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Hello All, I downloaded the Windows 8 Dev. Preview, and virtualbox, installed virtualbox, and then from within virtualbox, installed Windows 8 Dev. Preview without any issues at all.

The Windows 8 Dev. Preview appeared to install much like Windows 7 but about 5 times faster.

After the Windows 8 Dev. Preview installation, I opened it in virtualbox and it opened and ran as I expected.

I played around with Windows 8 Dev. Preview in virtualbox for about an hour and had not a single issue.

Windows 8 Dev. Preview, by default set the screen resolution to 800x600, and I was able to change it to any resolution I wanted.

I did not experience any slowness of lockups, freezes or any other issue that you might expect.

I can say that I was not all that impressed with the Windows 8 Dev. Preview, but I also realize this is still in the development phase as the name suggest. It will get better over time.

Kudos to virtualbox for the support for this Windows 8 Dev. Preview, at least on my system.

Just some thoughts.

Both machines I've tried this on so far are running a Windows 7 x64 host OS. I was able to install 8 Preview on Virtualbox while using a SATA, AHCI virtual disk controller, but only on my desktop host machine. Using my laptop as a host, the installer repeatedly failed when the the "Unpacking files" portion was 98% complete, but switching the disk controller to IDE fixed that. Weird.

Again on the desktop host, I can run Windows 8 at up to my monitor's native resolution of 1600x1200. Performance is kinda awful, even with 2D Acceleration enabled in the VM settings. My laptop has a 1366x768 screen, but the only resolution that's even close is 1024x768. It seems a bit odd that 8 supports only 4:3 and 5:4 resolutions, given the way 16:9 displays are constantly being crammed down our throats, but then again this is a very early version of the OS. I suppose that's also down to the lack of Guest Additions.

Performance is better on my laptop, which has both a better CPU (Core i5-2410M vs. Core 2 Duo E8500) and more RAM (8 GB vs. 4 GB). I allocated 2 GB to each VM, as recommended for the x64 version of the 8 Preview.

I don't hate the Metro GUI, but it is definitely unfamiliar. Took a while to figure out that moving the mouse to the bottom-left corner brings up the Start menu. Some things have been moved in not-so-logical ways, such as the shutdown/restart functions now being in the "Settings" menu rather than having their own button off Start. I still haven't figured out how to quit Metro apps, once started, other than killing them through Task Manager.

It doesn't appear Windows 8 will be anything revolutionary, unless maybe you have a touchscreen.

Sasquatch wrote:

BajaPaul wrote:and added a processor.

How's Windows 8 handling the change from uniprocessor to multiprocessor? Current versions slow down considerably.

BajaPaul are you sure Win 8 is using the extra CPU? In all previous versions of Windows NT there is a Uniprossesor and Multiprocessor kernel and the installer picks which one to use based on how many CPUs are present at the time of the installation. If the VM only had 1 CPU during reinstall it may not be using more than 1 CPU. Check in task manager to see if it sees the other CPU.

BajaPaul wrote:Sasquatch, I not here to get in a pissing match with you! What I mentioned above is what I did, or had to do, and it all worked for me! I was just trying to share what I figured out with others who may have a problem and want help! Obviously know-it-alls like you know everything already so don't need any help (yeah right)!

Sure, start a fire why don't you.

The GA's installed just fine for me! I installed them using the "Windows Program Compatibility Troubleshooter" on the Action Center page. My mouse was flaky until I enabled the absolute pointing device option, and, that option popped me a message that I needed to install the Extension Pack, so I did. My mouse works perfectly now in the W8 VM.

I just pointed out what doesn't work and what shouldn't be required. As you can read in the posts after yours, basic mouse operation is fine without Absolute Pointing Device or the Extpack.

Enabling another core in the VM didn't seem slower, or necessarily faster, but seeing that my host has 12 cores, it was no skin off my ass! My W8 VM seems just as responsive to me as my host!

It's good that you don't notice any performance issues after you enabled a second core. What does your Host task manager say? Do you see one core or more under heavy load, or more than average? I'm really curious, because I currently don't have the rig to run W8 preview (no hardware virtualisation).

Selden, It seems to be about half Areo! lol. There's some transparency and effects going on, but it's not the same as on my host! All the corners are squared on the windows. It's not quite basic either. Seems to be half way in between! Strange......

BajaPaul wrote:Selden, It seems to be about half Areo! lol. There's some transparency and effects going on, but it's not the same as on my host! All the corners are squared on the windows. It's not quite basic either. Seems to be half way in between! Strange......

I think the squared corners on the Windows and Window buttons are just the new style of Aero. I see it on my Laptop too which fully supports Aero.

Both my cores are showing up under tasks manager. My host shows 12, so I think I am seeing it right!

I installed Win8 with the default 1 CPU enabled in VB. I later increased that to 2 CPUs in VB. Both are fully utilized.
Evidence:
Win8's task manager reports having 1 physical processor and 2 virtual processors.
When running no CPU-bound programs, Win8's task manager shows about 2-5% utilization.
When running 1 CPU-bound program, Win8's task manager shows about 60% utilization.
When running 2 CPU-bound programs, Win8's task manager shows 100% utilization,
and task manager on the host Win7 system shows about 25% utilization (i.e. 2 out of 8 virtual cores).

Yep, two CPUs seem to work fine. I am running the 32-bit version of the Win 8 DP (smaller download).

I did note that it hangs using the ICH9 chipset but is fine with PIIX3 on my system.

BajaPaul wrote:Both my cores are showing up under tasks manager. My host shows 12, so I think I am seeing it right!

W8 Task Mgr.jpg

Did you do the registry hack to disable the new Metro Start screen? You're screenshot shows an older version of Task Manager and the confidentiality notice on the desktop. I tried the registry hack just to see what it did and I got the same confidentiality notice on the desktop.

Nice little utility lets you toggle back and forth between Metro and Windows 7 mode! Works good!

http://solo-dev.deviantart.com/art/Wind ... -258422929

kajje wrote:

erfg12 wrote:My System > Acceleration tab is greyed out. But i set all the other settings...

I get the error to restart my system..

Hello,

I had also this problem, but i can confirm that you need to enalbe virtualization in your BIOS. I saw someone has replied that solution here and i tried it by myself. At least that is maybe one of many solutions.

Kajje

I just wanted to say THANK YOU. I almost gave up trying to install Windows 8, but the tip about going thru BIOS to enable virtualization really helped. Thanks again!

Having just been told that I need hardware BIOS virtualization enabled (Which my laptop does not have) can we expect a future version of Virtual Box to emulate this feature? Or maybe any forthcoming Release Candidates of Win 8 will not require this?

Elsewhere I described my problems getting Windows 8 Developer Preview (32bit version) working on my XP Pro 32bit host. Various recommendations for VM settings both in that thread (since locked) and this one did not help. I can confirm that I now have it working, and the important change was to ensure that VT-x is available and enabled in the host PC's BIOS.

This experience was valuable to me since I was under the mistaken belief that VT-x was enabled on my PC. I assumed that if VirtualBox allowed me to select VT-x for a VM, then VT-x must be available. It seems that I was wrong, because the Win8 experience made me check the BIOS... and it was disabled. Not a problem before because I only run 32bit VMs.

Enable that option and the Windows 8 install ran through with no problems at all. ... the mouse and keyboard did however seem to lock up after 15 minutes or so of idleness. I think the screen was frozen, but hard to tell when it wasn't accepting any input. In the meantime I've disabled all those hippy friendly power saving options so we'll see if that works around the problem.

I can tell you the result of my Win8 evaluation right now - that metro interface is loathsome! I can see how it might be useful on a touchpad, but since I don't own one - and will never own one - that interface is no use to me. Come back start menu, all is forgiven! (ps. I'm aware there's a registry hack for the start menu).

[ Edit ]. No, the power saving tweak did not fix the lockup problem. I also notice that the VM ignores the ACPI shutdown signal when in that condition, so I have to power off the VM. I should mention that the PC I'm testing with is still running VBox v2.0.8, never got around to updating. I will tho.

Birdie, thank you for your effort and post. Your solution worked like a champ. The host is Solaris 11 Express running VBox 4.1.2 and Windows 8 runs nicely. Now all I have to do is figure Windows 8 out. I'm using it for iTunes to my iPad. I prefer Solaris for everything else.

Ron