Install Windows 8 Developer Preview In VirtualBox (Pictorial)

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Windows 7 (8) was a great success for Microsoft after the greatest failure of Windows Vista. Oh, Vista was horrible. I do not wanna remember those days when I used Vista for few days and quickly escaped back to Windows XP. Never mind. You may have read that Microsoft has just now launched Windows 8 Developer Preview (x86-x64). Developer Preview always come before beta release, so, if you are thinking to install it for regular use, do not do it. It is highly unstable release.

If I remember, this is first time I have installed any software using virtual machine. The installation went smoothly without any problem. I assume that you know how to use VirtualBox and you also know how to create fixed-size or dynamic drives in VirtualBox. When you will create disk volume for Windows 8 installation, remember to give at least 1.5 GB of RAM, 20 GB of hard disk, 64 MB video memory, etc. When you will create virtual drive, you will be asked VM Name, Operating System and Version. You can select name whatever you want, operating system as Windows and take version as Windows 7 (if you are installing 64bit, choose Windows 7 (64bit)).

Well Windows 8 Installation process is bit lengthy. I have made a complete pictorial for your help except a few photos are not included in the pictorial because those are related to virtual drive creation and I assume you know how to create virtual drive in VirtualBox.

First of all, you need to download Windows 8. Below are download links of both 32-bit and 64-bit versions of Windows 8. Download according to your mood.

Windows Developer Preview with developer tools English, 64-bit (x64)
DOWNLOAD (4.8 GB)
Sha 1 hash – 6FE9352FB59F6D0789AF35D1001BD4E4E81E42AF
All of the following come on a disk image file (.iso). See below for installation instructions.

• 64-bit Windows Developer Preview
• Windows SDK for Metro style apps
• Microsoft Visual Studio 11 Express for Windows Developer Preview
• Microsoft Expression Blend 5 Developer Preview
• 28 Metro style apps including the BUILD Conference app

Windows Developer Preview English, 64-bit (x64)
DOWNLOAD (3.6 GB)
Sha 1 hash – 79DBF235FD49F5C1C8F8C04E24BDE6E1D04DA1E9
Includes a disk image file (.iso) to install the Windows Developer Preview and Metro style apps on a 64-bit PC.

Windows Developer Preview English, 32-bit (x86)
DOWNLOAD (2.8 GB)
Sha 1 hash – 4E0698BBABE01ED27582C9FC16AD21C4422913CC
Includes a disk image file (.iso) to install the Windows Developer Preview and Metro style apps on a 32-bit PC.

1: Run Oracle VM VirtualBox and create a virtual disk for the installation of Windows 8.

2: Start (boot) the newly created volume and you will see few configuration windows. Choose the installation media. Just before the installation of Windows 8, you will see summary window, press start.

3: After this summary windows, if you select Start, Windows 8 installation process will start. Below is a pictorial of Windows 8 installation. It is quite easy. I did not include two or three photos because those were unnecessary.

Here I selected Custom (advanced) installation.

Here is you want, you can partition your virtual drive. I did not do it.

4: After first restart during installation, you virtual Windows 8 will restart two or three times.

On the below window, just tick the check box and press button Accept. On the next page, configure your Windows 8 settings like update, data sharing, etc.

5: After configuring settings, you will go to desktop. Your My Computer will look like this as below.