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Just downloaded Windows 8 preview (x64) with VS 2011 and other goodies.

My box has an older processor (E4400) which does not support hardware virtualization, hence not allowing me to install x64 Guest OS on VirtualBox (VM).

To my knowledge, VPC does not support x64 guest OS.

I've tried Qemu (which sounded promising) but it keeps crashing on me.

Are the any other VM's out there that can handle my scenario?

Journeyman Geek
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roman m
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3 Answers3

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Is using the Windows 7 feature "Boot to VHD" an option? It's a feature of the host OS to boot VHD files as if they are a native OS.

See Hanselman's post on this here - "Boot on real hardware from a Virtual Hard Disk."

It's not embedded virtualisation, but is an alternate way to test Windows 8 without dedicating a complete machine.

Nick Josevski
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Or you can install whatever version you like and then install Visual Studio 11 Developer Preview seperately. The Win8x64withTools ISO only has the express edition.

Update: While the separate download of VS11 doesn't appear to be the express edition like in the Win8 ISO, I'm not sure that is is the full edition.

Ryan Clarke
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All virtualization solutions require VT-x to run 64-bit OSes because they need segmentation to provide memory protection between guest and host

The initial version of x86-64 (AMD64) did not allow for a software-only full virtualization due to the lack of segmentation support in long mode, which made the protection of the hypervisor's memory impossible, in particular, the protection of the trap handler that runs in the guest kernel address space.

Revision D and later 64-bit AMD processors (as a rule of thumb, those manufactured in 90 nm or less) added basic support for segmentation in long mode, making it possible to run 64-bit guests in 64-bit hosts via binary translation. Intel did not add segmentation support to its x86-64 implementation (Intel 64), making 64-bit software-only virtualization impossible on Intel CPUs, but Intel VT-x support makes 64-bit hardware assisted virtualization possible on the Intel platform

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/X86_virtualization#Software-based_virtualization

So the only reasonable way you can do is install Windows 8 side-by-side and dual boot with the current OS. Or you can install Windows 8 x64 and then another 32-bit guest inside, since running 32-bit guests doesn't need hardware virtualization support.

You can use an emulator such as qemu or Bochs but since everything is running under emulation, it's very slow. I've tried running a live 64-bit Linux long long ago and after a long time waiting for it to boot, I gave up

Community
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phuclv
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