Windows 7 on VirtualBox

Microsoft made Windows 7 beta available last Friday (Jan 9th, 2009) so decided to quickly take a look using VirtualBox on my Mac. This blog is about how I made it work.

If you know VirtualBox then the only non-standard step concerns the Guest Additions (Step 4 below)

(Editors Note: Since the release of version 2.1.2 Windows 7 works out of the box. )

1. Download the dvd iso from the Microsoft Windows 7 site

N.B. The Microsoft Download Manager uses ActiveX and so only worked in Internet Explorer. So I downloaded it from an XP instance running in VirtualBox to a Shared Folder on my Mac.

2. Create a New Virtual Machine in VirtualBox.

Although Microsoft recommend 1G for RAM, I used 512MB and it works great. Here are the rest of my settings:

3. Install Windows 7

Windows 7 [Running] - Sun xVM VirtualBox

Choose Custom Installation as we're doing a clean install into a virgin vm.

Voila!

4. Install Guest Additions

To install the Guest Additions we need to select "Devices...Install Guest Additions" to mount the additions iso. There is a check in the setup program, for version 2.1.0 and earlier, that prevents installation on Windows 7, so we need to run the installer in Vista compatibility mode. Do this by opening an explorer window showing the guest additions CD...

...and right click the 32 or 64-bit installer and select Properties. Now set the Compatibility Mode to Vista, and run it to install as usual.

5. Reboot

Now finally you need to reboot and you're done.

Windows 7 on your Mac (or Windows/Linux/Solaris PC too), pretty cool huh?

-FB

Posted on: Jan 12, 2009

Posted by: TheFatBloke

Category: VirtualBox

Permanent link to this entry

Comments:

Thanks for finding this out! I must say, Windows 7 is a much nicer Windows Vista than Windows Vista ever was.

Posted by mdm-adph on January 12, 2009 at 04:28 PM GMT #

Have managed to install it myself on a linux host (opensuse 11.1). Runs fine except of virtualbox shared folder is not accessible!!!

Posted by Big_Boss21669 on January 12, 2009 at 07:35 PM GMT #

Couple of starter issues:

- Only IE can be used for download, FF & Safari does not show any progress
- 64-bit installer did not work on MacBook Pro, so now downloading 32-bit

Lets see how it goes this time!

Posted by Arun Gupta on January 12, 2009 at 10:54 PM GMT #

The trick with 'run as Vista' for guest additions did not work for me. The reboot resulted in a system fault (W7 did not restart) and I had to restore W7 (to the save before the GuestAdditions installation. Any ideas?

Posted by ES_Odin on January 12, 2009 at 11:21 PM GMT #

were you able to get the aero theme working? i havent been able to get it working, even with guest additions...

Posted by Chris on January 13, 2009 at 02:57 AM GMT #

Chris,
Aero uses DirectX which VirtualBox doesn't support yet. VirtualBox 2.1 does support OpenGL but that ain't enough for Aero.

- FB

Posted by Fat Bloke on January 13, 2009 at 09:00 AM GMT #

I finally got everything to work. I am running VBox on a Ubuntu 8.10 host.

Network worked out of the box. To get sound I had to select the PULSE driver in the VM setup. I also got Guest Additions to work - eventually. The first time I tried (following FB's instructions) it faild (the System would not start). After a fresh install I mounted the GA ISO and changed the Compatibility settings as described above. Then, from righ-clicking on the VBoxWindowsAdditions-x86.exe file i selected 'Run as administrator' this did the trick. I now have full Guest Additions functonality. Thanks for the how-to, FB

Posted by ES_Odin on January 13, 2009 at 02:43 PM GMT #

Seems like Shared Folders is not working at the moment, so don't waste time trying to get it going.

-FB

Posted by Fat Bloke on January 13, 2009 at 03:47 PM GMT #

Hi, i'm trying to do the same on a windows xp platform but i can't get past the initial dvd boot phase: it gets to the "windows is loading files..." process then crashes with a 0xc0000001 error.

i'm assigning 1024mb for ram and a 10gb fixed size harddisk image.

I tried both 2.0.2 and 2.1.0 of xVM.

Any idea?
Thanks!
Marcello

Posted by Marcello on January 14, 2009 at 09:33 AM GMT #

Thanks for the heads up about running VM additions in Compatibility mode - I'll give this a go now (previously had it running without!).

Posted by Ian on January 14, 2009 at 10:04 AM GMT #

That worked great for installing GA. Compatibility Mode (Vista) plus run as admin. No problems and now networking works etc..

Thanks!

Posted by Dave G. on January 14, 2009 at 11:32 PM GMT #

Hi i have good graphics display after installing the o2 in virtual box but after i installed guest additions my display turned so bad like the driver is not installed using bad colours and pixels, do any one know how to fix my display back to before? Thanks

Posted by $-DrAG on January 15, 2009 at 02:22 AM GMT #

Hello! Yah I'm downloading the Windows 7 Beta right now, and am also going to attempt to run/install it in Virtualbox!!!

I hope the guest additions and install will go good, with this info now.

(and I'm pretty, in fact, very sure it will!)
;)

- "Tenacity is the direct result of accomplished challenges. Challenges are the indirect result of being human.". Anonymous

Posted by Tombobob on January 15, 2009 at 05:21 AM GMT #

Why does windows 7 look like gnome desktop to me!

Posted by Venky on January 15, 2009 at 09:10 AM GMT #

Don't know if this has changed since others had posted, but I was able to download from the link given in the post on Firefox on Ubuntu. It just skipped the download manager and gave me a straight ISO download right away. So at least on Linux, using Firefox to get the installer works fine.

Posted by Jason on January 16, 2009 at 12:22 AM GMT #

Thank you so much for the run in VISTA tip. I installed this on my mac mini and it's running running great

Posted by shawnwwjd on January 16, 2009 at 01:55 PM GMT #

Without shared folders, Win7 on VBx is just a waste of time. At least Win7 runs under VBox, however, which is more than it does under Parallels; at least for me.

Posted by F Hughson on January 17, 2009 at 12:37 PM GMT #

@F Hughson
While "shared folders" does not work, it is easy to set up a shared folder on your host and access that from the Win 7 guest. I use Ubuntu 8.10 as a host, share a folder there called "Sandbox" and then access that from the Win 7 guest. Remember to go to the network properties and set the parameter for "discoverable." If anyone need specific detail, let me know and I'll post a How-to.

Posted by ES_Odin on January 17, 2009 at 04:05 PM GMT #

Guys,

Regarding Shared Folders....watch this space (next week) ;-)

-FB

Posted by Fat Bloke on January 17, 2009 at 04:38 PM GMT #

Hi, I followed these instructions, but I am unable to connect to a network. I use ubuntu and I am not sure if that could have made a difference. Also I was wondering what vista compatibility mode is and how I turn it on.

Posted by william on January 18, 2009 at 07:00 PM GMT #

Hi,

I can't wait for the shared folders in Windows 7 ... it would be great if there is a way how to do this. All the other things are working fine. Thank you for your tutorial.

Ralf

Host: Mac OS X
Guests: Windows (7, XP, 2000, 98) and Ubuntu 8.10

Posted by Ralf on January 19, 2009 at 02:57 PM GMT #

Hi FB,

After some googling and diddling, I got Shared Folders working for Windows 7 on VBox.

For me, I could see in the system event log that the VBoxSF driver load was failing. So if that is your problem, here's the fix.

In my Googling I ran into this page
http://www.virtualbox.org/changeset/15967

It looks like this changeset page is for an upcoming fix to the VBoxGuest.inf file for Windows7. Essentially the effect is to change the start type for the VBoxGuest service to boot.

To fix
1) Open regedit
2) Navigate to
HKLM\SYSTEM\Select>Current
3) The value "Current" for me had the data "1". That value tells which control set is in use. So I navigated to
HKLM\SYSTEM\ControlSet001\Services\VBoxGuest>Start
4) I changed the data of Start to "0" (no quotes) meaning "start at boot time"
5) On my system no "LoadOrderGroup" was specified for VBoxGuest. I added a new "LoadOrderGroup" (no quotes) string value and set its data to "Base" (again no quotes).
6) Reboot. When the system comes up Shared Folders should be working.

I think the same thing can be done less dangerously with the "sc" command but I didn't know all the syntax.

Posted by Sherwood on January 20, 2009 at 04:22 AM GMT #

After I reboot Win7 after installing the additions, Virtual box crashed and I had to wait 15 min Win7 to repair itself after the crash. When finished the process It told me it couldnt repair itself, it tried looking for the answer on the internet and finished with a shutdown.
I changed the 3D support and added some Video RAM in VBOX before starting back the machine.
finally it started and worked correctly, but no DirectX support was found.

Posted by Eugenio on January 20, 2009 at 02:38 PM GMT #

Big thanks for the instructions; dloaded 7 & installed into VB, then got the guest additions installed following the guidance here. It's all fine, & I'm about to try the Shared Folders regedit tip so I'll see how that goes.

I've dloaded OpenOffice 3.0 & Avast into 7 without any problems, anyone having problems with software that won't run in 7?

Posted by parrotbird on January 20, 2009 at 02:55 PM GMT #

Belhokimi,

You need a modern processor with VT-x or AMD-V extensions to run 64-bit guests.
Sounds like your hardware ain't up to it.

-FB

Posted by Fat Bloke on January 21, 2009 at 05:32 PM GMT #

hi and thank you in advance for your suggestions,

i have 2 questions :

1 / is windows 7 x64 working under Mac book Pro 10.4.11 with Sun XVM Virtual Box 2.1.0 ?

2/ I'm working under Mac 10.4.11 with Sun XVM Virtual Box 2.1.0 and Windows XP ! . VM Box failed to start Windows. The message is :

VT-x is not available. (VERR_VMX_NO_VMX).
Unknown error creating VM (VERR_VMX_NO_VMX).
Code de résultat :
NS_ERROR_FAILURE (0x80004005)
Composant :Console
Interface : IConsole {e3c6d4a1-a935-47ca-b16d-f9e9c496e53e}

Your suggestion are highly appreciated

Thanks in Advance !

and Best Regards :+)

Belhokimi

Posted by Belhokimi on January 21, 2009 at 05:41 PM GMT #

I'm struggling mightily with the 64 version of Windows 7. I'm running an AMD Turion X2 64 and I'm on the verge of giving up on installing the 64 version of W7. The error I get says that I'm attempting to install a 64 on a 32 machine.

Anyone know if I can only run the 32? If you're running the 64 in VirtualBox, please let me know what the trick is to get it installed. I've tried choosing the Vista 64 OS and all other 64 Windows OS available in VBox.

Thanks in advance.

Posted by Spanky on January 21, 2009 at 10:27 PM GMT #

Spanky,

You might want to make sure that the AMD virtualization support is enabled in your BIOS, or maybe even update your BIOS if necessary.

Cheers,

-FB

Posted by Fat Bloke on January 22, 2009 at 10:27 AM GMT #

I tried the regedit fix for Shared Folders posted by Sherwood. What do I do after the registry change and the restart?

If I just go to Network Center, I still can't see my my shared folder.

Posted by David on January 22, 2009 at 04:15 PM GMT #

David,
Upgrade to 2.1.2 which was released today

-FB

Posted by Fat Bloke on January 22, 2009 at 04:37 PM GMT #

David,

I am assuming that you have set up a Shared Folder in the VBox GUI. Once you are back in Win 7 you can map a network drive to that share, so for a folder shared as "myshare" you would map to

\\vboxsvr\myshare

Posted by Sherwood on January 22, 2009 at 05:03 PM GMT #

Rock on...it works! Thanks Fat Bloke and Sherwood!

FYI: I can map the network drive, but when I go to "Network" I can't see the shared folder. Does this sound normal?

Posted by David on January 22, 2009 at 05:46 PM GMT #

@David

That is the expected presentation. I see my mapped network drives under "Computer", not "Network".

Also, I noticed that when I reboot I get a message that Windows could not reconnect to the drive. But after Win7 has fully loaded I can click on the drive and the shared folder is reconnected automagically.

Posted by Sherwood on January 22, 2009 at 06:14 PM GMT #

hi i cannot get the audio to work

i go into device manager and theres an explanation mark next to multimedia audio controller, when i update driver it doesnt work, it goes straight to windows cannot find driver or software?
any help?

Posted by $-DrAG on January 23, 2009 at 12:57 AM GMT #

Dear $-DrAG,

try asking the community at http://forums.virtualbox.org providing them with your host platform and your vm settings.

Cheers,
Andy

Posted by Fat Bloke on January 23, 2009 at 08:23 AM GMT #

Does the shared folder fix work for XP as well? I am not able to get shared folders working on MacOS X virtualbox running XP.

Posted by opcode on January 23, 2009 at 07:14 PM GMT #

OMG Thank you soooo much. I was pulling my hair out over the shared folder issue. I had updated to the newest VBOX and was still not getting anywhere, it was the tip off that the shared folder showed up under Computer rather than Network that set me on the straight and narrow. If you get the newest VBOX and want to get the Shared folder to work, just Right-Click the Computer heading and Map Drive from there. All you need to do is leave the Drive letter as X: and in the blank below, instead of chosing a drop down, type: \\vboxsvr\share_folder_name of course replacing the share_folder_name with whatever you named the folder on your Host system.

Posted by draceena on January 24, 2009 at 10:50 AM GMT #

With Mac OSX 10.5.6 & Vbox 2.1.2 & Win7 I got Shared folder working along the advice about registry changes above. After that I had to do two other things: edit the vboxguest.inf file in program_files/sun/vbox... and establish again the share folder (it had disappeared during those changes). Finally then mapping of Z drive to \\VBOXSVR\macfoldershared worked. Thanks!

Posted by Koutsi on January 24, 2009 at 05:03 PM GMT #

The changes in vboxguest.inf are told at http://www.virtualbox.org/changeset/15967

Posted by Koutsi on January 24, 2009 at 05:06 PM GMT #

Hi! I came across this blog after installing 7 on virtualbox, I didn't need to use any compatibility settings though when installing the Guest Additions pack (I'm using 32bit Vista as host, if that matters) - it installed correctly through the autorun.

Pity about the lack of Aero though, I was looking forward to seeing what it looks like without having to go through the pain of finding a blank partition for a full installation.

Posted by Matt on January 26, 2009 at 11:15 AM GMT #

Installed it on VirtualBox 2.1.2, hosted on OpenSUSE 11.1. It works just fine with just only 512MB of allocated memory. And I must say, Windows 7 is way better than Vista!

Posted by rawswift on January 27, 2009 at 11:55 PM GMT #

OK. I am totally lost (Newbie on using VB)
OK.
The [VBoxGuest.inf] Where is it at?
Also, I checked my Registry for:
HKLM\SYSTEM\ControlSet001\Services\VBoxGuest>Start
And it is not there.
I am running:
WinXP Pro SP3 MCE (32bit)

Can someone please explain to me how to do this?
When it is no where to be seen.

Thank All
Carrzkiss

Posted by Carrzkiss on January 30, 2009 at 10:02 PM GMT #

Carrzkiss,

download the latest VirtualBox 2.1.2 and you don't need to do the registry hacking. Should work out of the box.
Watch the movie in the http://blogs.sun.com/fatbloke/entry/sun_xvm_virtualbox_2_11 blog entry.

Posted by Fat Bloke on January 30, 2009 at 10:10 PM GMT #

Thank you for your response [Bloke]
I look over your Vide, nice information.
But, I seem to be having a problem.
(Did not in setting up WinXP, but am on Win7)
When I click [Browse] for Network Folders
It is only showing my VirtualWin7
Not anything else is shown, so I am unable to connect
To anything outside of the Win7 itself.
(This was so much easier in WinXP setting it up, it took about
2 seconds, and I was done, this is not working quite as swift.)
Thank you once again for your instructions and information
Carrzkiss

Posted by Carrzkiss on January 30, 2009 at 10:27 PM GMT #

Thanks for the tips, Fat! In fact, the download manager does seem to run in Java. I am downloading it now using Firefox and it automatically launched Java runtime to execute download manager, since I didn't seem to have ActiveX installed for Firefox. I also get see a progress bar and all the details of the download.

Posted by Skinny Fellow on February 02, 2009 at 02:38 PM GMT #

i have problem in windows 7 - movies not displaying in any software like wma or vlc or Km or real player. my pc modal is intel 4 1gbram 128 mb graphic card. any one can help me to display movies in my pc.
Even some software like nokia pc suit also not able to install. even i have tried to made pc suit in compatable mode of xp2 after that also i cannot able to install any one give me idea.

Posted by shanki on February 08, 2009 at 08:27 AM GMT #

Anybody know why there is nothing showing up in Networks besides the Win7 system?
I have tried everything, I have set the workgroup to the same as what I am running.
And I have even disabled the Firewall within' Win7 and still nothing shows.
I am still unable to view network/shared folders.

Any idea's to why this is happening?
And what I need to check on and or do.

Thanks all
Carrzkiss

Posted by carrzkiss on February 19, 2009 at 04:44 AM GMT #

Guys,

a great place for help with issues is http://forums.virtualbox.org/

Carrzkiss, you can map the shared folder by Map Network Drive....and using \\vboxsvr\<sharename>

- FB

Posted by Fat Bloke on February 23, 2009 at 10:49 AM GMT #

I'm downloading Win7 32bit with firefox on OS X Leopard. No issues, it's downloading OK.

I have Java disabled though. Works fine

Posted by aki on May 05, 2009 at 11:44 AM BST #

Thanks for your article.
But I have same problem about sound and Internet.
It doesn't work with CoreAudio.
Is it any solution?

Posted by Someone on May 07, 2009 at 01:35 PM BST #

do i have to do the "create an installation disk" step with Windows 7RC before i use virtual box?

Posted by Jonathan on May 11, 2009 at 02:07 AM BST #

I used OS Type: windows 7

Network and Audio worked out of the box!

http://is.gd/yKI5

This is nice, i like it.

Posted by and then . . . on May 11, 2009 at 06:11 AM BST #

is there any chance of VB using boot camp partition in the near future?

Posted by OJ on May 11, 2009 at 10:39 AM BST #

Have Windows7 running in Virtualbox on a Vista Host, everything seems to work Ok except for the webcam as yet.
Got the shared folders working by mapping the Vista shared folders as a new drive on Windows7, needs to be set up on vista with user access to the drive so that when you access the drive you need to logon as that user, can access from either direction, create delete etc.

Works very well

Posted by BrianT on May 11, 2009 at 06:07 PM BST #

I installed W7 as mentioned, but when trying to add the guest additions I couldn't find where they are at. Your pic show they should be somewhere also as part of the ISO image that helps W7 be installed, but still wasn't able to find it, some help on where to locate such files would be great
Thanks

Posted by Mikel on May 12, 2009 at 01:56 PM BST #

The VirtualBox guest additions can be installed from the menu bar of the VirtualBox VM window.
Devices...Install Guest Additions

like this http://img.skitch.com/20090512-e13usty6xb4f18h55ahw1nyr7r.png

-FB

Posted by Fat Bloke on May 12, 2009 at 04:14 PM BST #

The VirtualBox guest additions can be installed from the menu bar of the VirtualBox VM window.
Devices...Install Guest Additions

like this http://img.skitch.com/20090512-e13usty6xb4f18h55ahw1nyr7r.png

-FB

Posted by Fat Bloke on May 12, 2009 at 04:14 PM BST #

I could connect to shared folders
by entering them first in the settings of the virtuial machine. Then in windows 7 by entering in explorer, the Computer tab, and then click Map Network drive. There enter: \\vboxsvr\name-of-share

So my share is called \internal
I enter \\vboxsvr\internal

The share is conencted and openend within 10 seconds

Posted by Jeroen on May 14, 2009 at 10:12 PM BST #

Great article. I'm downloading windows 7 right now.

Posted by Sara on May 14, 2009 at 11:57 PM BST #

VirtualBox 2.2.2 will not load the Windows 7 RC ISO without a BSOD. You will need to burn the ISO to DVD and everything should go as normal.

Posted by Spechal on May 16, 2009 at 08:04 PM BST #

Turns out the DVD would hang on loading files.

I installed XP Pro x32 via ISO to VirtualBox and and now ugrading to Windows 7 RC x64 via ISO.

We'll see...

Posted by Spechal on May 16, 2009 at 09:33 PM BST #

Now Windows 7 tells me I don't have a x64 processor ... which I do. So I am downloading the x32. Will post back.

Posted by Spechal on May 16, 2009 at 09:41 PM BST #

After a long battle, I am now installing Windows 7 x32 via ISO over Windows XP Pro Corp x32 via ISO on VirtualBox 2.2.2 on Ubuntu Notebook Edition 9.04

Let's hope it was worth the time.

Posted by Spechal on May 16, 2009 at 10:49 PM BST #

installed Windows 7 rc 1 on iMac running 10.5.7 through VirtualBox 2.2.2 just fine from the .iso file. just had a question for anyone. I know VB doesn't support Aero but when I try and run some of the games I get a message saying either hardware acceleration is turned off or I need a new driver for my video card. although the games run albeit slow. there a workaround for this?

thanks

Posted by Louis on May 19, 2009 at 08:03 PM BST #

to install the windows 7 in virtualbox do i need to burn it in a cd/dvd?

Posted by windows 7 man on May 19, 2009 at 11:04 PM BST #

windows 7 man,

No need to burn CD, simply mount the iso image and boot off it.

Cheers,

-FB

Posted by Fat Bloke on May 19, 2009 at 11:08 PM BST #

I have a Mac Pro. I installed vbox and Windows 7.

I am trying to install office but cannot connect to the host's DVD-ROM. It says "Windows cannot access disc" I also tried making an ISO of the MSOffice Disc - but it will not mount. No Error message - it just doesn't show up Please help.

Posted by Michael on May 22, 2009 at 10:07 AM BST #

I am trying to install the additions. I am working on a Macbook Pro and have installed windows 7 but I am unable to find the files you are talking about in my iso.

Posted by dawson on May 24, 2009 at 02:00 AM BST #

Tnx, OSx 10.5 + Vbox 2.2.2 + win 7 shared folders was as easy as right click-> My computer and map network drive. Great stuff.

Posted by Peter on May 24, 2009 at 07:15 PM BST #

Thanks Sherwood! I finally got shared folders to work following your directions.

Posted by Logan on June 03, 2009 at 08:33 AM BST #

Thanks Sherwood! I finally got shared folders to work following your directions.

Posted by Logan on June 03, 2009 at 08:33 AM BST #

>David,
>
>I am assuming that you have set up a Shared Folder in the VBox GUI. Once you >are back in Win 7 you can map a network drive to that share, so for a folder >shared as "myshare" you would map to
>
>\\vboxsvr\myshare

Many thanks for that Sir Sherwood!

Posted by vonderklump on June 18, 2009 at 09:45 AM BST #

To the people who are having problems with bad sound, I had the same problem. It's fixed now from just trying every possible combination of host driver and controller. In the end the following worked...

Host Driver: OSS Audio Driver
Controller: ICH AC97

I'm running OpenSuse 11.1 as host with Win7 on VirtualBox 3 on a Thinkpad R61e. Maybe that'll be useful to someone :)

Posted by timmiroon on August 24, 2009 at 09:28 PM BST #

Thank you so much!

Posted by Aruna on September 30, 2009 at 11:18 AM BST #

[Trackback] This post was mentioned on Twitter by luislandgrave: Windows 7 on VirtualBox: http://bit.ly/AnJsn

Posted by uberVU - social comments on October 25, 2009 at 08:29 AM GMT #

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