{"id":776,"date":"2011-09-14T08:24:17","date_gmt":"2011-09-14T13:24:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/anildesai.net\/index.php\/2011\/09\/windows-8-developer-preview-virtualization-options-vmware-workstation\/"},"modified":"2011-09-19T16:25:14","modified_gmt":"2011-09-19T21:25:14","slug":"windows-8-developer-preview-virtualization-options-vmware-workstation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/anildesai.net\/index.php\/2011\/09\/windows-8-developer-preview-virtualization-options-vmware-workstation\/","title":{"rendered":"Windows 8 Developer Preview: Virtualization Options (VMware Workstation)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/anildesai.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/09\/image.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" style=\"background-image: none; border-right-width: 0px; margin: 4px 10px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: inline; float: right; border-top-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; padding-top: 0px\" title=\"image\" border=\"0\" alt=\"image\" align=\"right\" src=\"https:\/\/anildesai.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/09\/image_thumb.png\" width=\"244\" height=\"95\" \/><\/a>For those of us developers that are itching to get our hands (and fingers) on the recently release <a href=\"http:\/\/msdn.microsoft.com\/en-us\/windows\/apps\/br229516\">Windows 8 Developer Preview<\/a>, you might hit an unexpected snag.&#160; If you\u2019re like me, the first thing you tried after downloading the bits was to create a new virtual machine in your favorite desktop virtualization platform (most likely Microsoft Windows Virtual PC or VMware Workstation).&#160; However, after creating and booting the VM and attaching an ISO, I encountered the following error:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>VMware Workstation internal monitor error<\/p>\n<p>vcpu-O:NOT_IMPLEMENTED vmcore\/vmm\/intr\/apic.c:1903<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/anildesai.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/09\/image1.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" style=\"background-image: none; border-right-width: 0px; margin: 4px 10px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: inline; border-top-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; padding-top: 0px\" title=\"image\" border=\"0\" alt=\"image\" src=\"https:\/\/anildesai.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/09\/image_thumb1.png\" width=\"482\" height=\"349\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Unfortunately, it looks like VMware Workstation 7.x platform (and, reportedly, VirtualPC, though I haven\u2019t tested it myself), does not yet support Windows 8.&#160; Perhaps I should have realized that a lot of the undercover boot and CPU optimizations would require an architectural shift to support the required CPU commands.<\/p>\n<h3>Options That Should Work<\/h3>\n<p>Though this might not be ideal for all users, there are several options to get the Developer Preview of Windows 8 running in a virtual machine:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Use <a href=\"http:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/server-cloud\/windows-server\/hyper-v.aspx\">Microsoft\u2019s Hyper-V<\/a>: If you have a Windows Server 2008 or 2008 R2 installation (or the stand-alone <a href=\"http:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/server-cloud\/hyper-v-server\/default.aspx\">Hyper-V Server<\/a>), you should be able to spin up a new Windows 8 VM quickly and easily.&#160; It\u2019s not desktop virtualization, but if you have a spare machine that supports Hyper-V\u2019s CPU requirements, you should be all set. <\/li>\n<li>Wait for the release of <a href=\"http:\/\/www.vmware.com\/products\/workstation\/index.html\">VMware Workstation 8<\/a>.&#160; While I haven\u2019t yet tried it myself, there are reports of people having success with the beta of the upcoming release of VMware\u2019s Workstation production.&#160; A beta virtualization stack with a Developer Preview OS &#8211; How\u2019s that for living on the edge?&#160; It looks like the product is officially available from VMware now and you can request a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.vmware.com\/tryvmware\/index.php\">VMware Workstation 8 Evaluation<\/a> online (registration required).\n<ul>\n<li><em><strong>Update: <\/strong><\/em>I downloaded a 30-day evaluation version of VMware Workstation 8, and the Windows 8 Developer Preview installed without one minor catch: Don&#8217;t use the VMware &quot;Easy Install&quot; option, as it&#8217;s based on the automatic install procedures for Windows 7.&#160; Other than that, I&#8217;m up and running! <\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.virtualbox.org\/wiki\/VirtualBox\">VirtualBox<\/a> apparently supports the WIndows 8 Developer Preview (again, I haven\u2019t yet tried it myself).&#160; The application is available for <a href=\"http:\/\/www.virtualbox.org\/wiki\/Downloads\">free download<\/a>.&#160; The Windows 7 Hacker site has a walkthrough titled <a href=\"http:\/\/www.windows7hacker.com\/index.php\/2011\/09\/install-windows-8-developer-preview-on-virtualbox\">Install Windows 8 Developer Preview on VirtualBox<\/a>. <\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3>Dual-Boot \/ Clean Install<\/h3>\n<p>Of course, you could skip virtualization altogether and install Windows 8 directly on your hardware.&#160; That would give the best overall performance and the best experience with the new Metro UI.&#160; You could install The Windows 8 Dev Preview alongside your current OS (though you might need to repartition), or you can just pop a spare hard drive in your computer to avoid any messy boot complications.&#160; In general, this approach has worked great for me in the past.<\/p>\n<p>Another option is to Boot to VHD.&#160; That\u2019s a significantly more complicated process, but the blog post <a href=\"http:\/\/mcakins.wordpress.com\/2011\/09\/14\/installing-windows-8-on-bare-metal-with-vhd-boot\/\">Installing Windows 8 on Bare Metal with VHD-Boot<\/a> should help.<\/p>\n<h3>A Note About the Developer Preview<\/h3>\n<p>While we\u2019re all itching to try the new UI and functionality in Windows 8, there are a couple of things to keep in mind.&#160; First, this version is not yet a \u201cbeta\u201d.&#160; It\u2019s an earlier release that is designed to get developers up and running.&#160; The official build number is Build 8102 M3.&#160; Even if you\u2019re like me and you\u2019re willing to live on the bleeding edge with software, you probably don\u2019t want to install this build as your primary OS.&#160; Furthermore, Microsoft has mentioned that several features are not included in this build (though I haven\u2019t yet run into anything that\u2019s a showstopper for me).<\/p>\n<p>On the brighter side, this build does not require product activation.&#160; Coupled with the easy accessibility of the download from the <a href=\"http:\/\/msdn.microsoft.com\/en-us\/windows\/apps\/br229516\">Windows 8 Developer Preview<\/a> site, that effectively means everyone will have easy access to this preview release.&#160; Downloads are also available for <a href=\"http:\/\/msdn.microsoft.com\/en-us\/subscriptions\/default.aspx\">MSDN Subscribers<\/a>.<\/p>\n<h3>For More Information\u2026<\/h3>\n<p>In case you missed it, Microsoft\u2019s BUILD Conference keynotes are available at the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.buildwindows.com\/\">BUILD Conference Web Site<\/a>.&#160; The Day 1 Keynote covered dozens of really exciting features, presented by Steven Sinofsky and several other Microsoft Program Managers.&#160; I\u2019m just getting started with my testing\/development, and I\u2019ll try to post more here once I have something of value.<\/p>\n<h3>Update (09\/19\/2011)<\/h3>\n<p>Based on the numbers of hits to this article, I thought this would be a fairly important topic.&#160; On the Building Windows 8 blog, Microsoft has recently published a post titled, <a href=\"http:\/\/blogs.msdn.com\/b\/b8\/archive\/2011\/09\/16\/running-windows-8-developer-preview-in-a-virtual-environment.aspx\">Running Windows 8 Developer Preview in a virtual environment<\/a>.&#160; It includes more details on the pros and cons of running Windows 8 using virtualization and provides the following summary:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>Functional:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Hyper-V in Windows 8 Developer Preview <\/li>\n<li>Hyper-V in Windows Server 2008 R2 <\/li>\n<li>VMware Workstation 8.0 for Windows <\/li>\n<li>VirtualBox 4.1.2 for Windows <\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Non-functional:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Microsoft Virtual PC (all versions) <\/li>\n<li>Microsoft Virtual Server (all versions) <\/li>\n<li>Windows 7 XP Mode <\/li>\n<li>VMWare Workstation 7.x or older <\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>For now, I\u2019m happily running Windows 8 test VMs on an evaluation version of VMware Workstation 8.0 and in Hyper-V on Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1.&#160; Next stop: Running on some fairly recent hardware.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>For those of us developers that are itching to get our hands (and fingers) on the recently release Windows 8 Developer Preview, you might hit an unexpected snag.&#160; If you\u2019re like me, the first thing you tried after downloading the bits was to create a new virtual machine in your favorite desktop virtualization platform (most [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20,28,27,12,34,43],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-776","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-vm-desktop-virtualization-vdi","category-development","category-ms-microsoft-hyper-v","category-virtualization","category-vmware","category-windows-8"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/anildesai.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/776","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/anildesai.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/anildesai.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anildesai.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anildesai.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=776"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/anildesai.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/776\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":782,"href":"https:\/\/anildesai.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/776\/revisions\/782"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/anildesai.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=776"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anildesai.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=776"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anildesai.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=776"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}