Install windows 8.1 in virtualbox step by step (tutorial)

The final output of Windows 8.1 is just around the corner, and it is that it will become the most innovative operating system from Microsoft. It is currently available in its first version "Release Date" for testing for free.

We have prepared a tutorial on how to install this Preview version of Windows 8.1 with VirtualBox in just four steps. We take the opportunity to explain how you can solve the error "0x000000C4" during installation with versions prior to VirtualBox 4.2.16.

We currently have two ISO images available for installation. All of them in different languages: English, French, Spanish, Turkish. The ones that interest us are:

• Spanish 32 bits (x86) with a size of 2.8 GB

  Spanish 64 bits (x64) with a size of 3.8 GB

Minimum requirements:

• 1 Ghz processor with Execute Disable Bit technology.

  Graphics Card compatible with Directx 9 or higher. 1GB of RAM for the 32-bit version and 2GB for the 64-bit version. 20 GB of free hard disk.

1. Download Windows 8.1 Preview

You can download the image that best suits your needs and 32 or 64 bit platform from here. The download time with a good connection is about 30 minutes.

2. Install VirtualBox.

We also have to download VirtualBox in its latest version: Click to download. Like all Windows application installations it is simple and quite fast: everything follows. Our mother operating system is Windows 7.

3. Creation and configuration of virtual machine in VirtualBox.

The first thing we must do is create a virtual machine. Click on new:

We give it a name, for example: " My tests with Windows 8.1 ". As type we select: Microsoft Windows and the version we want: Windows 8.1 32 or 64 bits.

We have assigned the virtual machine 2048 MB of base memory, which is the recommended minimum for the 64-bit version. In the case of 32 bits, we would choose the amount of 1024 MB.

We select the option " Create a virtual hard disk now ", since we do not have any previously created and click on "Create" and select the option VDI (VirtualBOX Disk Image) and with size "Reserved Dynamic" to occupy on the next screen what you really need.

We have already created the virtual machine.

Right click on the virtual machine and select the option "Configuration" -> Storage from the drop-down menu. And we press the " + " button of Controller: IDE and we will look for the ISO image of Windows 8.1 inside our computer. Press accept -> accept and start the virtual machine.

4. Installing Windows 8.1 Preview

The installation begins with an installation wizard very similar to that of Windows 7 and Windows 8. Its installation has been quite fast, it took us a total of 9 minutes.

During the installation, he asks us for an activation key. This can be found in the same repository that we have downloaded the image (It may vary depending on the version).

For the hard disk format we have chosen the option "Custom: Install only Windows (advanced)", we choose our hard disk and the installation begins.

We chose the quick configuration: where we add a name to our team, which allows us to register in the Microsoft storage cloud : SkyDrive. (Non-mandatory step).

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We register our user, we authenticate ourselves with him and we already have virtualized our Windows 8.1!

Solution: Error in VirtualBox

To solve this problem we must start the system console of our Windows. If we have Windows 7 we go to Start -> Run: CMD and press Enter or accept.

First we will use the following command to identify the name of our virtual machines: "C: \ Program Files \ Oracle \ VirtualBox \ VBoxManage.exe" list vms "and enter. We get a list with all our virtual machines created on our computer with Virtualbox. You can have several: Ubuntu, Windows XP SP2 and Windows 8.1. We must keep the name that we will install Windows 8.1.

We write "cls" to clean the screen and insert the following command with the name of our virtual machine:

"C: \ Program Files \ Oracle \ VirtualBox \ VBoxManage.exe" setextradata " ”VBoxInternal / CPUM / CMPXCHG16B 1

Press Enter and type the word "Exit" to exit the Windows console.

We open Virtual Box and start the Windows 8.1 virtual machine. And we check that the error message disappears and we can start with the installation wizard (Return to the beginning of the article). The other solution is to download the new version that is already debugged.

It is quite common to have some problem, failure or error message during the installation as it is different hardware than the one used in this tutorial. We invite you to leave a comment with your experience with Windows 8 and Windows 8.1.