[SGVLUG] Windows 8 in VirtualBox?

[Stan Slonkosky]

I would definitely get Windows 8, not Windows 7. Paul Thurrott (
winsupersite.com), who writes for "Windows IT Pro" has stated that Windows
8 is a greater improvement over Windows 7 than Windows 7 was over Windows
Vista. He pointed out that Windows 8 has, in effect, already had its first
service pack a couple of weeks before it was officially launched on October
26. It was RTMed in late August and TechNet and MSDN users had access to it
since early September.

I haven't done any extensive testing, but I do note that it boots up faster
than Windows 7 and runs fine even on a 4-year old netbook (MSI Wind) except
for applications that don't work on an 800 x 600 display (i.e., many of
what were formerly called "Metro" applications. I have been using it mainly
by booting from a VHD on a computer that had Windows 7 installed. I have
tried it in a Virtual Box VM (This was on a Windows 7 host. I didn't try
running it on Linux host, but I don't know any reason why this shouldn't
work as well with a Linux host.). Virtual Box was suggested at a Microsoft
developer event by Harold Wong (the Microsoft IT evangelist for the
Southwest Region, which covers SoCal. AZ, NM, CO, UT and, I think, southern
NV; he lives in Phoenix but is frequently in the LA/OC area) for developers
who had trouble booting Windows 8 from a VHD either because they couldn't
figure out how or because they were still running XP. Virtual PC does not
support 64-bit guests so that's why Harold didn't recommend it.

Harold's contact information is on his blog (
http://blogs.technet.com/b/haroldwong/). If he doesn't respond to an email
in a couple of days or so, it probably got caught in a spam filter. He
suggests calling him as he will return phone calls. Harold doesn't take
himself too seriously and is not politically correct (he will even tell
Chinese jokes) and will be honest with you. Once, a customer was
considering buying a particular Microsoft product (I forget which it was)
and Harold told him it was a piece of crap. (After this, Harold got moved
out of sales, but later the same customer was interested in a different
product, but insisted he had to get Harold's advice first. This time Harold
approved and Microsoft made the sale.)

You can purchase an upgrade to Windows 8 Pro for $40 through January 2013.
I think you qualify for this if you ever used any version of Windows (even
the Windows 8 betas). After that, I don't know what the price will be.
Microsoft also sells Windows 8 Home (which can't join a domain) and Windows
8 Enterprise, but I don't know what the prices are.

You can download a 90-day trial of Windows 8 Enterprise (basically Windows
Pro with a few extra features such as Windows to Go) at
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/evalcenter/jj554510.aspx . A similar trial
version of Windows 7 Enterprise is at
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/evalcenter/cc442495.aspx .

I know that some people don't like the interface formerly known as Metro
for Windows 8. You don't have to use that (I hardly ever do). They also
miss the start menu. (I personally prefer to start typing the name of the
program I want to run rather than use the start menu.) You can get a start
menu by pressing [Windows] + Q or you can buy Start8 from Stardock Software
for $5.
-- 
Stan Slonkosky
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