How to run Windows 8 in VirtualBox

The Windows 8 Developer Preview is out and, let’s face it, you want to give it a shot. Windows 8 marks a major departure from any other version of the OS and it behooves any geek to get out on the front lines of such an introduction. Even so, you might not have an extra computer lying around to install the young operating system on. Virtualization to the rescue.

Before getting started, we should keep in mind that virtualization isn’t exactly the optimum solution for testing. It’ll get the job done, but in all likelihood you won’t get a feel for the full speed or smoothness of Windows 8. Your virtualized machine probably won’t have a touchscreen either, so you’ll be missing out there as well. That said, it’s a free operation that isn’t too difficult to set up, so it’s worth the time if you are at all curious about Win8.

For this tutorial we’ll be using VirtualBox, Oracle’s free virtualization software. It’s quite accessible given how complicated the work it’s doing actually is, and it’s easier to work with than VMWare Player. Plus, reports from around the web indicate that VirtualBox plays more nicely with Windows 8 than VMware Player 3.x. VMware Workstation 8 does seem to getting along with Windows 8 well enough, but you’ll have to shell out some cash for that — and VMware Player 4 does seem to be capable of running Win8 but you need Workstation 8 to get that. So back to VirtualBox…

Follow these steps and you should have your computer running Windows 8 in no time:
Download Windows 8 and VirtualBox
Go into your computer’s BIOS and make sure virtualization is enabled. (Note, if you can’t find it look in the security settings.)
In VirtualBox create a new virtual machine, choose Windows / Windows 7 as the type.
During the initial installation process choose to create a virtual disk. You’ll need at least 20GB to get the job done. It’ll take a few minutes to create the disk. If you have an SSD you’ll want this file to live there to speed things up and better match the dev hardware’s performance.

With the virtual OS created, go into Settings. It’s time to start tinkering. (See the image below for a summary.)
Within System > Motherboard enable IO APIC. Also make sure the memory is at a reasonable amount, say 1500MB or more. Change the chipset to ICH9.
System > Processors enable PAE/NX.
System >  Acceleration enable VT-x/AMD-V and Nested Paging.
Display > Video move the video memory to 128MB (the max) and then enable both 3D and 2D acceleration.

Under Storage go to your virtual hard drive (.vdi) under the SATA controller. Make sure to click host I/O cache. Also make sure to mount your Windows 8 Developer Preview .ISO file. If you are using IDE make sure to move over to the ICH6 IDE controller.
Run the virtual machine and follow the standard Windows installation instructions. At this point it’s just like installing any other version of Windows.

Two quick notes: If you see a weird blinking error message saying something about “0xFFFFFFE6″ before Windows 8 starts to install, check step 2. You probably need to enable virtualization. Secondly, remember that these aren’t the only settings that will work; they are the ones that worked on my Intel Core 2 Quad/P45 desktop. Different settings could certainly work, depending on your situation. I do know this to be a stable environment though.

That’s all there is to it. At this point you should have a fully functional Windows 8 dev preview running within VirtualBox. Everything should work well (you’ll see this if it doesn’t), and be relatively quick, though that will depend on your computer and the settings you chose for the virtual machine.

Now, if you’ve had your apetite whetted and want to take Microsoft’s latest-and-greatest operating system for a real spin, read our guide on how to make a Windows 8 tablet!