Installing Windows 8 Developer Preview on VMware Player in Windows 7

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It’s been a few weeks since Microsoft revealed its next version of Windows, though it’s just only a preview version aimed to the developers. If you haven’t tried or have tried as a virtual machine on VirtualBox, you can now try it out on VMware Player, a free virtualization desktop program from VMware. And here is how:

Download and Install VMware Player 4.0

VMware finally released a new version of 4.0 that is able to run Windows 8 Developer Preview on Oct. 4, 2011. Heard over here to get a copy of it. It’s free but requires you to sign up an account on VMware to download the software.

You will have to uninstall any previous version of VMware Player to be able to install the latest version. You will need to reboot your computer at least once to have everything ready.

Create the Virtual Machine

Launch the program, which got the same interface as the previous version. Click Create a New Virtual Machine, to open the New Virtual Machine Wizard.

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Select the Windows 8 ISO file you downloaded earlier from Microsoft as the Installer disc image file:

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Select both “Other” as the Guest operating system and Version.

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Follow the wizard to the end. Make sure you provide enough storage space, for example 40G, and do not select Automatic launch after the wizard. Increase the RAM to 1G or 2G before launch the virtual machine.

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Start installing Windows 8

Start the VM, the installation process will automatically kick in.

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After a few minutes, here you go, it’s almost there.

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Start setting up the profile.

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That’s it. You are all set. Now you’ve got a working Windows 8 virtual machine running off on VMware Player.

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However, it’s still not perfect. Even though I was able to manually change the screen resolution to better fit to my monitor, I wouldn’t be able to install VMware Tool which would allow me better operating the VM. I guess we will still have to wait until the beta comes out.

Anyway, here is the recap

1. Download and install the latest version of VMware Player.

2. Create a Virtual Machine with Others on both guest operating system and version.

3. Once installed, manually change the screen resolution.

4. Do not install the VMware Tool.

6 COMMENTS

  1. Thanks for the write-up. I couldn’t get it working on 64-bit (would get a dpc_watchdog_violation halfway through setup. Got 32-bit installed, but it can’t find drivers for the network adapter… not sure what to do about that…

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