How to Install Windows 8.1 on VirtualBox: A Complete Guide

First, you will need to download and install VirtualBox (the creator notes that the download link is provided in the video’s description). Once you have it installed, open the application and click on the “New” icon to begin creating your virtual machine. You will be prompted to give the machine a name; make sure to also set the type to “Microsoft Windows” and the version to “Windows 8.1 (64-bit)”.

Next, you have to allocate RAM to the virtual machine. A good rule of thumb is to give it about half of your system’s total memory — so if your computer has 4GB of RAM, give the virtual machine 2GB (or 2048 MB). After that, you will create a virtual hard disk and assign it some storage space. The video recommends allocating about 90GB, which gives you plenty of room to work with.

With the basic machine created, you now need to load the Windows 8.1 ISO file. Select your new virtual machine, click on “Settings,” and navigate to “Storage”. Under your storage devices, you will see a disk icon labeled “Empty”. Click on it, then click the disk icon on the right side of the screen and select “Choose a virtual optical disk file”. Browse your computer to find your downloaded Windows 8.1 ISO file, select it, and hit OK to save.

Now comes the fun part — click the “Start” button to boot up the virtual machine for the first time. Once it loads into the Windows 8.1 setup screen, you can choose your preferred language and keyboard settings. Moving forward, the system will ask for a product key to activate Windows (the video creator mentions that a link to the product key is also available in the video description). Enter your key, accept the software license terms, and when asked what type of installation you want, be sure to select “Custom: Install Windows only (advanced)”. Select the 90GB drive you created earlier, and Windows will begin installing. Don’t worry if the virtual machine restarts a few times during this process; that is completely normal.

After the final restart, you will arrive at the Personalization screen where you can pick your favorite theme color and give your PC a name. From there, you can just click on “Use express settings” to speed through the configuration. Next, Windows will check your internet connection and try to make you sign in with a Microsoft account. A highly recommended trick is to temporarily disconnect your computer’s internet so that it defaults to a local network setup; this lets you easily create a standard local account instead. Just type in a username, add an optional password if you’d like, and let Windows finalize your settings.

You will soon be dropped onto the Windows 8.1 desktop, but you might notice the display is small and doesn’t fill your whole screen. To fix this, look at the VirtualBox menu at the very top of the window, click on “Devices,” and select “Insert Guest Additions CD image”. Then, open File Explorer inside Windows 8.1, navigate to “This PC,” and double-click the Guest Additions CD drive to run the installer. Click “Yes” on the security prompt, and simply click “Next” and “Install” through the setup wizard. You will likely get two or three extra security pop-ups asking to install device software — just click “Install” on all of them.

Once the installation successfully finishes, select the option to “Reboot now” and click “Finish”. When your virtual machine starts back up, it will run perfectly in full-screen mode, feeling exactly like you are using a standard personal computer.