Today the Windows 8 Consumer Preview is launched. To install the Windows 8 Consumer Preview as VM in VMware vSphere 5, use the following steps:
1. Install VMware ESXi 5.0 patch release ESXi500-201112001. If you didn’t install the patch the following screen appears when booting the Windows 8 ISO:
Your computer ran into a problem and needs to restart
2. When the patch is installed, create a new VM and choose the following settings:
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| 1. Choose custom | 2. Enter VM Name |
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| 3. Select datastore | 4. Virtual Machine Version 8 |
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| 5. Choose Microsoft Windows 7 64-bit | 6. Select the amount of processor and cores needed |
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| 7. Enter memory | 8. Select E1000 network adapter |
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| 9. Select default SCSI controller | 10. Create New disk |
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| 11. Enter the desired disk size (default) | 12 Select controller |
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| 13. Finish |
3. Edit the VM configuration and change the following settings:
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| Enable 3D graphics | Choose the Windows 8 ISO to boot from |
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| Select as guest OS “Microsoft Windows 8 Server (64-bit)” |
4. Boot the VM and install Windows 8
Now you’re able to install Windows 8 as VM in VMware vSphere 5.
More information can be found here.
Updated: March 8 2012, Removed typos in blog.
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Great work, Ivo, my blog now points to your excellent article, thank you all those screenshots!
http://tinkertry.com/windows-8-consumer-preview-on-esxi-5/
I installed Windows 8 CP on VMWare Workstation 8 and my network is not working. How do I use the e1000 driver on it?
@Justin Select Windows7 as OS in VMware Workstation
@Ivo I did select Windows 7 as OS – still no network. How do I select e1000 driver in VMWare Workstation as opposed to vSphere
Solved the problem by adding the following line in the .vmx configuration file.
ethernet0.virtualDev = “e1000”