Installing Windows 8 on a Virtual Machine with VirtualBox

We're going to create a virtual hard disk and use the file type virtual disk image again. The storage we're going to use is dynamic allocated, meaning that if more space is required, it will automatically allocate the same amount. However, if you prefer a fixed size, you can opt for that as well.

Next, we'll allocate about 20 GB of space for this Windows 8 CP. This will give us enough room to install and run the operating system without any issues. The virtual machine will then create a new virtual hard disk with the specified amount of space.

Now that we have created the virtual machine, we need to install the operating system on it. We'll start by hitting the "Start" option. This will bring up a friendly Wizard that will guide us through the installation process. In the "Media" section, we'll select the ISO file that we downloaded earlier. This is the Windows 8 customer preview that we'll be using to install our virtual machine.

After selecting the ISO file, we'll hit the "Next" button and then click on the "Start" button. The virtual box will then start installing Windows 8 in our virtual machine. This process may take some time, depending on the speed of your computer. If you're installing from a DVD drive, it will take longer.

As the installation progresses, we'll be presented with various options and choices that we need to make. In this case, we'll select the "Custom Install" option and choose the 20 GB of space that we allocated earlier. We'll then hit the "Next" button to proceed.

The installation process is almost complete, and now we need to enter the serial key for Windows 8. If you're using a BIOS with virtualization capabilities, be sure to select this option. Otherwise, select the "Key" option to proceed.

Once we've entered our serial key, we'll choose the language and location options. In this case, we'll stick with the default settings. We'll then hit the "Next" button to begin the installation process again.

The final step in the installation process is to set up Windows 8 on our virtual machine. We'll give it a name, select an account type (in this case, using an existing Microsoft account), and then click "Finish". The setup process should take only a few minutes, depending on your computer's speed.

Now that Windows 8 has been installed on our virtual machine, we can start exploring the operating system. We'll begin with the Metro interface, which is the default interface for Windows 8. As you can see, it's working as expected, and if we click on the desktop icon, we're back in the desktop environment.

Our virtual machine is now fully functional, and we can use it to test out Windows 8 without affecting our main operating system. To shut down the virtual machine, simply right-click on it and select "Shut Off". We can also tweak some settings if we'd like, such as increasing the number of processors or adjusting the memory allocation.

To start the virtual machine again, simply click on the VirtualBox shortcut and select the Windows 8 option. The virtual machine should now boot up, allowing us to continue using it as we would any other operating system. If we no longer need the virtual machine, we can delete it at any time by right-clicking on it and selecting "Delete".

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enhi there this is ranit from tech.com and in this video I'm going to show you how to install Windows 8 on a Windows 7 system I had done already a detailed video installation guide on dual booting between Windows 7 and a Windows 8 computer using the developer preview of Windows 8 but this method also works on this current Windows consumer preview so if you want to check out that video just check out that video for those details but quite a few of you guys have emailed me and you do not want to install a proper Windows 88 installation on your hard drive because you need to do stuff like partition Etc and you just wanted to play around with Windows 8 on a Windows 7 system and for you guys the ideal method to do this is by installing Windows 8 on a virtual machine and the advantage of installing Windows 8 on a virtual machine is that uh it won't touch existing files on your Windows 7 system and also if you want to remove the same it is really easy so let's get on with installing Windows 8 on a virtual machine before we start installing Windows 8 we need a few things and the first thing that we need is a virtual machine and we're going to use this Oracle virtual box it's free to download just go to virtualbox.org and click here and download the windows version I've already done the same and uh we also need to download the uh Windows 8 consumer preview just go to this link and click on the iso formats just scroll down and download the iso you have both the 64 or the 32 just select one and download the same also do make a note of this serial key that uh you'll be requiring so just copy that and paste it in a notepad and I have downloaded the virtual box so we're going to install the same so we're going to install the virtual box in C drive the default location as of now so just follow the instruction and uh the virtual box uh would be installed in a few minutes and it the virtual box is already installed so I just click on the same and it gives us a welcome screen now you can also get detailed help regarding virtual Box by pressing the F1 and now we going to hit the new Option and create a new virtual machine and we're going to name it as Windows 8 Windows 8 CP is customer preview and it automatically detect uh said that it's Windows 8 pretty nice and we press next and this is important the amount of memory uh that we want to allocate to our virtual machine uh the default is 1 GB uh that should be enough for Windows 8 but I have sufficient Ram so I'm going to pull it to about 1.5 GB and I hit next so it says that it's going to uh allocate about 20 GB of space for this new virtual hard disk and 20 GB is more than enough for installing Windows 8 so we're going to use that and we're going to use the file type virtual disk image again the storage I'm going to use the dynamic allocated uh that means that if uh more space is required it automatically allocate the same but if you want a fixed size you can opt for that so I just hit next uh we are allocating about 20 GB of space for this Windows 8 CP and now it gives a summary what's it's going to do and I'm just going to hit create and Windows 8 uh we have created the virtual machine but now we need to install uh what do you say uh the operating system on the same so I'm going to hit the start option and again it uh brings up a friendly Wizard and here in the media I'm going to select the ISO file that we had downloaded the Windows 8 customer preview so just select the ISO file and hit next and you just hit the start button now and now the virtual box should install Windows 8 and it's installing the Windows 8 now in our virtual machine let it install this is going to take some time and we hit the install now option and we need to enter the serial key also uh in your bios options uh it is advisable that you select the virtualize option if you have that and here we going to select the custom install option and we're going to select the 20 GB of space that we have selected and we just hit next and now it should quickly just uh install the files as all as the iso is already on my hard drive it installed pretty fast but if you're installing it from a DVD Dr drive it will take some time so let the installer do its stuff and this is after about 2 or 3 minutes the expanding of files is almost done and now the virtual machine is going to reboot itself let it reboot and you can click this restart button and just press okay again and let it boot don't do anything it's going to boot on its own and now again uh the Windows 8 is installing and again the speed will depend upon the speed of your computer I'm using an SSD so it's uh doing it pretty fast right now and again uh it's restarting the virtual machine let it do its stuff and now uh window post it has been set up and I'm just going to give it a name I'll call it Virtual Machine 8 virtual machine Windows 8 and hit next I'm going to use the express setting I already have a account set up so I'm going to use that Microsoft account if you don't have you can sign up directly now uh and I'm just going to give it my name and that's it we have almost uh done setting up Windows 8 on our virtual machine do note that the virtual as it's a virtual machine uh Windows 8 will run a little bit slower uh don't expect it to run as good as you run it on a native installation but again it should give you a pretty good uh idea about using Windows 8 interface and here we have the Metro interface it's working as you can see and if we click on the desktop we are back in the desktop so our virtual machine is working perfectly and this way you can install Windows 8 on a virtual machine and to shut down uh this virtual machine it's pretty easy just go here and this corner first shut off Windows 8 power it off and that's it your virtual machine is closed also you can tweak around a few settings if you'd like on your virtual machine just right click on the same and here in the settings tab and here in the basics options just go to the system and here in the processor uh you can increase the number of processors for example I'll increase it to two processors because uh I'm using an i7 I can uh give it a little bit more oomph and uh you can also increase the amount of memory you like but I guess this much is enough so and again uh if you want to start Windows 8 virtual machine it's pretty easy just click on the Oracle VM shortcut and here in the Windows 8 option just click the start option and windows Windows 8 should again boot in the virtual machine so this way you can start and shut off uh Windows 8 in the virtual machine also if you have done testing this uh Windows 8 virtual machine and you no longer want it to be on your computer just right click on the same and you can just delete this Windows 8 virtual machine so this is how you install Windows 8 on a virtual machine I hope you found this video helpful uh do subscribe to my channel to be notified about my future videos that's for now this is ranit from Tech tos.com and hopefully I'm going to see you in my next videohi there this is ranit from tech.com and in this video I'm going to show you how to install Windows 8 on a Windows 7 system I had done already a detailed video installation guide on dual booting between Windows 7 and a Windows 8 computer using the developer preview of Windows 8 but this method also works on this current Windows consumer preview so if you want to check out that video just check out that video for those details but quite a few of you guys have emailed me and you do not want to install a proper Windows 88 installation on your hard drive because you need to do stuff like partition Etc and you just wanted to play around with Windows 8 on a Windows 7 system and for you guys the ideal method to do this is by installing Windows 8 on a virtual machine and the advantage of installing Windows 8 on a virtual machine is that uh it won't touch existing files on your Windows 7 system and also if you want to remove the same it is really easy so let's get on with installing Windows 8 on a virtual machine before we start installing Windows 8 we need a few things and the first thing that we need is a virtual machine and we're going to use this Oracle virtual box it's free to download just go to virtualbox.org and click here and download the windows version I've already done the same and uh we also need to download the uh Windows 8 consumer preview just go to this link and click on the iso formats just scroll down and download the iso you have both the 64 or the 32 just select one and download the same also do make a note of this serial key that uh you'll be requiring so just copy that and paste it in a notepad and I have downloaded the virtual box so we're going to install the same so we're going to install the virtual box in C drive the default location as of now so just follow the instruction and uh the virtual box uh would be installed in a few minutes and it the virtual box is already installed so I just click on the same and it gives us a welcome screen now you can also get detailed help regarding virtual Box by pressing the F1 and now we going to hit the new Option and create a new virtual machine and we're going to name it as Windows 8 Windows 8 CP is customer preview and it automatically detect uh said that it's Windows 8 pretty nice and we press next and this is important the amount of memory uh that we want to allocate to our virtual machine uh the default is 1 GB uh that should be enough for Windows 8 but I have sufficient Ram so I'm going to pull it to about 1.5 GB and I hit next so it says that it's going to uh allocate about 20 GB of space for this new virtual hard disk and 20 GB is more than enough for installing Windows 8 so we're going to use that and we're going to use the file type virtual disk image again the storage I'm going to use the dynamic allocated uh that means that if uh more space is required it automatically allocate the same but if you want a fixed size you can opt for that so I just hit next uh we are allocating about 20 GB of space for this Windows 8 CP and now it gives a summary what's it's going to do and I'm just going to hit create and Windows 8 uh we have created the virtual machine but now we need to install uh what do you say uh the operating system on the same so I'm going to hit the start option and again it uh brings up a friendly Wizard and here in the media I'm going to select the ISO file that we had downloaded the Windows 8 customer preview so just select the ISO file and hit next and you just hit the start button now and now the virtual box should install Windows 8 and it's installing the Windows 8 now in our virtual machine let it install this is going to take some time and we hit the install now option and we need to enter the serial key also uh in your bios options uh it is advisable that you select the virtualize option if you have that and here we going to select the custom install option and we're going to select the 20 GB of space that we have selected and we just hit next and now it should quickly just uh install the files as all as the iso is already on my hard drive it installed pretty fast but if you're installing it from a DVD Dr drive it will take some time so let the installer do its stuff and this is after about 2 or 3 minutes the expanding of files is almost done and now the virtual machine is going to reboot itself let it reboot and you can click this restart button and just press okay again and let it boot don't do anything it's going to boot on its own and now again uh the Windows 8 is installing and again the speed will depend upon the speed of your computer I'm using an SSD so it's uh doing it pretty fast right now and again uh it's restarting the virtual machine let it do its stuff and now uh window post it has been set up and I'm just going to give it a name I'll call it Virtual Machine 8 virtual machine Windows 8 and hit next I'm going to use the express setting I already have a account set up so I'm going to use that Microsoft account if you don't have you can sign up directly now uh and I'm just going to give it my name and that's it we have almost uh done setting up Windows 8 on our virtual machine do note that the virtual as it's a virtual machine uh Windows 8 will run a little bit slower uh don't expect it to run as good as you run it on a native installation but again it should give you a pretty good uh idea about using Windows 8 interface and here we have the Metro interface it's working as you can see and if we click on the desktop we are back in the desktop so our virtual machine is working perfectly and this way you can install Windows 8 on a virtual machine and to shut down uh this virtual machine it's pretty easy just go here and this corner first shut off Windows 8 power it off and that's it your virtual machine is closed also you can tweak around a few settings if you'd like on your virtual machine just right click on the same and here in the settings tab and here in the basics options just go to the system and here in the processor uh you can increase the number of processors for example I'll increase it to two processors because uh I'm using an i7 I can uh give it a little bit more oomph and uh you can also increase the amount of memory you like but I guess this much is enough so and again uh if you want to start Windows 8 virtual machine it's pretty easy just click on the Oracle VM shortcut and here in the Windows 8 option just click the start option and windows Windows 8 should again boot in the virtual machine so this way you can start and shut off uh Windows 8 in the virtual machine also if you have done testing this uh Windows 8 virtual machine and you no longer want it to be on your computer just right click on the same and you can just delete this Windows 8 virtual machine so this is how you install Windows 8 on a virtual machine I hope you found this video helpful uh do subscribe to my channel to be notified about my future videos that's for now this is ranit from Tech tos.com and hopefully I'm going to see you in my next video\n"