bit Windows 8 OS then choose 64-bit version in the OS version list. After entering the required details click on next.

• In the next screen choose the RAM, Windows 8 need 1GB RAMS for 32-bit OS and 2GB RAM for 64-bit OS but if it is possible then choose higher amount of RAM compared to its minimum specification.

• When you get below screen then choose the hard disk or create a new disk by selecting "Create New Disk" option and click on next. I will recommend you to create new disk.

• Now in below screen you can choose disk type or leave it to default options and click on next.

• In next window you can select a fixed size disk or dynamically growing disk, I will suggest you to go with “dynamically allocated” option because you don’t know which all application you might be installing.

• You can choose disk space in next window for new virtual machine and click on next, Windows 8 Release Preview needs 20 GB space but you choosing extra space will be a better idea.

• Go through the summary of configuration you might have selected and click on create button to proceed. It will take some seconds for creating virtual machine and will redirect you to Oracle VM VirtualBox Manager once the process gets completed. You should be able to see the virtual computer you have created in left pane of VirtualBox Manager.

• Now double click on icon representing your new virtual machine in the left pane and choose the CD/DVD drive in “First run wizard” window for installing Windows 8. You simply have to click on folder icon and point it to Windows 8 Release Preview .ISO image and click on Next.

• If you get any warning then simply ignore it and proceed with the Windows 8 installation further until you get below screen.

Once you get this screen you just have to follow some further simple instruction for installing Windows 8 Release Preview successfully.

[Rodriguez_bronx]

Thanks for sharing , I haven’t tried installing Windows 8 Release Preview by now as I had come across people going through several issues. Anyways I will surely test it out with Oracle VM VirtualBox now.