Installing XP on the Mac Using VirtualBox
Step 1 - get the software
WINDOWS
Copies of Windows come in many, many shapes, sizes, licences and
prices. For the purposes of Mac users at the OU, you
simply want a version which is cheap, and will run the software the OU
forces you to run. And the cheapest of these will most likely be XP HOME (OEM version) - not an upgrade version.
Now XP has ceased to be sold by Microsoft, but can still be found on
eBay if you search. Look for an OEM copy from a reputable looking
dealer which promises fully licensed versions. You'll need a legit copy
to authorize your system later, and get essential updates. If you can't
find XP Home, look for XP Pro, or even
Vista
Home Premium. Tip - don't get Vista Home Basic - it's a rip-off.VIRTUALBOX
Here's the great bit. VirtualBox is free! Just download
"VirtualBox
2.x.x for OS X hosts" from here:-http://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/Downloads
And leave the downloaded file on your desktop.
Step 2 - Install VirtualBox
After you've downloaded the VirtualBox software from the site above, you should be left with the following icon on your desktop (numbers in filename will correspond to the latest version - may differ from this):-
just double-click on it, and you'll get the following window:-
Now on the top right, you'll note a PDF copy of the user Manual - very handy to have around. Drag this file to somewhere convenient on your Mac for later perusal.
To install, follow instruction number 1 and double-click on the Yellow box icon top-left.
In the window that opens, you'll receive the following warning:-
Press Continue. Then you will see the following window:-
Press Continue. Then choose your preferred Software License instruction language (English by default) and press Continue. Press Agree to agree to the licensing terms. Now you should arrive at the following window:-
You'll notice that most options are greyed out, meaning that they're essential. The final one is for controlling the app via the 'Terminal' app. Just accept all the default installs for this app by pressing Continue. You'll receive a final notification window with the install size - currently 46.1 MB:-
Also you can change the destination folder for your VirtualBox install here - but unless you have a burning desire to place it somewhere else, just leave it to install in the Applications folder by default by pressing Install.
It'll ask for your admin password to install, then will start. When the process is done, it'll tell you. Press Close.
Now, go to the "Applications" folder and double-click the VirtualBox app. The app should open to the following registrations window:-
Fill in or dismiss as you wish. You are now presented with the main welcome window:-
So here's where it now gets interesting. What you have is a nice clean install of VirtualBox - but it's not any use, because you haven't yet installed a copy of Windows to run inside it! So lets now do that. Make sure you've got the CD of Windows that you've purchased from eBay or elsewhere near at hand.
Now press the "New" button top-left (the blue star). This will open up the Virtual Machine Wizard.
Press the Next button. Now you'll see options to both uniquely name your new installation of Windows, and also to select the Type of operating system you're installing. As far as the name is concerned, you can call it what you like :-
This shows you that you can have more than one Windows install on your mac - memory permitting - or even many different types of operating system, not just Windows! To illustrate this, press the menu bar in the middle of the window under "OS Type". You should now see a whole list of different operating systems to choose from for installation - various Windows systems, Linux systems like Ubuntu, as well as other UNIX systems. This shows the real power of virtualisation - all these OSs can be controlled within VirtualBox on your own desktop.
Now, we're just interested in Windows here, so you should now select either "Windows XP" or "Windows Vista" as your option, depending on which Windows disk you managed to purchase.
When you're done, press Next.
This will now bring you to a window which requires you to enter the amount of your system RAM that you wish to allocate to this virtual machine (see "a word about memory" above):-
As I'll be installing XP I've given it just over a gigabyte of RAM as base. As you can see, my Mac system has 3584MB available (4GB RAM installed), so this shouldn't break the bank for me. Your system resources may differ, but try to give it at least 512MB. When done press Next.
In the next window, you are now required to set up your virtual 'hard disk'. :-
You will notice <no hard disk> is visible, as we don't yet have an existing disk to use, so press the "New..." button to create a new disk.
This opens a new sub-wizard to create the new virtual disk :-
Press Next >. The following window appears :-
Now here's something rather useful and clever. The virtual hard disk - unlike a real one - can exist in two forms. One is as a fixed-size disk, just like its physical equivalent. But the other is as a dynamic disk, which expands in size on your Mac only when more memory space is needed, up to some predetermined maximum.
What this means is that you don't have to store a hulking great 80 GB virtual disk on your mac for a virtual operating system that's only currently taking up 8GB of space. But if you do need the disk space later, it'll expand automatically as needed. Cool, n'est pas?
So here we shall leave the default choice selected - Dynamically expanding image.
When you're done, click Next >.
So now you should arrive at the above window, where you select your ultimate virtual disk size. This is the maximum that your dynamic disk will expand to. How big you want to make this really depends on how much space you have free on your own Mac's hard drive, and also what you intend using the virtual drive for. Don't give it too little, as it would be so irritating to find you were short of space after installing all those lovely bloated OU Windows apps ( ;-)). But by the same token don't go mad, if all you're going to use the virtual disk for is to run the coursework.
Personally? I would give XP at least 20GB of space, but it wouldn't need more than 40GB if I wasn't using it for lots of other stuff. Vista is a bit more space hungry - so I'd be tempted to give that at least 40GB minimum, up to 80GB. Remember, all this is dynamic - so if you don't need the space, it won't use the space.
Okay, so slide the bar in the window until you get your desired maximum disk size. When you're happy, press Next >. This opens up a final window, summarising the details of the virtual disk you are about to create:-
Happy? Press Finish. The new virtual hard disk will now be created.
This puts you back at the earlier Boot hard disk window - but now you should see your newly named virtual disk selected as the 'Primary Master' in the Boot Hard Disk pane:-
Press Next > to continue.
A final summary window will open like this :-
Note from the above that you will be able to change settings later on if you need to, so don't worry.
When you're ready, press Finish....and that's it! You've created your new virtual Windows disk.
Step 3 - Install the Guest Operating System
Here's a picture of what my VirtualBox window now looks like, with my fresh new Windows virtual disk as created above. But don't touch anything yet! :-
There's a lot to take in! But don't worry for now, as you'll be able to explore more later at your leisure. Some main points to note are:
The left side of the window now contains the named Virtual disk, with the message that it's "powered off". This simply means our virtual PC is currently waiting to be activated. On the right side of the screen is a wealth of information about our virtual disk. You needn't involve yourself with any gory details at this point, except to note that all these hardware categories are virtual - meaning that the PC we've created really believes it is a hardware PC with all these specifications. And if you click on each of the category headings, you'll see that you can adjust the settings for each. Very clever stuff!
Actually, there's just one setting I'd like you to adjust. So click on the blue word "General" at the top of the list on the right. The following window will open:-
These are some very basic settings for your virtual disk. I want you to change the amount of video memory given to your virtual disk. It's the bottom slider. Move it up to something like 64mb - but no less than 32mb. That'll come in handy later on.... once you're done, press OK.
Now we're back at the main screen, we're going to continue with our installation. You see, although we have a nice new virtual hard disk, it suffers from a fatal flaw....it doesn't have an operating system on it! That's why we're about to put XP on the drive you've created.
So click on the green Start arrow at the top of the window to start the virtual disk....
A little word about virtual
device control...
|
Anyway, back to the install. What will happen when you click on the green start arrow is the virtual PC will try to start up - realise it has no OS, and - because it's starting for the first time - it will open up another nice new wizard to help you install one :-
Press Next >. The following window appears:-
This window is asking you where you want to install your copy of Windows from. The default - unsurprisingly - presumes that you are using a CD/DVD disc inserted into your Mac's CD drive. In most cases, this will be quite correct, and won't need adjustment. (a Floppy device?! oh sure - let me just get my platform shoes and Abba records out of the cupboard... ;-))
However, you may have another (external) CD/DVD drive you'd rather use - or perhaps you have downloaded your copy of Windows as an image? Unlikely - but this can happen on the latest student deals. In this case, select the host drive and drive image at the bottom of the screen. Otherwise, accept the defaults and press
Next >.
You should see something like the following (don't worry if the Source information is different - it will depend on your mac model):-
Now, this shows that we are ready to start installing our Windows software. Place your Windows CD into your Mac's CD drive and wait a sec for it to start up. When it's appeared on your Mac desktop, press the Finish button in the window. The window will change to a black screen and progress bar for a few moments - then (if you are installing XP like me) the screen will turn a garish shade of blue and begin the Windows setup program:-
This will take a minute. Eventually the arcane messages along the bottom of the window will complete, and you will be presented with the following screen:-
Press the ENTER button on your Mac keyboard to continue.
You will now be presented with the Windows licencing agreement, which you will have to press F8 on your keyboard to agree with.
Okay, if you've agreed to the Licence, then the next window to appear is this one:-
Windows wants to partition your disk - but don't worry! It doesn't mean your Mac's disk - just the virtual disk you've created inside your Mac. So it won't trash anything it shouldn't. Just press ENTER to let it install on the new dynamic disk you've created.
Now the next window that opens wants you to select a file system to format the new partition with:-
You have a basic choice between FAT and NTFS. My advice is to use NTFS, as it's the most modern, and can take larger disk sizes. NTFS is the default, but you could opt for the quick NTFS format version, as it'll speed the install up a little. Use the directional arrow keys on your keyboard to scroll up and down through the choices, and then press ENTER when you're done.
Now the install will begin in earnest. First you'll see a screenshot of the disk being formatted - then it'll move straight on to copying the files that it needs from the CD to the virtual disk:-
Then it will inform you that it's going to reboot before continuing with the install. But it's at this point that you may have to step in to give your virtual disk a little help. You see, your CD - rather like the mouse - has to be "attached" to the virtual PC for the install disk to work. But this isn't always an exact science. Basically, what might happen just after it reboots is that you'll see a pretty little Sun VirtualBox flash screen, followed by exactly the same setup screen that you saw at the start of your XP install. The install program on the CD has started from the beginning again... ;-)
But never fear - you can quickly get it out of this loop, and nudge it on its way. What you do is this :-
1. Go to the Devices menu in VirtualBox, and select "Unmount CD/DVD" from the host drive.
2. The program will suddently stop with an error, requesting you to exit by pressing any key...press ENTER.
3. The Virtual disk will restart. You'll see the Sun spash screen again, but this time hopefully you'll go into the Windows XP loading window. What's happened is that the partially loaded new operating system has booted itself up to continue the install process. After a moment, you will be asked to insert your CD again before continuing.
4. Go to the Devices menu in VirtualBox, and select "Mount CD/DVD" from the host drive.
The CD will mount again and the install will continue. It can take a minute or five, so keep a cup of tea handy, and enjoy all those Microsoft messages in scrawny pixellated text telling you how advanced XP is ;-)
The next window you're presented with is Region and Language options:-
The defaults are for American locations, formats and keyboards - so you may want to change these. Remember to 'capture' your mouse inside the PC window, and then release it afterwards by pressing the left cmd key. Click Next > when your done.
Then you are asked to type your user name (compulsory) and that of your organisation (optional). do so and press Next >
Now we come to the all-important Product Key entry window:-
This should have come with the version of Windows you purchased. Enter it carefully and press Next > when you're done.
The next window requires you to enter a suitable computer name and account password:-
The computer name is mainly so the PC can be recognised on a network - not a particular priority with OU VirtualBox users. The password is important, as you'll need to log in to your Windows account with this. Don't forget it!
Next is the date and time:-
You'll need to adjust the timezone for Greenwich Mean Time, although I found that XP could read my computer clock time okay.
After this, the install will continue until you are asked about Network Settings. Just accept the defaults for this by pressing Next >.
Now you may be asked about a Workgroup or Computer Domain. Unless you have your own advanced ideas, accept the default by pressing Next >.
Now that the above settings have been made, the install should resume by copying the relevant files over from the CD.
Eventually, the virtual disk will restart - the screen will go blank - the VirtualBox splashscreen will briefly appear (man typing at computer!) - then Windows XP will start up in the VirtualBox window. Hurrah!
After a few moments, the following prompt appears:-
Press Okay. Then this one appears:-
If you can see the text, Press Okay.
At this point, yet another settings setup wizard appears (dontcha just love 'em?) with a baby blue screen welcoming you to XP and a cutsie little wobbly talking question mark in the bottom corner...hmm....
anyway, just press the Next button at the bottom to start the process.
The next thing you are asked is do you want to have Windows update your system automatically with background software updates? I have personal feelings on this, but other users may differ.
I don't personally like background system updates, as it takes a degree of control away from the user. For instance, sometimes a software patch is released which turns out to have a serious fault. The patch is quickly halted and repaired - but if you had automatic updates turned on, then you'll have unwittingly installed the dodgy one. This can cause damage to your system.
I personally prefer to update manually - when I want - but by doing so I accept responsibility for regularly updating my system software. Don't forget, Windows is the home of the computer virus. It must be kept patched to help keep nasties at bay.
As you see from the tone of the above prompt, Microsoft really wants you to accept automatic updates. And they have good reason. Most of the malware in the world thrives on computers where users don't bother to keep their systems up to date. So they want to remember for you. Fair enough - if thats the best way for you, then just select the top choice. Besides, by picking "not right now" as I do, you'll guarantee that Microsoft will annoy you later with nagging little messages. Trust me - they're very good at nagging little messages......;-)
Anyway, when you've chosen, press the Next button.
The next question you're asked is how you are going to connect to the Internet:-
You should accept the default choice (above) , as VirtualBox is cleverly going to share your Mac's internet connection by piggy-backing on what your computer already has. So no direct connections here. Press next to continue.
You'll then be asked if you want to register with Microsoft:-
Best press No at this time, as we have other things to think about right now. You can do it later if you wish. Press Next.
Now you have the chance to enter all the users of your new virtual XP system. :-
This is pretty cool, because of course, just like any normal XP system, your virtual system can have multiple users, each with their own desktops. However, most students will just be wanting the one user system. When you're done, click Next.
You should arrive at a final screen congratulating you. Press the Finish Button.
Hoorah! You are finally at your new XP desktop!:-
Step 4 - Installing The Guest Additions
But hang on... Isn't the desktop window a little....small? And all that having to click inside the window to use your mouse is a bit annoying....Ahhh. That's because we haven't finished our install. We still have one important app to install from VirtualBox which will make our virtual experience a LOT better. On the virtualBox menu at the top of your screen, go to the Devices menu and select "install guest additions...".
This will open up a windows installer from Sun :-
Follow the instructions on this installer, accepting all defaults. Every time an alert window flashes up, warning you about untrusted programs or unsigned drivers, ignore it by pressing 'Yes' to accept, or "Continue anyway". At the end, you'll be asked do you want to reboot. Select reboot now.
When you're back at your PC desktop, try something. Move your mouse over from the Mac desktop to the XP window, and watch what happens. Eureka! Your mouse should now magically become a windows mouse as soon as it gets over the windows desktop - and then revert to a Mac mouse when you move it back out! This will make your life a LOT easier. But that's not all...
Go to the bottom-right of the XP Window and pull it at the bottom corner to expand the window, as you would any Mac window. After a few moments of blinking and adjustment, the Windows desktop will expand to fit the new size! You can now make your working desktop any size you like. This is what the installed guest additions have done for you.
But that's not the best bit. Go to the "Machine" menu, and select "Fullscreen Mode".
You'll get a little box which pops up and explains what's going to happen. Make a note of the keyboard shortcut it gives you - Command-F - and then click on the Switch button.
Voila! You are now the proud owner of a full-screen Windows machine! Your Mac has disappeared....
Wait! Stop screaming! ;-) Just a convenient screen mode. The mac is still there behind it. Either press Command -F, or move your mouse to the top of the screen, and unselect "fullscreen Mode" from the Machine menu, and you'll get your Mac back.
There! You're back in Window mode. Good eh?
Instant Internet
Another great thing about VirtualBox, is that you should already be connected to the Internet through your Mac's own connection. The virtual PC simply piggybacks on your existing connection.Give it a try. Open Internet Explorer from the Start Menu, and navigate to a popular page. Any problems, get in touch.
Step 5 - getting your OU software and files into the virtual system
This should be pretty easy, as you've already been using the install CD like a pro, but obviously software installation is very important. So I'll just go through it once more.1. Startup your Virtual Windows system, till you get to your desktop.
2. Insert the OU disk into your Mac's CD drive.
Now chances are, VirtualBox will detect this CD disk straight away, and the installation program will appear on your PC desktop. If not, just do the following:-
3. Click on the little CD icon at the bottom of the VirtualBox window - second from left. Your local Mac's CD drive should be listed- select it to attach the CD to the virtual space.
Alternatively, select "Mount CD/DVD ROM" from the Devices menu.
4. After a moment, the installation should now start. If by any chance it doesn't, navigate to
Start menu > All Programs > Accessories > Windows Explorer and open it.
5. Expand the "My Computer" icon to the left of the screen, and you should see your CD under disk D: Click on this to access your CD files and programs.
Step 6 - sharing files between your Mac and your Virtual PC
This is important. One of the great benefits of having a virtual PC on your Mac desktop is the ability for you to move files around between them - say, by writing your assignment on the Mac, and then effortlessly delivering it to the OU via PC. Or doing some essential work using PC software, and then moving it back to the Mac to be completed. Great!Well, to do that on VirtualBox, there are just a few little things you have to do first. I'll tell you what and where:-
1. Start up your Virtual PC and go to your desktop (in window mode)
2. At the bottom of the window there is a row of little icons. Fifth from the left is a little folder Icon. Click on this.
3. This opens up the Shared Folders Window:-
Now VirtualBox requires you to tell it which Mac folders you would like to share with your PC environment. An obvious one would perhaps be your desktop folder - so that you could quickly access files on your mac desktop for use in the PC. There are two types of shared folders -
Machine Folders - which are always shared with the Virtual machine
Transient Folders - which are temporary shares you only need for one PC 'session'.
We're really interested in the permanent machine type - so that's what I'll run through:-
4. Click on the little Folder icon with the plus sign, top-right of the window. This will open up a new window called "Add Share" .
5. In the "Folder Path" box , put the path to the Mac folder You want to share. Your desktop folder is something like "/Users/my_home/Desktop"
In the "Folder Name" box, put a name you'd like your folder to be known by on the windows side. A single name answer is best, as VirtualBox doesn't handle spaces between words well.
Read-only means you can't write to your Mac side. I prefer to read/write, so I leave this unchecked.
Now click on Make Permanent to ensure that you've always got access to this folder by default.
6. when you're done, click OK.
Your shared folder should now appear in the Shared Folders window under Machine Folders.
7. Restart your Virtual System from the start menu.
8. When you arrive back at your Windows desktop, Navigate to Windows Explorer (see above) and open it.
9. To the left of the Windows Explorer screen, expand the My Network Places icon.
10. Then expand the Entire Network icon.
11. Finally expand the VirtualBox Shared Folders Icon.
This reveals your shared folder(s). A good idea is to drag this shared folder to your PC Desktop to make a shortcut to it. Then you've always got quick access to your Mac!
Any problems, just get in touch and we'll talk you through it.
The Last Word
So that's it. Thanks to the wonders of VirtualBox, you now have a virtualisation solution for OU study on the Macintosh for free! Parallels and VMWare have a great deal to be worried about....For advice on this, and all Mac related OU stuff - don't forget to visit the OUSA Mac General conference at the university.
How to get there form your FirstClass desktop:-
FirstClass desktop-> Open University shield-> OU Students Association-> OUSA Signpost-> scroll down to OUSA Mac General
By Stephen McGann February 2009