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With the launch of Windows 8's Consumer Preview, you're probably itching to spend some quality time with Microsoft's latest operating system. Although you may have already downloaded the ISO, we bet some of you haven't decided how you're going to install it.
Considering you've just met, we assume most of you aren't ready to clear a dresser drawer for Windows 8. Dual booting is popular, but in our experience, rebooting into a separate environment is more trouble than it's worth when you're just trying to sample beta (err, "preview") software. The same could be said for using the OS on a secondary PC near your primary rig.
Fortunately, running Windows 8 in a virtual machine solves all that: it won't remove your current OS, you can access it anytime you want without rebooting and it doesn't require any extra hardware. What's more, the test OS can be deleted in only a few mouse clicks.
User Comments: 54
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Sweet
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I tried this in VMWare player and got the error:
"Windows cannot read the <Product Key> setting from the unattend answer file."
You can get it running in VMWare Player too. I had an issue with installing it because I gave it the install iso during the setup. If you do this, it tries to do an automatic install which fails. Instead, click the option "I'll install the operating system later", go through the rest of the setup, and before you boot, open up the settings for the VM and click on CD/DVD, and locate the ISO image file for Windows 8 there. Doing this means you won't get the automatic installation of Windows 8, so the installation won't fail.
Reference: [link]
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Staff
Awesome. Thanks for sharing guest.
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Running it via VMware Fusion 4 on my MacBook Pro. Windows 8 is looking very ambitious, and that's a good thing.
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Virtual machine is slow, sometimes not giving you the full features, but running it on a hard drive can wipe the existing install. Instead do this:
* unplug your current drive and plug in a secondary drive only (prevents Windows installer from writing over to your existing install)
* Install pre-release version of Windows
* Shutdown, plug hard drives 1 and 2 in.
* Use the key on your keyboard (f12, esc, etc) to use the bios boot menu not a software OS boot menu. Hard drives are completely separate and you have the best mix of running a full install without the slowness of a VM.
However VM does always seem pretty easy depending if you don't like taking things apart.
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I'm planning to install Windows 8 in VirtualBox. Didn't read this guide because I've used VirtualBox enough, but it's nice that you provide it.
I wonder what effect running in a VM has on performance, though. Also VirtualBox isn't known for the most robust Direct3D support.
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No thanks.
I Bought Windows 7 and I'm not going to buy a minor upgrade with various insidious features built into it.
Moving to Linux after Win7.
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Thank you for the steps, but unfortunately, i am receiving an error which says,
Windows Recovery Environment
Your PC need to be repaired
error: 0x0000260
Any sugessions??? i am getting this error 5-10 seconds after i start the VDI
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Stupido said:
On Hexus there is a guide how to run it from a USB stick
I'm planning to try it on my laptop like that: there I have USB3 stick; I already tried linux like that and I like the approach...Now I need to figure out how can I make that USB acting as HDD... (I know I can install it in USB but that option messes the bootloader, and I don't like that...) If anyone can help/share some know-how, will be very much appreciated
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The only thing i want to know about Windows 8 is will it be 100% backwards com compatible at least to XP and have they pilfered my start button?
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How the hell do you get the start menu back!
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As a fyi, I had the developer preview installed just fine but for some odd reason I had to decrease the memory down to 1 gig for it to install the consumer preview in VirtualBox 4.1.8. After install I bumped the memory back up to 2048 and its running fine.
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Hey I downloaded the 64bit version and installed it in VirtualBox, but every time it boots VB gives me a notice window that says "This machine is operating in 24bit mode when it should be in 32. Please enter the guest OS and change the display settings to 32bit" ..except there's obviously no way to do that. I tried Indexing Win 8 like I do with win 7 to get the 64bit aero functioinality, but to no avail. Anyone have any suggestions??
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Guy's THIS Is why I keep spare hard drives around for my laptop and desktop system's, so I can experiment with new software without endangering my main computer.
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Works fine on VMWare ESX 5. Just create a default system as Windows 7 64bit, mount the Windows 8 ISO from the datastore and wallah. You can even enable all the 3D 'effects'. Only disadvantage is that you don't get sound since VMWare still haven't routed that through VSphere/Workstation apps. Everything works tho; apps, tiles etc. Minutes of fun for the whole family.
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What settings need to be entered into networking for Windows 8 to share the network connection of the Windows 7 host machine?
Using Virutual box
Widows 8 32bit
My workstation is windows 7 professional
Joined to a domain
The host box has a private IP of 10.x.x.x
I've tried various combinations but so far nothing connects
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RH00D said:
Guest said:What settings need to be entered into networking for Windows 8 to share the network connection of the Windows 7 host machine?
Using Virutual box
Widows 8 32bit
My workstation is windows 7 professional
Joined to a domain
The host box has a private IP of 10.x.x.x
I've tried various combinations but so far nothing connects
In the VirtualBox main window, go into the settings of the virtual machine and in the network settings you want to select "Bridged" from the drop down menu. It is set to work automatically with default settings, but I usually set it to bridged anyway since it's more full/complete than the default, which is NAT I think.
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LNCPapa said:
I'm having no issues NATing my Win8 CP build on Win7 Ent 64. Networking (and everything else) is working as intended with no customization.
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Hi, this is caused by the floppy drive from within VMWARE
If you disable it, it will definitely work
Regards
Chris
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@Windows Recovery Environment comment
I was able to solve this issue by making the following changes in settings after the VM was created and before I installed the OS.
In settings
Under System: Enable IO APIC
Under Processor: Enable PAE/NX
Under Acceleration: Enable VT-x/AMD-V and Enable Nested Paging
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I tried it out in this fashion last night, and it worked okay, but I couldn't get it activated. Tried to bridge the connection with the host machine but no dice. My network adapter isn't very traditional so I'd probably blame that for the issue. Otherwise the OS was fine... the setup options were a little confusing to me and having no START button seemed like heresy, but overall I'd say it's not bad.
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Been using it for the last hour and I find to show the start menu isn't very responsive. Its probably just the memory/ hdd I have allocated for it. I still prefer the start button over this. Will not buy.
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@Windows Recovery Environment comment
In settings
Under System: Chipset - ICH9
solved my problem
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I ****ing hate the Metro style.
So sad that Microsoft has so many employes and no one could came with a better idea than the ugly Metro style.
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m4a4 said:
If ANYONE knows what partitioning is, it absolutely will not overwrite your previous installation. Windows 8 even supports dual-booting so that it's practically hassle free. This even supports the quick launch features with Windows 8...
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