Compatible virtual machine products for Windows 8 Consumer Preview

I am willing to try out Windows 8 Consumer Preview but then I don’t have an idea of the Compatible virtual machine products that can be used for installing a Windows 8 Consumer Preview virtual machine (VM), is there anyone who has an complete knowledge about the same and can help me out?? Any help regarding this will be highly appreciated.

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I am willing to try out Windows 8 Consumer Preview but then I don’t have an idea of the Compatible virtual machine products that can be used for installing a Windows 8 Consumer Preview virtual machine (VM), is there anyone who has an complete knowledge about the same and can help me out?? Any help regarding this will be highly appreciated.

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In that case I will like to inform you that all the below virtualization products have been tested out and are found to be working with Windows 8 Consumer Preview in basic scenarios but then in some cases there are special options which are required for loading the Windows 8 Consumer Preview in the virtualization product.
Functional:

• Hyper-V in Windows 8 Developer Preview
• Hyper-V in Windows Server 2008 R2
• VMware Workstation 8.0.2 for Windows -Make sure that you are using new virtual machine wizard and then selecting the option for “Windows 7” rather than using the “Easy Install” option for setting up the Windows 8 virtual environment using VMWare Workstation
• VirtualBox 4.1.8 for Windows - make sure that you are using VirtualBox config manager so as to “enable PAE/NX” for setting the Windows 8 virtual environment.
• Parallels Workstation 6 for Windows
• Parallels Desktop 4 for Windows
• XenDesktop 5.5

Non-functional:

• Microsoft Virtual PC
• Microsoft Virtual Server
• Windows 7 XP Mode
• VMWare Workstation 7.x or older

Even I have carried out some test and below are the results of the same:

• VirtualBox 4.1.8- it just keeps on freezing randomly, I have tried installing Guest Additions but then it did not made any difference.
• Oracle VM VirtualBox- I have used Oracle VM VirtualBox and have installed Windows 8 Consumer Preview and it is just working fine without any issues.

I also wanted to add that I had faced some issues with the installation of Windows 8 Developer Preview installation on Oracle VM VirtualBox but then not with Consumer preview, I just wished if they could have added support for the Windows 8 in the latest version (Oracle VM VirtualBox 4.1.8)

I don’t think that windows VirtualBox 4.1.8 is should give such response on the VirtualBox 4.1.8, I have found a no of people using the same without any issues, just wanted to know that had you followed the below steps for the installation, assuming that you are having the Windows 8 Consumer Preview ISO images and the Product Key.

• First open the VirtualBox and then create a new virtual machine and just make sure that you are choosing Windows/Windows 8 as the type but then if you are not having that option then you will have to update VirtualBox and in that case just be specific to get the version that will match your download.
• When performing the installation process just select the option for creating virtual disk, here you will need 20GB, it would be better if you use VDI (VirtualBox Disk Image) for virtual disk type, if you want then you can use others as well.
• Make use of a dynamically allocated disk for the virtual disk storage details instead of using a fixed size virtual disk.
• When you are done with the creation of the virtual disk then just go in to settings and start tuning.
• Now set the VM’s memory to 2GBs for a 32-bit Windows 8 instance where as 4GBs for the 64-bit version by going in to the System > Motherboard setting enable IO APIC.
• Once you are done with the above steps then make sure that you are changing the chipset to ICH9, if you want then you can use the PIIX3 chipset as well but then I have experience poor performance for it and that is the reason I recommend ICH9.
• Now go in to System > Processors and then enable PAE/NX, if you are having a fast machine with multiple-cores or CPUs then you can just set it to run with two or three processors. You can do that by going in to System > Acceleration and then enable VT-x/AMD-V and Nested Paging.
• After that just go to the left menu bar and then navigate to the Display > Video and then enable 3D as well as 2D acceleration, later you can just push the Windows 8 VM’s video memory to 256MB if required.
• When you are done with the above changes then navigate to the left and then go to which will be under the storage and then go under the left and click on host I/O cache, when you reach here then you will see the Windows 8 Preview .ISO file to be mounted already, if not then you can mount with IDE but then while doing this just make sure that you are using IDE with the ICH6 IDE controller.
• Now you can just start to run the virtual machine and then follow the standard Windows installation instructions.

I have followed the same solution and other than this I have also tried using my own settings as well but then I am still having the freezing issue, in my case I am having x64 version of Win 8, I have been facing random internet explorer crash, I am really running out of ideas and I don’t know what to do, I don’t think that there is anything wrong with my system as it is solid as a rock, previously I had made multiple stress tests for 24 hours on windows 7 and I never faced any crash on it but then I really don’t know why Windows 8 Consumer Preview virtual machine is appearing to be unusable, I have also tried reinstalling VirtualBox 4.1.8 but then it did not made any difference and I am still left with the same issue, everything is working fine on Oracle VM VirtualBox like I have already mentioned above.

I am using Mac Mini running VirtualBox 4.1.8 under OS X Lion and I have recently installed Windows 8 Consumer Preview, in my case I have allocated 2GB of RAM and 128MB video and it is just working fine with 1 and 4 virtual CPUs and 256MB video, I have checked out all the apps rather than the Xbox companion app and will be trying that soon as well, the mail, calendar, weather etc are just working fine without any issues, during the installation process it had got hanged once but then later I found that it was due to a mail, calendar, weather which I had fixed out after suspending and then restarting the virtual machine, since then I have not yet faced any issues with it, other than this I have also downloaded the VirtualBox 4.1.8 for Windows hosts for my brothers AMD powered 64 bit machine and had downloaded the ISO image as well and things are working great on his machine as well. So I think that VirtualBox 4.1.8 is the best compatible vm product for windows 8.