How to install a Windows Guest on Mac OSX

[hewillaugh]

Tutorial: how to install a Windows guest onto Mac OSX

After much toil and searching about on this forum and elsewhere on Google, I've spent the better part of 2 days setting up and configuring Virtualbox 2.1.4 on a new Macbook (2009) to run Windows XP as a guest. Below I have outlined my steps, which others can feel free to add to, but which can hopefully serve as a useful resource to those seeking to do likewise.

I have Parallels 5 running on another Macbook (OSX Leopard, late 2008) and wanted to come as close to the user experience of Parallels only using FREE Virtualhost. Main features I am looking to replicate are:
- Coherence mode (Parallels) or Unity mode in VMWare; I came to discover Virtualbox (VB from here on out) calls it "Seamless mode"; on Parallels you usually also need to install an add-on pack called "Tools" to achieve this smoothly, in VB it's called "Guest additions"
- Sharing my Macbook hard drive w/ full read-write permissions with the Windows Virtual Machine (VM)

Definitions:
Running a Windows XP VM using VB is referred to by VB as a "guest" (maybe that's fairly obvious already)

Preconditions: brand new Macbook, running OSX Snow Leopard, was not concerned about any existing data, etc.

NOTE: After installing Virtualbox 3.1.4, Seamless mode worked for a while but shortly began to stop working. I found on this forum that 3.1.4 seems to "break" seamless mode and to switch back instead to 3.1.2. After switching back to 3.1.2, it did in fact fix Seamless mode, therefore I would recommend installing 3.1.2 instead of the latest version, which you can find here:
http://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/Download_Old_Builds_3_1

Along the process of install and restart, etc. sometimes the VM hangs when shutting down and doesn't shut down. If you encounter a prolonged shutdown, you can simply click the red close button on the top of the window and an option will be given to "Power Off"; I had to do this a few times. Step 5 below will address this.

1. Install Virtualbox 3.1.2
Used settings suggested here: http://blogs.sun.com/dfan/entry/installing_xp_on_mac_os
* Pick a name for your virtual machine
* Choose "Windows XP" in the OS type.
* Memory size should be at least 256MB.
* Disk size set at least 2GB
2. Install Windows XP (Open VB on your Mac, select the Windows XP instance, and click the green arrow icon, "Show"

The windows install CD will prompt you to format your drive; go ahead and do that and proceed to install Windows.

NOTE: some have mentioned difficulty in pressing "F8"; you do this by pressing the Function (Fn) key + F8 key together.

After Windows has installed, you will be prompted to restart; when the computer restarts, you will be asked once "Click any key to boot from disk...": do not click any key, wait a few seconds until Windows XP starts. After it has successfully restarted, shut down Windows using the Windows Start button (Start -> shut down) When the Windows Install CD appears on the desktop, eject it so that each time Windows starts again, you don't have to confront the same question about booting from disk.

3. Install Virtualbox's Guest Additions. You do this by clicking within the Virtualbox Windows XP instance (window); along the top menu bar, select Devices | Install Guest Additions. This should mount Guest additions and begin the install process. As it's installing, you will encounter several prompts asking you if you're sure you want to proceed because it may be unsafe, confirm to go ahead and continue.

4. Once installed, (you may need to restart) but now, by clicking along the top menu bar Machine | Seamless mode, it should switch over to Seamless mode, suppressing the windows background and leaving only the menu bar at the bottom (which you can autohide if needed).

5. I also experienced some difficulty in properly shutting down; I found a fix online (http://hawkinsdale.com/?p=241 sometimes this link forces you to redirect). You need to shut down your Windows VM and in the Virtualbox console, select the Windows XP instance, click on settings, select the Audio tab and switch the Audio Controller over to: SoundBlaster 16. Then, restart Windows, go to Control Panel, choose to install New Hardware, you can select, "Yes, you already installed the hardware, then on the next page on the Add Hardware Wizard, go to the bottom of the list and select the last choice, "Add a new hardware device", click Next, select to manually select from a list, Select Audio drivers, Then, go to Creative, and select the SoundBlaster drivers to install. Install, after this you may need to restart; this should fix your restart or shut down stall.

Note: Sometimes on start-up the window will be out of proportion, you can click on the top menu bar in Mac when VirtualBox VM is selected, Machine | Adjust Window Size.

[log111]

Frankly, I think Virtual box has no way to catch up with VMware and Parallel on Mac for it is free. I have no money to buy either of them so I prefer Virtual box. I also experience the difficulty as you are. Seamless mode is an elegant feature that needs much testing and programming labour. Even in VMware fusion(installed on my boss's machine) I find it not so handy: 1G windows 7 vm running on 4G Mac will still experience slowness and sometimes no response. So I suggest you not use seamless mode of Virtual box until someone will really appreciate it in the future...