Windows 8 installation using virtual box: A guide

As we know that Windows 8 developer preview was shown by Microsoft in build conference. It allows windows 8 downloading and installation using developer preview which checks hard drive partition after verifying Windows 8 OS files without making full commitment for Windows 8 installation in separate drive. In order to install Windows 8 OS in your system, you have to maintain interactive user defined environment that removes synchronization problem for Windows 8 installation. It is power of virtual machine to allow Windows 8 applications to run in a Virtual PC environment without any disturbance.

First step is to grab Virtualbox either from USB drive or from online website. Once you select the software package then install the default package in your system. Once you have successfully installed the virtual box in your system then open a fresh copy of application and start creating your system environment in virtual PC. To start an environment, click on the giant New button at upper left corner of the app and then give a new name to your project. Then select Windows 7 as your operating system. During installation make sure that choice of OS whether 32 bit or 64 bit will exactly matches with Windows 8 version which you are downloading online.

Proceed to next step by clicking on next button followed by a new screen that asks for memory consumption requirement that you have to devote to your virtual operating system. According to estimations, Windows 8 32-bit version requires 1GB at minimum and Windows 8 64 bit version requires 2GB of memory. It is RAM utilization which affects the speed and execution of processes. If more RAM is allotted to Windows 8 applications then virtual environment works faster and in case less RAM is allotted to Windows 8 applications then virtual environment will have slow speed. After making your bit version choice, click on next button again to confirm that you are agree to verify bit version of installed Windows 7 OS with Windows 8 OS.

Get full access to your virtual hard disk by creating virtual disk to select dynamically allocated fixed size virtual hard disk drive for personal preferences. For this, I'll suggest to choose dynamically allocated disk on your system to make sure that virtual disk has at least 16 GB space allocated for 32 bit version and minimum 20 GB space allocated for 64 bit version. After that click on next button and create your virtual machine. It will create virtual environment and your virtual system is now ready to operate. Check the list of available machines and highlight settings button to support hardware virtualization such that you can give access to additional system resources. If you are not familiar with CPU configuration settings then check for Intel and AMD websites for further assistance. Match your CPU model and check "Advanced features".

After that click on storage sub menu, select IDE controller and click on CD icon for CD/DVD drive listing and finally choose virtual CD/DVD disk file, Windows 8.iso file for loading windows 8 OS. Now, click on OK button. The last step is to wait for the start button to appear and click on it to load virtual machine. Once you verify machine then keyboard and mouse capturing options will appear on screen and now you can experience virtual environment in Windows 8 OS.