Running Windows 8 Developer Preview as Virtual Machine on Windows 7, What’s Working & What’s not

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We finally had the opportunity peeking what Windows 8 will really look like. And some of you are dying to try it on as a VM running on your Windows 7. Here is a list of things that we found out so far what’s working and what’s not. And feel free to feed us your tricks in the comment.

[Update on Sept. 16, 2011]

The Building Windows 8 blog just posted a guide about running Windows 8 Developer Preview on Virtual Environment. You can check it out but most of the stuff there are already covered here.

Requirement

  • 64-bit hardware
  • Hyper-V or AMD-V needs to be enabled on your BIOS. (Here and here to check if it’s enabled)

What’s working

  • Native VHD Boot, here is how. This works the best so far.
  • VirtualBox 4.1.2 with 64-bit of Windows 8 Developer Preview, with limitation without Guest Additions. Here is how. See this post for how to add additional screen resolution that’s not listed in the default.
  • VMware Fusion 4 which is just released today on Mac, by setting up as Windows 7 64-bit machine. Unfortunately, it works the best so far.
  • VMware Workstation 8.
  • VMware Player 4, here is how.
  • Parallels Desktop for Mac 7.0.14924.699487 (**UPDATED Oct 6th, 2011**)

What’s not working

  • Windows Virtual PC
  • VMware Player 3.1.4
  • VMware Workstation 7
  • 32-bit of Windows 8 Developer Preview

We will be updating this post once we have new information. Again, please feed us any tips or tricks you have to make Windows 8 work as a VM on Windows 7 in the comment.

6 COMMENTS

  1. I have the 32bit version working in vBox 4.1.2 with the following setup:

    Windows 7 selection
    768MB RAM
    Motherboard: Enable IO APIC
    Motherboard: uncheck Enable absolute pointing device
    Processor: Enable PAE/NX
    Acceleration: Enabled VTx and Disabled Nested Paging (my processor doesn’t support it (E6300).

    The only other setting I changed from default was the storage type for the HDD. I used IDE rather than SATA and it worked. Using SATA caused the installation to stop at random points.

    Guest additions will not install.

  2. Windows 8 >>> Made for Dummies?

    While it’s powerful underneath 100% inprovement, the waterdown childish cell phone look makes me wonder where the MS Rev’s will be coming from?

    MS should price VM Windows 8’s walmart style as low as possible to attract new customers without binkies.

    Businesses won’t like (or change to) social anything as productivity could be hampered. make sure theres a revert to old menus in under 20 seconds for old schooled employers.

    Other than that, I understand it’s about revs but major changes we don’t like. Just ssk our president?

    Mikeinnyc

  3. Wow, superb blog layout! How long have you ever been running a blog for? you make running a blog look easy. The full look of your web site is great, as smartly as the content!

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