▷ How to install windows xp mode in virtualbox

In this article we are going to see how to install Windows XP Mode in VirtualBox. It has rained since those times when we used our beloved Windows XP. Even after the failure exit of Windows Vista and later of Windows 7, there were still users who used the quintessential Microsoft operating system. This system has not yet been forgotten by many, even Microsoft provides us with a free copy of this so that we can virtualize it under the operating system we have.

Index of contents

Virtualization has spread everywhere and proof of this is the large number of applications that exist to create our own machines within our main operating system.

VirtualBox is an example of this, and it is also free, so we will take advantage of it and the availability of Windows XP to unite everything and be able to create our own virtual machine in Windows 10, Ubuntu, Mac or whatever the system.

What is Windows XP Mode

This free-available package is nothing more than a complete copy of Virtualized Windows XP Service Pack 3. Although as we will see, this copy that we can download, in principle is intended to be used by a Windows own Hypervisor such as Virtual PC and now Hyper-V

This virtual machine comes in VHD format, although in principle the only thing we will see is an executable file from which we will have to extract what we are interested in. What is the problem? Well, when using a Hypervisor other than Windows, we will lose certain configuration files of the user license. Consequently, we will have an operating system without activating, each one can do what they want in this sense, the Internet is wide.

With that said, let's start with the installation procedure for this Windows XP virtual machine.

Install Windows XP Mode in VirtualBox

Before entering fully, we will see what we will need so that everything goes on rails.

Pre-installation steps

We are going to outline the programs that we are going to use during this tutorial. If you already have them all, go directly to the next section.

Install VirtualBox

We imagine that this we will have already done, since if you have entered here it is for something. Otherwise, what you have to do is download VirtualBox from its official website.

Install 7-Zip

7-Zip is the best compression program for operating systems, as demonstrated in our article on WinRAR vs 7-ZIP. The case is that we can download it for free from its website. The installation will be as simple as giving everything “ Next ”

Windows XP Mode

Of course we will need a copy of the operating system that we want to install. In this case we will have a direct copy of the virtual machine, so we will not have to carry out the typical steps to install the operating system.

We can download it directly from the Microsoft website. On this page we can select the language we want for Windows XP Mode and then click " Download ". We will select the file of " WindowsXPMode_es-es.exe ", since the N version is the same, but without the Windows media player.

Once everything is ready, let's begin.

Access Windows XP Mode virtual hard drive with 7-Zip.

Once everything is downloaded, we will directly open the 7-Zip program from our start menu. In its main window we have a file explorer through which we can go to the path where we have downloaded Windows XP Mode.

In our case, the path will be directly the downloaded folder. We will identify the Windows XP.exe file and right click on it. We must choose the option “ Open Inside ” (the one that has neither an asterisk * nor a pad #).

Now two files will appear and a folder called " Sources ", we must access it. Then click on the " xpm " file, to access another list of files.

In this list of files, we will have to identify the name " VirtualXPVHD ". Right click on it, and select " Copy to... ", and choose the directory where we want to place it. At this point, we could store it where we have more virtual machines, since as we will see now, this is the virtual machine itself.

Now we quickly go to the directory where we have saved it and we must change the name to it. We go into edit mode and put a dot . " ”Between“ VirtualXP ”and“ VHD ”, leaving the structure as follows.

Automatically the file will take the extension of a virtual hard disk as it is ". VHD ”. We can now go to VirtualBox to follow the procedure.

Create Virtual Machine Windows XP Mode with VirtualBox

Well, we are located in the main window of the Oracle Hypervisor and press the " New " button. In this way we will open the wizard for creating a virtual machine.

We must give the machine a name, assign it an amount of RAM memory and finally, most importantly, select the option " Use an existing virtual hard disk file ". In which case we will click on the right button to locate the newly edited file in the previous section. The result will be as follows, we will only have to click on the " Create " button.

Before starting the virtual machine we could make some extra configurations from the configuration of it. For example, we could activate the bidirectional clipboard in the " General " section and " Advanced " tab to be able to copy and paste files from our host to the virtual machine and vice versa.

We could also activate 3D acceleration to get better graphics in the virtual system. or even configure the type of network for our machine.

Once everything is in accordance with what we want, we will click on play to start the virtual machine. To interact with the screens that will appear now, we will have to go to the task bar of the virtual machine and click on " Enter " and then on " Mouse integration ".

A window will appear with the Windows XP license agreement, which we must accept to continue.

After some screens of the wizard, we will have to put our username and password, if we wish.

Surely the system will connect to the network and the window will remain completely black. At this point, we will have to click on " Machine " and choose " Restart"

The machine will restart and we will go back to obtain some steps to carry out the configuration that we want, regarding updates and others. It does not matter because Windows XP no longer has support for updates.

We will already have our virtual machine with Windows XP Mode fully functional. Now we can install the typical things like Guest Additions to improve operability or the programs we want.