Installing Windows 8 Preview in Virtual Box 4.1

Today Microsoft released a preview of windows 8. Naturally we do want to test it but knowing Microsoft we do not want to mess up our existing machines 🙂

So we install it on a virtual machine. As for now it does not work on VMWare. However, VMWare 8 will come out in a couple of days and it should support Windows 8.

As for now, we are going to use virtual box 4.1.

Note: click on the pictures if you want to see the full screenshot.

First download the files:

Virtual box:
http://download.virtualbox.org/virtualbox/4.1.2/VirtualBox-4.1.2-73507-Win.exe
Windows 8 Developer Preview:
http://wdp.dlws.microsoft.com/WDPDL/9B8DFDFF736C5B1DBF956B89D8A9D4FD925DACD2/WindowsDeveloperPreview-64bit-English-Developer.iso

Guide to install Windows 8 in Virtual Box 4.1

1. Install Virtual Box on your machine.
2. Start Virtual Box
3. Create a new Virtual Machine

4. Click Next to continue

5. Give your virtual machine a name. Also, select Microsoft Windows and Window 7 s (64-bit)

6. Give the VM at least 1GB ram

7. Select Create a new Disk and click next

8. Select VDI (virtualbox disk Image) and click next

9. Select Dynamically allocated and click next

10. Set the disk size (default is 20GB)

11. Click on Create to make the Windows 8 Virtual Machine

12. Click on Create again to continue

13. Start the newly created virtual machine

13. Click next to continue

14. Select the .ISO file you downloaded (clicking on the map icon)

15. Click on start to power on your VM

16. Select you country and language and press next to start the installation

17. Click on Install Now to start the actual installation

18. Accept the Microsoft License Agreement and click next

19. Select Custom Installation

20. Select the disk where you want to install Windows 8 and click next

21. Depending on your machine, it will now take 10 to 20 minutes to install Windows 8

22. The installation is finished and will restart the VM

23. Once Windows 8 is started. You have to accept the license Terms

24. Give your new computer a name and press next

25. select Use Express Settings

26. Fill in your Windows Live ID

27. Enter your Email address and your password

28. Windows 8 will setup your desktop for the first time

29.  And there we are. The new interface of Windows 8

Impressions of Windows 8 will follow on this blog.