Installing Windows 8 in VirtualBox

Installing Windows 8 on VirtualBox is very similar with Windows 7 installation, so there shouldn’t be any difficulties with it. I assume that you have downloaded the Windows 8 image, or at least will download it, since the Internet is full of torrents. Therefore, we will not stop at this step and will immediately create a virtual machine.

If you don't know how to work with VirtualBox program or you simply haven’t downloaded it yet, then write in the comments. I will definitely write detailed instructions for you.

↑ Create a virtual machine

Creating a new car is standard. I left all parameters at default.

1. Specify the name of the machine and select the bit size of the downloaded system.
2. We provide the machine with 2 GB of RAM.
3. Create or use a virtual disk, such as VDI.
4. Hard disk format - Dynamic.
5. And select the disk size.

↑ Setting up a virtual machine

Here, too, you can leave everything as is. But I allocated a little more resources.

What I changed:

System
- removed the floppy disk in boot order;
- added another processor core.

Display
- enabled 3D acceleration;
- installed 256 MB of video memory.

Media
In section IDE controller clicked on Empty and on the right, in Attributes, clicked on the disk icon and selected your Windows 8 image.

Installing Windows 8 on a VirtualBox machine

Here, of course, is the most interesting thing. We start our machine with Windows 8 and are immediately prompted to select a language. I installed Russian and on the next page clicked install. Next we are asked to enter the product key. If you don't know it, then it's probably in the image folder.

In the next step, we need to select the installation type. Choose Custom: Windows installation only. And then we have to split the disk into partitions. Select disk settings, create and apply. Ready. The installation has started.

It remains to configure a couple of parameters. You need to come up with a computer name, and then quickly configure the basic settings. The next step is to create an account with LiveID, for which you will be asked to enter your email address. Enter it whether you want or not. Next we will have to enter our name and password, just like in the good old days.

That's all for installing Windows 8. It's quite simple. You can install it on a real machine in the same way. But there is one more step left.

Set the resolution to full screen

Now that the installation is complete, we noticed that the image is not full screen. So we install guest OS additions. In the virtual machine menu, select Devices -> Install guest OS additions and go to my computer. We go into the drive and run the VBoxWindowsAdditions file and carry out the installation, after which you need to restart the computer. Use it to your health! Maybe someone will like it, but for now I’m sticking with Windows 7.