Don’t move the ISO once the virtual machine is configured-otherwise, Windows 8 won’t work.Īt this point you’re ready to fire up the virtual PC for the first time. A file browser window will pop up in it, find and select the Windows 8 ISO that you downloaded. There, click the empty CD slot under the Controller: IDE entry in the Storage Tree, and then click the button marked with a CD icon on the far right side of the screen. Click the Settings button, and navigate to the Storage settings, using the left-side navigation panel. The next step is to put the install disc in the drive, figuratively speaking. Install Windows 8 In the Storage settings, click the empty CD slot under the Controller: IDE entry in the Storage Tree, and then click the CD icon on the far right side of the screen. As with RAM, don’t allocate all of your CPU cores to the virtual machine unless you want your main desktop OS to chug when Windows 8 is up and running. Click the Processor tab, and drag the Processors slider to the right to increase the number of cores available for Windows 8. If it is, click first the Settings button, and then the System menu. You can do this only if your processor supports hardware virtualization, so check the specs on your model to see whether virtualization is listed as a feature. One final way of improving your virtual machine’s performance is to give it additional virtual processor cores. If you plan to try out a lot of apps or desktops programs, set aside even more space if you have it available. You can probably get away with allocating Microsoft’s 20GB minimum, but we’d opt for VirtualBox’s recommended 25GB, just to be safe. Next, you must allocate enough storage space to install the operating system and have some room left over for applications. We recommend choosing the dynamic option. The latter is better for performance, but it will use up all of the space on your host drive at once. You must also decide whether to allocate your virtual hard drive dynamically or all at once. VirtualBox will ask you how much of your hard disk space it should use to create the virtual PC’s hard drive. Whichever version of the OS you use, it will run better with more RAM, though the 32-bit version of Windows can only handle no more than 4GB of memory maximum.Īfter you’ve allocated the RAM, click Create a virtual hard drive now. Yes, VirtualBox will let you run a virtual 32-bit operating system even if your physical processor is 64-bit. VirtualBox presents you with a slider bar for allocating RAM to your virtual machine. If devoting that much memory to the virtual setup would cripple your physical PC, you may not be able to run Windows 8 smoothly-or you might do better to run the 32-bit version of Windows 8, which requires only 1GB of RAM. Bear in mind that VirtualBox will consume that memory while it’s running. To get good performance in the 64-bit version of Windows 8, Microsoft recommends having at least 2GB dedicated to it we advise you to allocate at least 4GB, if possible. Next you must specify how much RAM to allocate to the virtual machine. Choose Windows 8, either ’32-bit’ or ’64-bit’, depending on the ISO that you downloaded earlier. The first menu will ask you to give your virtual PC a name, and to choose the operating system you’ll be installing. The first step down the road to a Windows 8-based virtual PC is to select ‘New’ in VirtualBox’s Machine dropdown menu. Next you’ll walk through a couple of simple configuration menus that will define your virtual PC’s “hardware.” Start by clicking the Machine menu at the top of VirtualBox and selecting New. You’ll need to create a new virtual PC for your Windows 8 installation. Older versions don’t offer native support for Windows 8, and VirtualBox’s latest releases have greatly improved system usability while running Windows 8 on a virtual machine. If you already have VirtualBox installed on your system, you can make sure that it’s current by clicking the Help menu at the top of the screen and selecting Check for Updates. Run the installer, and choose the default settings for all of the install options. While the Windows 8 ISO downloads, you should also download the latest version of VirtualBox for Windows. Wikipedia has a handy chart comparing the features available for the different editions of Windows 8, including Windows RT. Though some of those tools are come with with Windows 8 Pro, Windows 8 Enterprise users can’t download the Pro version’s $10 Windows Media Center pack (sorry, CableCard lovers). You also get IT-friendly tools such as BranchCache and AppLocker support. On the plus side, Windows 8 Enterprise packs some nifty features that you won’t find in the vanilla version of Windows 8, including BitLocker encryption, Hyper-V virtualization, and the intriguing Windows to Go, which allows the OS to boot from removable storage.
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