Click Next.Īnd that’s it: click Create, and your virtual machine should appear on the list.

Microsoft recommends 16GB for 32-bit Windows 8 and 20GB for 64-bit, but we’d recommend you allow more if you can spare it: 30GB should be more than enough. Now you need to think about the amount of hard drive space you’re willing to allocate to the operating system. Click Next.Īccept the three subsequent default options - create a new hard disk, in the default VDI format, dynamically allocated - clicking Next for each. If performance seems poor you can always allocate more later. Microsoft recommends 1024MB for 32-bit Windows 8, 2048MB for the 64-bit edition, and that’s a reasonable place to start. Give your virtual machine a meaningful name - Windows 8 Consumer Preview, presumably - then choose Microsoft Windows as the operating system, and Windows 8 (or Windows 8 – 64 bit if that’s what you’ve downloaded) as the version.Ĭlick Next, and use the slider to choose how much RAM will be allocated to your VM. Launch VirtualBox, and click New > Next to launch the Create New Virtual Machine wizard. (If you’re not sure, click Start, right-click Computer, select Properties and check “System type”. Then download a copy of the Windows 8 Consumer Preview, either the 32-bit or 64-bit edition, depending on which version of Windows you have. Or, if you have it already, make sure you’ve an up-to-date version (click Help > Check for Updates).

Start by downloading and installing a copy of the latest Oracle VirtualBox.

Windows 8 virtualbox image download