The best way to try a new operating system is with a virtual machine installed on your existing OS. VirtualBox will detect the OS as you type. It defaults to Mac OS X. However, we need to change You need to enable virtualization in your BIOS settings. Press either F2 or DEL during the boot process. By comparison a Windows 7 guest using the same VirtualBox settings has no problems whatsoever with audio. That's on a linux host with only ALSA (no pulseaudio). The audio is so bad that I have to disable it, it cannot be listened to.
It’s a commonly held assumption that computer users are split into two camps – the Windows fans and the Apple fans. If you’re on one, you’re unlikely to be on the other too, especially since both don’t lend themselves well to cross-compatibility. That’s the assumption anyway. The reality is that many people are increasingly using more than one operating system.
But before fully committing yourself to an OS, you can run it in what’s called a virtualbox to see if you like it. Setting Up Windows 10 To Run In a MacOS VirtualBox A virtual machine can also be described as a “sandpit”. It is an area totally sealed off from the rest of your computer system, where you can run something else. Files and apps are kept completely separate from the main operating system you are running on your computer. Why Would I Want To Do This?. to run a Windows program that is not available on MacOS.
to test a new operating system before fully transferring and committing to it. because you can’t decide what is better – Windows or Mac. So you decide to have both. because you can – and it looks cool.
It should be stressed from the outset that if you want to run Windows in a virtual machine, you need to own a valid Windows license key. A virtual machine does not allow you to get around paying for Windows. If you are running Linux, then OK, that’s free and you don’t have to worry about license keys. But Windows is not free. If you don’t have a spare license key, eBay quite often has cheap versions of Windows 7 and Windows 8 on offer.
Step 1 – Install VirtualBox The virtual machine will be operated by a free cross-platform program called. Install the app on your Mac and start it up. To get started with installing Windows, click the “ New” icon at the top left-hand side. Step 2 – Choose Your Operating System This then drops down a window where you can choose what operating system you want to install. Choose the one you want, and type in a name for it. I called mine “ Windows 10 Machine” (original!).
Step 3 – Choose Your Memory & Virtual Hard Disk Sizes Next, choose how much memory space you want to allocate to set Windows up. By default, it’s at 2048MB, so unless you feel the need to increase it, just leave it at 2048MB. Next, choose how big the virtual hard disk is going to be.
This will be for installing Windows, installing software programs, and so on. So decide, based on your needs.
The default is 32GB. If you want to change it, you would need to skip making it here, and make it in the next couple of steps. Now choose the type of hard disk file. If you don’t know, leave it on the default. Step 4 – Choose The Type Of Hard Disk Storage Remember when VirtualBox made a hard disk of 32GB? This is now asking you if you want it to either be the full fixed size right away, or something called “ dynamically allocated“. Dynamically allocated will only take up space as you use it, but the downside is that when you delete something, the space won’t be given back to you. Select “ Fixed size“.
As it states, it takes longer to create, but is faster to use. Step 5 – Select Virtual Machine Directory & Hard Disk Size If 32GB is too much or too little, then this is the screen where you can change it. Try not to skimp on size if you can. You also need to specify which folder on your computer, the virtual system should be installed to (assuming you want to change it).
Now click “ Create” to make the virtual machine. Step 6 – Install The Windows Operating System This is what your virtual machine will look like when it is created. All it is missing now is actual Windows.
To install Windows,. Also, have your license key ready. The ISO file is 4GB so it will take some time for it to fully download from the Microsoft website.
Click “ Start” under the green arrow at the top, and it will ask you for the location of the installation media. Point it towards the Microsoft ISO file you just downloaded. Windows will now open up the installation process and you just need to follow what it tells you. Now, don’t expect it to be totally fast.
You won’t be able to run any games on it or anything like that. But if all you want is to occasionally run a piece of favourite software, or try out a new Windows 10 feature, then VirtualBox will be more than sufficient. Let us know in the comments if you have any problems setting things up. We will do our best to help.
Did you know you can download and Upgrade the memory When a guest operating system is running in a virtual machine, it uses a lot of memory. This mean that there is less left for Windows to run.
It is very difficult to run VirtualBox with virtual machines on a Windows PC with just 4GB of memory. It can be done, but both Windows and the guest OS in VirtualBox will run very slowly.
This is because it is constantly reading and writing to the page file, which is used as an extension to system memory. It is a zillion times slower though. To run virtual machines you need at least 8 GB of RAM in your PC. It is the bare minimum and 16 GB is recommended.
This enables you to allocate a decent amount of memory to the virtual machine and still have plenty left to run Windows. Buy more RAM! Allocate more memory If you have lots of RAM in your PC, you can increase the amount that a virtual machine uses. The more memory that a guest operating system has, the faster it will run, so if you can allocate 4 GB of memory to the virtual machine it will run much faster than if it has only 2 GB. Select the virtual machine in the list and click Settings in the toolbar. Select System and select the Motherboard tab.
![Settings Settings](http://i1-news.softpedia-static.com/images/news2/Install-Windows-10-Using-VirtualBox-on-Mac-462027-12.jpg)
Drag the slider further to the right, but avoid the red area because this will slow down the computer because it could run short of memory. Allocate more processors A computer with a 4-core CPU is faster than one with a 2-core CPU (all other things being equal), so giving the virtual machine more processors will speed it up. The number that can be allocated will depend on the CPU in your computer. If you have an Intel Core i7 for example, you have more cores to allocate than with a Core i3. Select a virtual machine and click Settings in the toolbar.
Select System and then the Processor tab. Drag the Processors slider up to the point where green turns to red. This means the computer is allocated half the CPU cores and the virtual machine is allocated half of them. If you cannot drag the slider past 1 CPU, the fix is here:.
![Virtualbox Virtualbox](http://cdn.osxdaily.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/name-virtualbox-for-windows-10-mac.jpg)
Set the Execution Cap to 100%. Increase the screen memory The screen display is generated by the graphics hardware and the more memory it has, the faster it runs.
Increasing it can help to speed up the Linux or Windows virtual machine. Select Display and select the Screen tab. Drag the Video Memory slider all the way to the right. Enable the acceleration options. Install Guest Additions Guest Additions is a set of drivers that replace Windows defaults and they speed up the virtual machine enormously. Especially the screen display, which is about 10 times faster with the Guest Additions.
Start the virtual machine. Go to the Devices menu and select Insert Guest Additions CD image. If you are running Windows in the virtual machine, open Explorer, open the CD/DVD Drive and run VBoxWindowsAdditions. If you are running Linux, open a Terminal window, change to the directory where the CD/DVD drive is mounted, and enter sudo sh./VBoxLinuxAdditions.run Change the power plan The power plan that Windows is using affects the speed at which Windows or Linux runs in a virtual machine. As I described in, switching power plans makes a huge performance difference. Right click the battery/power icon at the right side of the taskbar and select Power Options. Expand the lower section if necessary (there is a little down arrow on the right), and select the High performance power plan.
You will be amazed at the difference it can make. Upgrade to an SSD Old style mechanical disk drives are very slow compared to solid state drives (SSDs).
Virtual machines use the disk a lot and if you have an SSD then the guest OS and the host computer will both perform much better. If you can afford it, consider upgrading the hard disk drive to an SSD. Other ways to speed up VirtualBox If the PC has only 4 GB of memory it is best to reduce the memory used by the virtual machine to a minimum.
Both Windows and Linux will run with 1 GB of memory. Select the virtual machine, go to Settings, System, Motherboard and reduce the memory to 1 GB. Go to Settings, Display and drag the Video Memory slider down to the start of the green area. These settings are not the optimum for a PC with 8 or 16 GB of RAM, but they are best for a PC with only 4 GB of RAM.