Windows 8 Consumer Preview Display ERROR.

[CowboyBradley]

No matter what I do I can't EVER get VirtualBox to give me atleast a 32bit display.

I'm currently running windows 7, with a windows 8 preview in virtualbox. It is up and running, but as it boots it always tells me that its currently set to 24bit mode and that I need to go into the Guest OS and change it to 32 bit. Well even when I was trying to run WinXP in virtual box, it wouldn't let me change a gosh darn thing. I'm getting really frustrated because I cant change the resolution on anything until I can get this solved.

Second question is: We're all aware of Indexing our computers in the Action center on windows 7 to enable the aero interface and unlock the full 64bit capability. I downloaded the 64bit version of Windows 8 but can't index it to get it out of its basic GUI.

Do you guys have any help you could offer to help me solve these issues? I'd love to really start playing around with win 8 but it sucks having it be 1024 by something resolution all the time.

Thanks for your help in advance.

[greggle]

I've got mine working in 32 bit, 1600 x 1200. Your setup is a lot like mine.

First, exit the VM, highlight the Windows 8 VM in the Manager. Right click and chose Settings.
Go down to Display, make Video Memory 256 MB. Check enable 3D acceleration and 2D acceleration.

Now restart machine and we need to setup Guest Additions. We'll let Oracle tell you how to do it:
Click Help in the VM menu. Expand the left-hand menu and click on Guest Additions. In the Table of Contents, click on Guest Additions for Windows. Follow the Installation directions. Important note: I had to manually mount the additions iso. Your mileage may vary. If the Devices | Install Guest Additions doesn't work, just follow the numbered steps in that help section.

Follow the guest addition prompts and reboot and hopefully you will have 32 bit and other resolutions.
Note: To change resolutions, click on the Desktop square and you leave the square Metro UI. You can right-click on desktop to set resolution. Knowing how Windows works, there are probably at least four ways to change resolution, but this is the way I found out how to do it.

To get back to the Metro UI, hoover over the lower left corner.

Have fun.

As to your second question, I have only one question: Huh? Can you please try and clarify? If you want to get rid of the square Metro UI, yes you can do a registry tweak to disable it. But click on desktop square and you have a Windows 7ish UI. Now if you want to get back to the Metro UI, just hoover over the lower left corner.

[greggle]

Bah, I guess the Guest Additions is not working under Windows 8 as of yet.

I discovered this after searching for why I can't get more resolution choices. I am looking for something that fits nicely in a window. Guess I will have to wait. At least my monitor is 1980 x 1200 so I can use the 1600 x 1200 setting in full screen.

So hopefully changing the video setting for the Windows 8 VM works out for you.

And in the future, we can setup Guest Additions for even more goodness.

[mpack]

A thread already exists to discuss Win8. Locking this one.