Microsoft just released Windows 8 Developer Preview (also known in some circles as “Milestone 3″). So I thought I’d give it a spin in Virtual Box. Unfortunately, the default settings for Virtual Box didn’t work quite right. Initially, I was getting error code 0xc0000225 during the installation start up. Then, after getting the OS installed, networking did not work. Here’s what I did to get things going with the x64 versions of Windows 8 guest using Virtual Box version 4.1.2 (the latest at the time of writing).
Boot errors (error code 0xc0000225)
In the System settings section for the Virtual Box VM, enable (check) Enable IO APIC on the Motherboard tab and Enable PAE/NX on the Processor tab.
Network adapter not detected
In the Network settings section, select the appropriate adapter tab (usually Adapter 1). Then click on Advanced arrow to expand/display the additional options. Select Intel PRO/1000 MT Desktop (82540EM) from the Adapter drop-down list. The Windows 8 guest OS will auto-detect this hardware and install the appropriate driver.
Install Virtual Box extensions in Windows 8 guest
With the Windows 8 guest OS running (of course!), select Devices | Install Guest Additions… from the menu on the VM window, as usual. When prompted about whether or not to auto-run the installer, choose to open the files in Windows Explorer. Then open a Command Prompt (I had to launch Task Manager, choose More details option, then select File | New Task (Run…) from the menu and enter CMD in the dialog prompt.) and navigate to the Guest Additions drive (probably D:\) at the Command Prompt. At the Command Prompt, run this command:
VBoxWindowsAdditions-amd64.exe /force
This forces the installation of the Guest Additions, which would otherwise fail because of invalid version check.
