Installing Windows XP in Oracle VM VirtualBox

Step 1: Creating a Virtual Machine

Virtual Machine will act as computer system inside VirtualBox, on this machine we will have hard disks, memory (RAM), CD ROM etc. But everything is virtual  don’t get confused, go ahead with below instructions

Step 2 : From the Oracle VM VirtualBox Manager window click on New, a new wizard will be started

 Click Next

Give a name for our Virtual Machine in the Name field, here we call it MyWindowsXP.  From Operating System menu select “Microsoft Windows” and under Version select “Windows XP” and then click on Next

 

 Now select how much Memory (RAM) should be given to the Virtual Machine, this is the amount of RAM shared from the Physical Machine (our Windows 7 PC) to the Virtual Machine (our MyWindowsXP Machine), if you have 1GB RAM then allocate at least 512MB to the virtual machine. If you have more RAM you can allocate more memory to Virtual Machine

 We got RAM for our Virtual Machine, as any other physical machine required, now we also need a Disk to install Operating System and store Data, leave the default check boxes to create a new Start-up Disk and click Next

 Select “VDI (VirtualBox Disk Image)” and click Next.

                    You can also select “VHD (Virtual Hard Disk)” which will give you some added usage, such as mounting it on your Windows 7 just as a normal Disk in Disk Manager. That’s for an Advanced User, you can go ahead with the VDI option now.

Select Dynamically Allocated, and select Next

 Note:-   You need to have free space on your Windows 7 to store your Virtual Disk File (yes its stored on your Windows 7 PC as a File of extension VDI

                             a) Dynamically allocated: Starts with a new file and grows when ever new data is stored inside Virtual Machine

                             b) Fixed size: in this wizard itself, the file is created to its maximum size (such as if we select 20 GB then a file of 20 GB is created now itself)

 You can leave the default name and location of the Virtual Disk, and Select the amount of GB to be used for the Virtual Disk, for Windows XP you can keep 8 or 10GB, which will suffice most of the basic usage.

 You can review the settings provided for the Virtual Disk and click on Create to continue

 Final chance to continue or cancel the process of creating our new Virtual Machine, Click on Create to create the Virtual Machine

 This is how it looks on the Virtual Box:

 Have a look at the files behind this Virtual Machine, understand by default where the Virtual Machine files are stored, and what are the basic important files

Right Click on the virtual machine and select “Show in Explorer”

Changing Network Adapter Settings:

Note:- This is only required if your Windows 7 is your official laptop/desktop.

By default the virtual machine uses NAT (masking physical network) hence this Virtual Machine (MyWindowsXP) will be directly visible on the Network where the Physical Machine (Windows 7 PC) will be visible.

If its your home PC, below step is not required.

 Right Click on the MyWindowsXP and select “Settings”

 Go to Network option on the left, and then select “Host-only Adapter” from the “Attached to:” drop down list, by default it will be NAT.

Part 2: Installing the Operating System (Windows XP)

Now that we have the machine (virtual machine) with required Memory, Disk, and CPU we need to install the Operating System now.

 Insert the Windows XP (or which ever operating system you are installing) CD or Attach a CD Image (ISO File)

Right click on MyWindowsXP and select Settings

              Using a CD:

              From Settings, Select Storage, then click on the CD Icon “Empty” on the right side -

               Click on the small CD menu and select “Host Drive …” (in my machine its D:”

               Then click on OK

              

              Using a CD Image (ISO File):

              From Settings, Select Storage, then click on the CD Icon “Empty” on the right side -

              Click on the small CD menu and select “Choose a virtual CD/DVD disk file….”

              

            Select the CD iso file and select Open

             

             Click on OK to Finish:

             

Power on the Virtual Machine (MyWindowsXP)

      Select the virtual machine and then click on Start

      

       Select to not show the message again and click on OK

      

       The system loads

      

       The virtual machine load from the CD/ISO attached and Windows Setup Begins

      

       Since this is for a practice purpose, we will just create one Disk Partition, so Just Press Enter from the Virtual Machine to use complete disk space allocated (here 10GB)

      

      Select the Third option for NTFS (use down arrow) and hit Enter to continue

      

       Setup will format the disk now, it will take less than one minute

       

       Once formatting is done, setup start file copy process, takes around 2 minutes

      

       Once file copy is done, setup restarts the virtual machine automatically

      DO NOT Press any key, let the setup continue

      

       Setup starts to install the operating system

      

       Installing Windows Starts, this will take a couple of minutes so be with patience

      

      Provide a Name and Organization Name and click on Next, you can see it will take around 30 minutes to complete

      

       Give a name to our virtual machine something like MYXP and a password for administrator account, I gave 123 as a simple password, you can make is blank also – click on Next to continue

      

       Now the Installation continues to next steps

      

       Setup now does finalizing steps, we are almost there

      

      Once done, machine restarts, leave it to continue

      

       Click OK to the Display Adjustment prompt

      

      Please read the message, and click OK or Cancel

      

      Note:-

               On some Windows XP installations, Before getting onto below Logon screen you might get few other screens for configuring network or user settings, for all the steps if there is “Skip” button, click on Skip otherwise just click on Next, and for user account name, provide a user name.

       Click on the User Account to login and if there was a password assigned, enter it

      

      System Logs you in and loads a windows profile for you and then presents you the Desktop

      

      This completes our Windows XP base Installation.

What are the options to Shutdown or Stop running virtual machine?

             When you are done with working on the Virtual Machine, click on the close button on the window

            

      Below options appear, see explanation below and select the correct option and click on OK

1. Save the machine state
• If you select this option, what ever is kept open inside virtual machine or any running program are kept running and the state of the Virtual Machine is saved,
• The Next time you start the virtual machine, it will be having all the open files and programs as it is while running.
• Its always good to close all open applications and files before closing the virtual machine

2. Send the shutdown signal
• This option is similar to selecting Shutdown option from Start Menu
• The system is shutdown properly and virtual machine is closed

3. Power Off the machine
• This is same as, pressing the power button on the Physical Machine CPU
• All open files and programs are not saved and will be closed

              

Enjoy...