Windows 8 Enterprise RTM on Latest VirtualBox 4.2?

Oracle recently released first beta version of their upcoming desktop desktop virtualization software, VirtualBox 4.2. Improved support for Windows 8 guest OS is one of the major change in this version.
I have tried the latest (leaked)Windows 8 Enterprise RTM version on VirtualBox 4.2 and really experienced the improved display support on guest OS.  VirtualBox 4.2 guest additions works well inside Windows 8 to get multiple screen resolution, auto resize, full screen and seamless mode.
You can read our previous guide about how to install Windows 8 on VirtualBox and requirements for it. If you want to try Windows 8 Enterprise RTM (which was leaked to torrents sites recently), search for ‘MICROSOFT.WINDOWS.8.ENTERPRISE.RTM.X64.VOLUME.ENGLISH.DVD-WZT’ on your favorite torrent site.  You may get two results, and do not download the ‘NON_BOOT’ DVD which requires additional work to make it bootable. Download the correct file which is bootable.
VirtualBox automatically detects and changes the settings while typing ‘Windows 8’ on name field of virtual machine, therefore you do not need to modify most of the settings before power on, except loading the download ISO file.
But there was a slight issue of default display settings. Here is the default display settings for Windows 8.

It Started Crashing!

Windows 8 virtual machine started to crash and close while exiting from full screen mode with above default display setting. That is really strange when Oracle claims that VB 4.2 fixed several 3D issues

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Use of VMware, VirtualBox, Virtual PC or Other Desktop Virtualization Software and Advantages

VMware, VirtualBox, Virtual PC and other desktop virtualization software are well known among tech people, but most of the normal users do not have idea about them. So they are missing the all advantages of these desktop virtualization software products. If you are new to virtualization environment or thinking why to use these products or what are the advantages from them, this article explains them with basic points.
Desktop virtualization software such as VMware (VMware Player), Oracle VirtualBox and Microsoft Virtual PC are freely available for home users. So, these applications can be used by everyone without any cost. Before go further, let me clear a myth which is ‘more technical knowledge required to use desktop virtualization products’. Believe me!, it is very easy and simple. As long as you do not required high-end complicated setup in virtual environment, these products can be used well by all computer users.

The Purpose of Desktop Virtualization Software

Desktop virtualization software give ability to install and run multiple Operating Systems on your desktop or laptop computer in virtual environment without disturbing the host OS. You can have Windows XP, Linux OS and even Windows 95 on your latest Windows 7 laptop. In this case, your laptop will be the ‘host’ and virtual machines will be the ‘Guest’s. Creating or configuring a virtual machines is very similar to assembling a physical computer with processor, memory, hard disk, VGA…etc. So it is basically to utilize the unused resources on a physical computer to run multiple Operating Systems in it.  Even though ‘Dual Boot’ is another option to have multiple Operating Systems on a computer, but you have to reboot the computer every time to use other Operating Systems. But with the desktop virtualization software, you can run and work on multiple Operating Systems simultaneously without rebooting.
The main and basic purpose of Desktop virtualization software VMware, VirtualBox and Virtual PC is to allow users to run multiple different type of Operating Systems simultaneously in complete isolated virtual environment on single physical computer .
The below screen shot was taken while I was running latest Windows 8 as a guest virtual machine in VMware Player on my Windows XP computer.

Advantages

1) Multiple Operating Systems at a time without restarting the single computer.
2) Completely isolated virtual environment from host OS. Therefore no risk involved in virus, malware or any kind of threat spreading from guest to host machines, except thorough network or USB flash drive transfer.
3) You can run your old legacy applications and Operating systems on your latest computer. Let’s say you bought a latest Windows 7 laptop recently and now you like to run your old important legacy application which will not work on Windows 7. Here comes virtualization software… Just setup a Windows XP or older versions of OS by VMware/VirtualBox/Virtual PC then install your legacy application and use it.
4) Snapshot Feature, which helps to restore the virtual machine back and forth to a specific date/time. For example, today you can take snapshot of a virtual machine and if tomorrow something goes wrong with that particular virtual machine, do not worry, you can restore the virtual machine to previous day’s state by snapshot feature.
Read more here how snapshot works in VirtualBox.
Even though there are more advantages on desktop virtualization software, I think the above four points will good understanding for beginners about VMware, VirtualBox, Virtual PC and other desktop virtualization software.

How to Use Them

As I said earlier, it is easy and not complicated as you think.
Find out some existing articles on sysprobs to install different types of Operating Systems as guest virtual machine. The below guides show the steps to create and configure guest virtual machines on host computer.
Install Windows 8 on VMware Workstation/Player
Install Ubuntu on VMware
Install Windows 8 on VirtualBox
Install Linux on Virtual PC
The above all installation methods are demonstrated on my Intel PC with Windows XP and Windows 7.
Also, Sysprobs published couple of comparison among VirtualBox, VMware and Virtual PC. Visit the below links and get some ideas to decide which is the best and suitable desktop virtualization software for you.
VirtualBox vs VMware Player
Virtual PC vs VirtualBox

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Pre-Installed VirtualBox Image of Android 4 Ice Cream Sandwich Download and Run it on Intel Windows 7 PC

This post shows where to download VirtualBox pre installed image of Android 4.0.1 Ice cream sandwich and run it on Windows 7 PC. I’m not sure how it is going to help you if you are a heavy Android user, but definitely it will give a new experience by having it on normal PC. Instead of updating your mobile device OS to new version, this method helps to play around with 4.0.1 on computer.
This pre installed image of Android 4.0.1 works well inside VirtualBox to explore new OS without any additional devices. Running a mobile phone (or tablet) operating system in a normal computer by using desktop virtualization software is really cool.
Even though there are few ISO files available to download and do the installation on PC, but I feel it is better to run with pre-installed image. If you are interested to download x86 Android 4 bootable ISO files and start the installation from scratch, you can download them from Android x86 project home here.

Steps to Run Android Ice Cream Pre Installed Image on VirtualBox

1) Download the VDI (image) file here. (The image created and uploaded by an unknown Japanese person. It is not having any virus.)
2) Create a new virtual machine in VirtualBox. Select the OS type ‘Linux’ and version ‘Linux 2.6’.

3) Set the memory (RAM) size for VM. Recommended is 512MB, it can be less or more, but more is better. I set 512MB RAM.
4) While creating the virtual hard disk, select ‘Use existing hard disk’ option and browse the downloaded Android Ice cream VDI file which is ‘ICSimage.vdi’.

5) I’m not sure how the increasing display memory will help for better performance, but after checking  few forums and user experience, I set it to 12MB and enabled 3D as suggested by most of the users.
6)  Ready to start the VM?. Not ready yet, with the above default settings the Android OS did not boot for me.
Here are the additional settings should be changed before booting virtual machine.
a) Enable PAE/NX
Under processor settings of virtual machine, click on ‘Enable PAE/NX’ option.

b) Attach VDI to IDE.
With the default settings,VDI would have been added to SATA port, but unfortunately it did not work. So, remove the SATA hard disk controller and add a new ‘IDE controller’, then attach ‘ICSimage.vdi’ again as shown below.

7) Below is the summary of Android 4.0.1 virtual machine of mine, I have marked the important settings which should be cross checked.

8.) Now, start the VM. Android loads so fast and you should see the first screen very quickly (Leave the default – second option to boot).
I’m not going to explain anything inside OS, here is the main screen from running Android 4.0.1 Ice cream sandwich on VirtualBox.

9) Network works out of the box with NAT and Bridged mode. I could browse the internet from Android browser.

I hope this post would have been useful to download and run Android 4.0.1 ice cream sandwich virtualbox pre installed VDI image and run it on Intel computer.

Article Source: http://www.sysprobs.com/download-pre-installed-virtualbox-image-of-android-4-ice-cream-sandwich-run-it-on-intel-windows-7-pc

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