The Complete Guide To Install Windows 8 On A Virtual Machine [Guide]

This Guide is intended to give you the complete steps of how to install Windows 8 Developer Preview on your Virtual Machines, as preparing for the upcoming Windows 8 Consumer Preview available on 29th February.

For Those who haven't installed a Virtual Machines before, the first thing you should do is to download a Virtual Machines Player. There are three products to choose from. 

The VMware Player(FREE) and Workstation(TRIAL)
[No official Support for Windows 8 / Included in this Guide]

or the Oracle VM Virtual Box(FREE)
[Have Official Support for Windows 8 / Not Included in this Guide]

The Installation process of these software are straight forward.

The second step is to download Windows 8 Developer Preview from Microsoft Windows Dev Center (x64 for 64bits CPU, x86 for 32bits CPU)

It is an ISO disk image file.

[Click On The Screenshot To View It In Original Size]

The Guide To Install Windows 8 Developer Preview on VMware Player

1. Open VMware Player and click 'Create a New Virtual Machine'

2. Select the Second Option and click 'Browse' to direct it to the 'Windows 8 Developer Preview' ISO file and click Next

3. Select the Guest operating System as 'Microsoft Windows' and the Version 'Windows 7'. Click Next
(There is still no official support for Windows 8 yet because it wasn't out in the market'

4. Here you will need to type in your name only (Password is optional) Since we don't need a 'Windows product key'

5. You can ignore it, just simply click 'Yes' to proceed.

6. You can now name your Virtual Machine to any name you like, the Location by default is 'C:\User\Username\My Documents\Virtual Machines\Virtual Machine Name.
After that, click Next again.

7. In this page, you can choose the Maximum disk size, you can set it as long as you needed, I recommend you to have at least 20 GB. Choose 'Store' or 'Split', by default 'Split'
Click Next to proceed to the next page.

8. Congratulation, you are almost done here, just click into Customize Hardware and make changes. 

9. You need to give at least 1GB of RAM in order to run it a bit smooth.

10. After all that, installing might take some time. Eventually, you will get into the Account Creating Page, make you own account and you will be directed to the new Metro Dashboard!

The Guide To Install Windows 8 Developer Preview on VMware Workstation

1. The following are almost identical to the VMware Player Setup.
First, open VMware Workstation. and click 'Create a New Virtual Machine'

2. Select 'Typical' and click Next. 


The following steps are the same as the VMware Player setup, take reference to Step 2-9

3. After the installation, you can create an account and explore the new Windows.