Now that Windows 8 Developer Preview is available for public we are sure most of the ech savvy’s would have already attempted test Windows 8. Since this is prebeta release no doubt it will have many bugs and many features will not work as expected. Heck we don’t have many Windows 8 apps to try and test at the moment. The only Windows 8 beauty all of us looking for is try new metro ui interface of Windows 8.
It would be wise not to upgrade your current Windows 7 or vista to Windows 8 since once you have upgraded there is no way to uninstall or rollback and go back to your old OS. The other options are either to use another machine or hard disk or try it on virtualization software such as Vmware and Virtualbox.
Unfortunately none of the virtualization software are compatible with new Windows 8 bootprocess and it won’t be smooth process to get the Windows 8 Developer Preview working on Vmware. So we thought to document our successful Vmware installation steps. Before starting you must download & Install Vmware Workstation 8.0 for Windows as this is the only version of Vmware which is capable of installing Windows 8 & download Windows 8 Developer Preview from here.
How to Install Windows 8 Developer Preview on Vmware
1. Start Vmware WorkStation 8.0
2. Now go to file menu and create new virtual machine.
3. Select Custom (Advance) mode and click next
4. Keep hardware compatibility as “Workstation 8.0″ and click next
5. Now here is the important part, make sure you select “I will Install the operating SystemLater” and click next
6. Select Microsoft Windows and Windows 7 as guest operating system and click next.
7. Name the virtual machine and select location where files to be saved and click next.
8. Now click next till last stage leaving all the default options as it is. You may adjust maximum disk size as per your need.
9. Click on Finish button on virtual machine summary window.
10. Now select the Windows 8 virtual machine from the left side of navigation menu and select Edit Virtual Machine Settings.
11. Under Hardware tab select CD/DVD (IDE) from device list and on right side select Use ISO Image file and browse and select Windows 8 Developer Preview ISO image which you have already downloaded and click on OK.
12. Now power on Windows 8 Virtual Machine to start Windows 8 installation process on virtual machine.
13. Follow Onscreen instructions to complete Windows 8 Installation. On Which type of installation do you want select Custom (advance) option and select unallocated disk from the list and click next and finish Windows 8 installation.
That’s it now enjoy Windows 8 on your Vmware. Please note Metro UI apps doesn’t work on Vmware or Virtual PC.
Those who are finding it difficult to follow above guide here is video tutorial on how to install Windows 8 on Vmware Windows.
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