Trying out Windows 8 without disturbing your existing setup

Windows 8 is here, ready for all of us to try out. While a typical install requires that the new OS be installed afresh, a lot of us would not like to disturb our existing setup. Most of us are not upto the task of reinstalling the existing system if something goes wrong. Heaven knows what software we have installed, what customization we have done and what data lies where on our machines in the years gone by! There's a way though, to try out this brand new edition of windows, even while keeping your existing OS.This is done by installing Windows 8 in a virtual machine. 

Let me explain how to do this step by step:

• Firstly, you must have an installable copy of Win8. You could have the now released version on a DVD or a .iso file. You could also have the Consumer Preview version with a valid license key.
• Download and install Oracle VirtualBox. It can be downloaded from here. Virtualbox is a software that helps set up virtual machines, i.e, one operating system running within another operating system. So, basically, we would be installing Windows 8 inside our existing OS, which in my demo is Windows Vista. The host operating system (Vista) sees the virtual machine as just another resource hogging software and the virtual system's installation as just another file, while the virtual machine doesn’t know that it is running inside another OS. This way, we get a clean install of Windows 8 without even doing any major change in our existing system (except installing a software and creating a large file).
• Start up VirtualBox and create a new virtual machine.
• On some systems, the user might see an error of the following type:

This requires rebooting the computer and entering the BIOS setup to enable the Intel Virtualization technology in their BIOS as shown below:

• With this done, start your system and start Oracle VM Virtual Box. Click on New VM and follow the setup as shown below to create a new Virtual Machine for Windows 8:

• Allocate some memory for this new virtual OS:

I wouldn't recommend allocating all the RAM. It is better to allocate 1GB less than the RAM available in the computer.

• The next task is to assign hard disk space for the virtual machine. While this exists as a file on the hard disk for the existing OS, the virtual OS sees this as its only available hard disk.

 

• Create a new virtual disk where the OS will installed:

• Do remember to select the right location to save the Virtual Disk file:

 

• With this, you should be able to create the Virtual machine needed to install Win8. Now, click on start in the virtual box manager and the virtual machine should start. Virtual Box will ask you to select the DVD to use for the first boot. At this prompt, select the .iso file that contains the Win 8 installation. With this, Virtual Box loads the .iso file as a DVD and the windows installation program starts:

Enjoy your evaluation of Win8, when you are ready to upgrade, go ahead and replace your existing OS, or else, just delete the virtual machine from the Oracle Virtual Box Manager and you are back safely to where you started.