Installing win 7 in virtualbox. Installing Windows on a virtual machine

Good afternoon.

Why you may need a virtual machine (a program for running virtual operating systems)? Well, for example, if you want to test some program, so that if something happens, do not harm your main operating system; or planning to install some other OS that you don't have on a real hard drive.

In this article, I would like to dwell on the key points when installing Windows 7 on a VM Virtual Box virtual machine.

1. What will be needed for installation?

1) A program that will allow you to create a virtual machine on your computer. In my example, I will show the work in VM Virtual Box (more details about it). In short, the program: free, Russian, you can work in both 32 and 64-bit OS, many settings, etc.

2) An image with the Windows 7 operating system. Here you choose for yourself: download, find in your bins desired disk(when you buy new computer, often the OS is bundled on disk).

3) 20-30 minutes of free time ...

2. Setting up a virtual machine (VM Virtual Box)

After launching the Virtual Box program, you can immediately click the “create“ button, the settings of the program itself are of little interest.

If you previously had a virtual HDD- you can choose it, if not - create a new one.

A dynamic hard disk is preferred. Because its occupied space on a real hard disk will increase in direct proportion to its fullness (i.e. if you copy a 100 MB file to it, it will take 100 MB; if you copy another 100 MB file, it will take 200 MB).

At this step, the program asks you to specify the final size hard drive. Enter here how much you need. It is not recommended to specify less than 15 GB for Windows 7.

This completes the configuration of the virtual machine. Now you can run it and start the installation process...

3. Installing Windows 7. What to do if an error occurs?

Everything is as usual, if not one but ...

Installing an OS on a virtual machine is, in principle, not much different from installing on a real computer. To get started, select the desired machine to install, in our case it is called "Win7". You launch it.

If we have not yet specified a boot device in the program, then it will ask us to specify what to boot from. I recommend immediately boot image ISO that we prepared in the first section of this article. Installation from an image will go much faster than from a real disk or flash drive.

Usually, after starting the virtual machine, a few seconds pass and the OS installation window appears in front of you. Next, you act as when installing the OS on a regular real computer, more about this, for example,.

If during installation an error with a blue (blue) screen got out, there are two important points that could cause it.

1) Go to settings random access memory virtual machine and move the slider from 512 MB to 1-2 GB. It is possible that the OS did not have enough RAM during installation.

2) When installing the OS on a virtual machine, for some reason, various assemblies behave unstable. Try to take the original OS image, it usually installs without any questions or problems ...

4. How to open the VHD disk of a virtual machine?

A little higher in the article, I promised to show how to do this ... By the way, the ability to open virtual hard drives appeared in Windows7 (Windows 8 also has this feature).

To get started, go to the OS control panel, and go to the section administration(you can use search).

On the right in the column there is the possibility of connecting a virtual hard disk. We only need to indicate it location. By default, VHD drives in Virtual Box are located at the following location: C:\Users\alex\VirtualBox VMs\(where alex is your account name).

More like about it all - .

That's all, successful installations! 😛

Virtual machines are device emulations on another device or, in the context of this article and simplified, allow you to run virtual computer(as a regular program) with the desired operating system on your computer with the same or different OS. For example, having on your Windows computer, you can run Linux or another version of Windows in a virtual machine and work with them like a normal computer.

This beginner's guide details how to create and configure a VirtualBox virtual machine (completely free software for working with virtual machines on Windows, MacOS and Linux), as well as some nuances for using VirtualBox that you may find useful. By the way, Windows 10 Pro and Enterprise have built-in tools for working with virtual machines, see. Note: if Hyper-V components are installed on the computer, then VirtualBox will report an error Failed to open a session for the virtual machine, how to get around this: .

Note: virtual machines require VT-x or AMD-V virtualization to be enabled in BIOS on the computer. It is usually enabled by default, but if something goes wrong, keep this in mind.

Now let's create our first virtual machine. The example below uses VirtualBox running on Windows, the guest OS (the one being virtualized) will be Windows 10.

1. Click New in the Oracle VM VirtualBox Manager window.
   
2. In the "Specify the name and type of OS" window, specify an arbitrary name for the virtual machine, select the type of OS that will be installed on it and the OS version. In my case - Windows 10 x64. Click next.
   
3. Specify the amount of RAM allocated to your virtual machine. Ideally enough to run it, but not too big (since the memory will be "taken away" from your main system when the virtual machine is running). I recommend focusing on the values ​​​​in the "green" zone.
   
4. In the next window, select "Create a new virtual hard disk".
   
5. Select a disk type. In our case, if this virtual disk will not be used outside of VirtualBox - VDI (VirtualBox Disk Image).
6. Specify whether to use dynamic or fixed hard disk size. I usually use "Fixed" and manually set its size.
7. Specify the size of the virtual hard disk and where it is stored on the computer, or external storage(the size must be sufficient for the installation and operation of the guest operating system). Click "Create" and wait for the creation of the virtual disk to complete.
   
8. Done, the virtual machine has been created and will appear in the list on the left side of the VirtualBox window. To see configuration information, as in the screenshot, click on the arrow to the right of the "Machines" button and select "Details".
   

Virtual machine created, however, if you run it, you will not see anything but a black screen with service information. Those. only a “virtual computer” has been created so far and no operating system has been installed on it.

Installing Windows in VirtualBox

In order to install Windows, in our case Windows 10, in a VirtualBox virtual machine, you need an ISO image with the system distribution kit (see). The next steps will look like this.

After installation is complete and the virtual machine reboots, it will be completely ready for use. However, you may want to make some additional settings.

Basic settings of the VirtualBox virtual machine

In the virtual machine settings (note that many settings are not available while the virtual machine is running), you can change the following basic settings:

Some of the above things can also be done from a running virtual machine in the main menu: for example, in the “Devices” item, you can connect a USB flash drive, remove or insert a disk (ISO), turn on shared folders etc.

Additional Information

Finally, some additional information that may be useful when using VirtualBox virtual machines.

After creating a virtual machine in VirtualBox, you can proceed to install the Windows operating system (or any other) on the VirtualBox virtual machine. By installing an operating system on a virtual machine, you can use several operating systems on your computer at the same time: the main (host) and guest (virtual).

The guest operating system installed on the virtual machine will run in isolation from the main system installed on your computer. You can learn how to work in a new OS, test applications, run outdated programs, use virtual system for security purposes, etc. In this case, nothing will threaten the main system, and you can make any changes in the guest system.

In previous articles on my website, we have discussed in detail the process of installing the VirtualBox virtualization program and the VirtualBox Extension Pack on a computer, creating and configuring a virtual machine in VirtualBox (you will find links to the articles mentioned here under this article). Now the final step has come: installing the operating system in VirtualBox, installing VirtualBox Guest Additions, final settings of the virtual machine.

After the virtual machine has been created and configured, you can begin installing the operating system.

In this example, I am installing Windows 7 in a virtual machine, Windows 10 is installed on my computer (by the way, you can install an additional Windows 10 on a virtual machine).

Installing Windows on VirtualBox

In the main window of the Oracle VM VirtualBox program, select the desired virtual machine if you have several virtual machines installed, and then click the "Run" button.

In the Virtual Box program window, the process of installing the operating system into the virtual machine will begin. The process of installing the system is no different from installing the system on a regular computer. Go through all the steps of installing the OS on a virtual computer.

After the installation of the operating system on the virtual machine is completed, you will see Windows (or another operating system) in the VirtualBox program window.

The virtual OS needs to be configured to your needs, just like a regular system on your computer.

Immediately after the installation of the operating system on the virtual machine, you will need to install Additions for the guest operating system - VirtualBox Guest Additions, which consists of a set of drivers and utilities. After installing the add-on package, the functionality of the guest OS is noticeably increased.

Installing VirtualBox Guest Additions

In the window of the running virtual machine, enter the "Devices" menu item. Next in context menu select "Mount Guest Additions Disk Image...".

After that, in the guest operating system, you will need to open File Explorer. In Explorer, you will see that the VirtualBox Guest Additions disk image is located where the CD-DVD drive should be.

Now you will need to install the VirtualBox Guest Additions.

Go through the steps of installing add-ons for the guest system by successively clicking on the "Next" button. Agree to install device software.

After the installation of the guest OS add-on package is complete, reboot the virtual operating system.

Creating a Shared Folder in VirtualBox

The shared folder is needed for data exchange between the main (host) and guest operating systems. First you will need to create a shared folder on the main operating system installed on your computer. On my computer, on one of the disks, there is such a folder “Data Sharing”, which is designed for data exchange.

In the "Path to folder" field, specify the path to the folder on the main system. Select “Other…”, and then in the Explorer window, select or create the desired folder.

In the "Add Shared Folder" window, check the boxes next to "Auto-connect" and "Create a permanent folder", and then click on the "OK" button.

In the Explorer window, by going to "Network", in the VBXSVR folder you will see a shared folder. In Virtual Box, you can create multiple shared folders.

After installing the additions for the guest OS, extract the ISO image of the operating system from the virtual machine's disk drive, since the system image is no longer needed.

For faster access, a shared folder can be added to Explorer's "Network Location" as network drive. To do this, press the "Windows" + "R" buttons on the keyboard. In the Run window, in the Open field, enter the following command:

Net use x: \\vboxsvr\foldername

Then click on the "OK" button.

After executing the command, the shared folder will appear in Explorer in the "Network location".

Taking a System Snapshot in VirtualBox

VirtualBox has a very useful feature: Snapshots. An operating system snapshot is the current state of the operating system at the time the snapshot was taken. Essentially, this backup copy recovery systems. You can take one or more snapshots and then restore the system to the state it was in when the snapshot was taken.

A typical situation: an operating system was installed on a virtual machine, after setting it up and installing the necessary applications, a snapshot of the guest operating system was taken. After that, the user "killed" Windows (or another system), changed the configuration, etc. As a result of these actions, the operating system malfunctions, or does not work at all.

Since this is a virtual OS, it can be easily removed from VirtualBox and then installed new system to the virtual machine. If a snapshot of the system was previously taken, then nothing will need to be done. In this case, it will be possible to restore the system in working condition using the previously made "Snapshot".

To create a snapshot of the system, click on the "Snapshots" button in the main window of VirtualBox.

In the "Snapshots" tab, click on the camera view button. In the "Take a snapshot of the virtual machine" window, you will need to give a name to the snapshot being created, and in the description you can add Additional information(I added the date the picture was taken). Next, click on the "OK" button.

After that, the process of creating a snapshot of the system in Virtual Box takes place.

A system snapshot has been created and can be accessed from the main VirtualBox window. Just keep in mind that system snapshots take up a certain amount of disk space in the guest operating system.

Restoring with a System Snapshot

If necessary, for example, in case of serious problems with the guest system, you can restore the state of the virtual machine using a previously taken system snapshot. Restoring using a system snapshot occurs when the virtual machine is powered off.

Click on the "Snapshots" button in the main window of VirtualBox. In the "Snapshots" tab, right-click on the system snapshot, and select "Restore Snapshot" from the context menu.

In the question window, agree to restore the snapshot. If the guest system is not running, you can uncheck the "Create a snapshot of the current state of the system" option so that you do not create an unnecessary snapshot, since the system is not working normally.

Click on the "Restore" button.

If you will be taking a snapshot of the current state, give it a name and description.

In the next window, click on the "Restore" button.

The guest operating system will be restored on the virtual machine to the state it was in when the system snapshot was taken.

Updating VirtualBox

To update VirtualBox, you will need to download the installation file of the program new version, as well as a new version of the Extension Pack. After installing the program, all previously made settings will be saved.

After running the guest operating system in the virtual machine, you will need to install the VirtualBox Guest Additions again. If multiple operating systems have been installed in VirtualBox, then the Guest Additions will need to be installed on each operating system.

Article Conclusions

You can install a guest operating system on a VirtualBox virtual machine, install the VirtualBox Guest Additions, create shared folders, take a system snapshot, and then restore the virtual OS using the snapshot.

How to install a virtual machine on your computer and most importantly, which virtual machine to choose? Before asking you this question, I wandered around the Internet and realized that the easiest to install and configure are VirtualBox and Virtual PC, but there are also Hyper-V and VMWare. I understand that now you will ask me: “Why do I need a virtual machine?” My answer: "I want to install different operating systems and experiment with them, I'm very interested: Windows XP, Windows 7, but especially Windows 8!" The Windows 7 I have installed works fine with all the applications installed in it, but the hype around new Windows 8 is only growing and I don’t want to stand aside, so you have already written two dozen articles about the eight on your site and continue to write. I’m thinking of installing a virtual machine (but I won’t choose which one) to install Windows 8 into it and slowly study it like that, and then you look in October, when the final one comes out Windows version 8.1, I will install it as a second operating system. Mark.

Hello admin! on the Microsoft website and wanted to install it on my VirtualBox virtual machine, but the installation fails with the error “ VT-x/AMD-V hardware virtualization features enabled but not functional". What to do?

How to install a virtual machine

Friends, if you have never dealt with a virtual machine, then I will explain to you in a nutshell what it is. A virtual machine is a real computer created inside your main operating system and in this computer you can install other operating systems (several!) and not only Windows. You can, as you wish, experiment with the operating system installed in the virtual machine, go out to the Internet, install various software, not being afraid to infect your computer with a virus, in short, connect your imagination and you will find a use for it.

For example, one of my friends learned to reinstall the operating system and divide the hard disk into several partitions only using a virtual machine.

As for the choice of a virtual machine, an article will be written on our website about each of the existing ones. Recommend to you install virtual machine VirtualBox, its capabilities are enough not only for a beginner, but also for an experienced user, besides, it is free. Start with her. Simple and intuitive settings, stable operation, made it one of the most popular.

What are the virtual machines?

Virtual PC is free, very easy to install in Windows 7, follow the link to the Microsoft website, download and install.
http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=3702
paid, costs 222.53 €, but there is a 30-day trial period. Need this virtual machine in the first place for system administrators and software developers.
So it's decided, install the VirtualBox virtual machine. We go to the site https://www.virtualbox.org/ , click "Downloads", select
VirtualBox 4.2.16 for Windows hosts x86/amd64.

The installer of the virtual machine is downloaded, we must run it as an administrator, otherwise in the future you will be plagued by various errors when working with the virtual machine. Right click on the installer and select "Run as administrator"

The program is very easy to install on our computer.

We start the virtual machine as an administrator.

Click on the "Create" button.

First of all, I will draw your attention to the fact that if you decide to install Windows 7 64-bit on a virtual machine, choose Windows list 7 64-bit. If you decide to install another operating system, for example Windows 8.1 64-bit, then be sure to select Windows 8.1 64-bit in the drop-down list and enter a fictional name for the virtual machine, for example Windows 8.1, then click Next.

In this window, you need to specify the amount of memory that you can allocate to the virtual machine. Friends, you must understand that the RAM allocated to a virtual machine will not be available to the operating system installed on your computer. If you have only 2 GB of your RAM, then you cannot allocate more than 1024 MB to a virtual machine, your operating system, when working with a virtual machine, will slow down a lot. If you are installing Windows 8, then the optimal size for it is just 1024 MB. As you can see, my computer has 8 GB of RAM installed, which means I can allocate more than 1 GB, for example 2 GB.

Create a new virtual hard disk.

File type select VDI

At this stage, we need to specify the format of the virtual hard disk. If you check "Dynamic virtual hard disk" It means that the space on your hard disk allocated for the needs of the virtual machine will not be taken immediately, but as files accumulate in your virtual machine. I recommend that you use this option.

Specify the size of the virtual hard disk. If you are creating a virtual machine for the first time, specify 50 GB, this is enough to install Windows 8. But I personally indicate for myself a larger volume. Why? In the process of working with a virtual machine, I will install many operating systems, so I will indicate the amount of 240 GB.

You can create a virtual disk on a different system drive, it's very simple, click on the yellow folder and the explorer will open, in it specify any partition on your hard drive to place the virtual hard disk.

We see the outcome. So, we have created a virtual machine, now we need to configure it and finally install Windows 8 into it.
Select our virtual machine and click "Configure".

System. Remove the checkmark from the "Diskette" item. We leave the CD / DVD-ROM as the first boot device, since we will boot the virtual machine from installation disk or an image of Windows 8, we leave the Hard disk as the second device.

The "Processor" parameter is left as is.

"Acceleration" Hardware virtualization must be enabled, for sure you will install a 64-bit operating system.

Display. Video. "Enable 3D Acceleration" and "Enable 2D Acceleration"
Video memory 128 MB

Media. A little of your attention!

Your physical drive will be available in the virtual machine, in my case Drive "I" and if you have a Windows drive, you can use it to install the operating system, check the Live CD / DVD box.
There is also a virtual drive here, let's connect an image with the Windows 8 operating system, which we downloaded in yesterday's article, to it. In the "Media" option, select "Drive" and "Select optical disc image"

Explorer will open, in which you can select the downloaded Windows image 8, then click "Open".

The Windows 8 image will attach to the virtual drive.

Net . Check the box "Enable network adapter". Connection type "NAT".

USB. Mark the checkboxes. Enable USB controller. Enable USB controller (EHCI)

What is a USB filter? Imagine such a situation, all USB devices connected to your computer will be detected in the operating system that is installed on your virtual machine. Naturally, you don't need it. USB filters will determine which USB device should be determined in the virtual machine, and which one in your main system. To see how it all works in practice, you must first install the Windows 8.1 operating system in our virtual machine, and then everything will become clear to you, read on.

In order for all connected USB-2.0 flash drives to work properly in your virtual machine, install the VirtualBox 4.2.16 Oracle VM VirtualBox Extension Pack plugin, download it at the office. website https://www.virtualbox.org/

Virtualbox is an intuitive virtual machine, that is, a program with which you can run additional operating systems as part of the main one installed on a hard drive or SSD. Windows XP is an old, but time-tested and, in a sense, still relevant, lightweight and familiar operating system. By installing it on a virtual machine, you can solve a variety of tasks.

What is it for

First, a little terminology. The operating system you are currently working on and reading this text is called the host. An OS installed and running within a host system is called a guest OS. Installing "ex-pi" on Virtualbox can serve different purposes. Even if your work Windows system XP, a guest "copy" might come in handy too. Here are some popular use cases for this feature:

• Installing and running Windows programs in a different environment (Ubuntu, Debian, etc.).
• Using old apps and games that don't work on newer systems (7, 8.1, or 10).
• Testing potentially dangerous applications (the guest OS is isolated from the host system if no shared folders are created).

Here are at least three reasons why installing Windows XP in a virtual machine is not a pointless idea. In the end, you can just practice for the sake of self-education. Virtualbox is cross-platform and runs on most operating systems. The only rule for its correct operation is the presence of a good supply of system resources. That is, for Windows startup XP as a guest system must have at least 500 MB of unused RAM and a more or less unloaded processor.

Step by step guest OS deployment

The first step is to download Virtualbox from the official website. Let's assume that your host system is one of the latest Microsoft operating systems, 8 or 10. Installing Virtualbox is no different from installing any other program, except that during the process it may display a message that the software has not been tested with this version of the operating system. Pay no attention to him. It may appear up to 3-5 times, just continue with the installation.

The program interface on different operating systems is slightly different, but, in general, it looks something like this:

You must have a CD or image Windows disk XP in ISO format. But first you need to create the virtual machine itself. For this:

• Click the "Create" button.
• In the drop-down menus, select the type and version of the OS, and also give the machine an arbitrary name (nothing depends on it, except for the name in the window title).

• Click the "Forward" button.
• Now specify the amount of RAM available to the guest system. The default values ​​are enough to run Windows XP itself, but not enough to run programs. If your amount of RAM allows, move the slider to at least 512 MB, and preferably 1024 (the green zone is the most comfortable values ​​\u200b\u200bfor host and guest systems to work together).

• Click "Forward".
• Create a virtual hard disk for the guest system. Everything is shown in the screenshots.

It is important to note that by choosing a fixed hard drive you will automatically create a file of the specified size on your real hard drive. A dynamic hard drive will grow in proportion to the Windows XP installed on it (with the installation of new programs, and so on).

• After clicking on the “Create” button, the virtual machine will be ready.

You can look into the settings by clicking on the "Settings" button.

For example, in the Display section of the Display tab, you can add video memory to the virtual machine or enable 2D or 3D acceleration to improve video quality or use 3D applications. But usually the default settings are enough to run Windows XP.

Now make sure that the disk with the OS is in the drive or the disk image is in some folder. Click the "Launch" button. The following windows will open:

If you are using a disc in your drive, just click Continue. If the image is in .iso format, then on the folder icon and select your image and also click the “Continue” button. The installation of the operating system will start. It is no different from the one that can be produced on real hardware. For those who have forgotten, here are the highlights.

Next, the formatting of the virtual hard disk will begin, copying the installation files and rebooting, during which you SHOULD NOT press any buttons. This is the only way to guarantee that the installation of the OS on Virtualbox will open, and will not start on a new preparation for installation, as in the screenshots. Ideally, after rebooting, you will see something like this window:

Entering the key, computer owner name, time zone, and other information varies depending on which Windows XP you have, so this question will not be considered.

It is worth noting only one point. The Virtualbox window can capture the mouse cursor (not always) and it becomes unavailable for other actions. To “return” it, hold down the right Ctrl on the keyboard and click the left mouse button.

After the installation of the system on Virtualbox is completed and you see the desktop, install the guest additions for better resolution screen and the full operation of the “guest” operating system.

Install and reboot.

Also, if you need shared folders between host and guest, please follow the steps below.

Select the desired folder. For example, this is a folder called Downloads, located in Documents. Save the result and open command line in the guest system. Enter the command:

net use x:\\vboxsvr\Downloads

where x is the drive letter and Downloads is the name of the folder created in the previous step. Press Enter. If successful, a network drive X will appear in the “My Computer” section, through which files located in the Downloads folder of the host system will be available.

This completes the installation. You can use Windows XP alongside your main operating system.

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