Setting up a windows 10 virtual machine

[dankprometheus]

This is something I’ve been trying to do for months and only recently have I gotten this close. I’m running Linux mint and I’m trying to use virtual box to set up a virtual machine with windows 10 installed. Using a Laptop running windows 10 I tried to set up a bootable usb but the VM simply doesn’t detect it at all. I attempted to deliver an ISO file through said usb but it never appears as an ISO disc image, just the files that seem to come with the download from windows’ main site. I’ve tried using windows media creator and Rufus but got the same result. I’m new to VMs so any help would be appreciated

[barth90]

I just did what you are trying to do. The procedure is not that obvious. I was able to successfully install and run Windows 10 in Virtualbox.
Here's a link to the video that I followed. It's very clear and detailled. That did it for me. I hope this will help you.

https://youtu.be/1XFa_2cKzuk

[wallyUSA]

@Dank,

Welcome to the forum. This is a great resource for answers and suggestions to your questions and issues. Many of the friendly members will freely share their suggestions. You may even find your own answer(s) by using the SEARCH option above.

Most all answers about how to use the forum can be found via the FAQ link at the top of this page.

Please provide your hardware and software info with your technical issues. Post the results of the following command

Code: Select all

inxi –Fxxxrz 

from the command line in between code tags (see button above the text box of your post, next to quote mark).

Many here can help with the Windows in a VM. Good luck!

Cheers!

[RIH]

The easiest way is to just copy the Windows 10 iso to your Mint install.
Then you go to Settings in your Windows 10 virtualbox guest, click on the Storage tab, select the CD/DVD icon & then use the drop down arrow to select the Windows 10 iso on your Mint install.
You can then start the Windows 10 guest & the installation disk should start..

[majpooper]

I just did what you are trying to do. The procedure is not that obvious. I was able to successfully install and run Windows 10 in Virtualbox.
Here's a link to the video that I followed. It's very clear and detailled. That did it for me. I hope this will help you.

https://youtu.be/1XFa_2cKzuk

The video is a good one but keep in mind he is running Virtualbox on a Windows PC so the host is Windows. The beginning of the Video can be confusing because on linux you are not going to be able to install the Download Tool he is talking about when the video starts out with - so forget that part of the video.

You want to start following the video at 5:00 which does a pretty good job as a HOW TO install any .iso on VirtualBox. The key here is getting a Windows 10 .iso image. Here are two easy ways to do this:
1.) Go to the site provided in the video and download the .iso file. I went to the site - it looked different than the video but I was able to download a Windows 10 .iso image - it took quite a while for the MS some verification process to run but I finally got to where I could do the download.
2.) I had two PCs and a laptop that had come with Windows and so I legitimately had Windows 10 licences and product codes. The problem for me, I guess, was that they were old. I had to call MS and get new ones - it was a bit of a hassle but they sent me an email with the new product codes and a link from which to download the .iso image.

I did a few things different than the video which I think works out better performance wise;
1.) Make sure you install the Virtual Box Extension Pack from the Mint repository (I use Synaptic).
2.) I think a 32Gib is too small for Windows 10 - I had problems with that - I made mine 60Gib. Probably overkill but I definitely recommend bigger than 32Gib. Also I like "fixed" vs "Dynamic" but that is just my preference.
3.) When going through the settings I do General>Advanced>Bidirectional for both Clipboard and Drag n Drop - just a convenience. That way I can move around between host and guest.
4.) I also recommend 4 processors - but again just my preference.
5.) You don't need the network to be bridged - and it is not as safe - stick with NAT.
6.) once you boot Windows click on devices>Insert Guest Additions CD and run

[majpooper]

I just did what you are trying to do. The procedure is not that obvious. I was able to successfully install and run Windows 10 in Virtualbox.
Here's a link to the video that I followed. It's very clear and detailled. That did it for me. I hope this will help you.

https://youtu.be/1XFa_2cKzuk

The video is a good one but keep in mind he is running Virtualbox on a Windows PC so the host is Windows. The beginning of the Video can be confusing because on linux you are not going to be able to install the Download Tool he is talking about when the video starts out with - so forget that part of the video.

You want to start following the video at 5:00 which does a pretty good job as a HOW TO install any .iso on VirtualBox. The key here is getting a Windows 10 .iso image. Here are two easy ways to do this:
1.) Go to the site provided in the video and download the .iso file. I went to the site - it looked different than the video but I was able to download a Windows 10 .iso image - it took quite a while for the MS some verification process to run but I finally got to where I could do the download.
2.) I had two PCs and a laptop that had come with Windows and so I legitimately had Windows 10 licences and product codes. The problem for me, I guess, was that they were old. I had to call MS and get new ones - it was a bit of a hassle but they sent me an email with the new product codes and a link from which to download the .iso image.

I did a few things different than the video which I think works out better performance wise;
1.) Make sure you install the Virtual Box Extension Pack from the Mint repository (I use Synaptic).
2.) I think a 32Gib is too small for Windows 10 - I had problems with that - I made mine 60Gib. Probably overkill but I definitely recommend bigger than 32Gib. Also I like "fixed" vs "Dynamic" but that is just my preference.
3.) When going through the settings I do General>Advanced>Bidirectional for both Clipboard and Drag n Drop - just a convenience. That way I can move around between host and guest.
4.) I also recommend 4 processors - but again just my preference.
5.) You don't need the network to be bridged - and it is not as safe - stick with NAT.
6.) once you boot Windows click on devices>Insert Guest Additions CD and run

[AndyMH]

Similar advice but with some differences. Don't use the version in software manager, download and install direct from oracle. See this post from gm10:
viewtopic.php?p=1730680#p1730680

Just download the win10 iso from MS and point virtualbox at it.

I agree you need around 60GB for the VM, but I prefer dynamic to fixed (one of them is easy to resize, the other one isn't but can't remember which is which).

I give a win VM all my CPUs and half my memory.

The extension pack and guest-additions are a must have.

I got win10 licences off amazon cheap.

I also run my win VM in seamless mode - you get the win taskbar above the mint panel and the rest of the desktop is linux.

[barth90]

I just did what you are trying to do. The procedure is not that obvious. I was able to successfully install and run Windows 10 in Virtualbox.
Here's a link to the video that I followed. It's very clear and detailled. That did it for me. I hope this will help you.

https://youtu.be/1XFa_2cKzuk

I did a few things different than the video which I think works out better performance wise;
1.) Make sure you install the Virtual Box Extension Pack from the Mint repository (I use Synaptic).
2.) I think a 32Gib is too small for Windows 10 - I had problems with that - I made mine 60Gib. Probably overkill but I definitely recommend bigger than 32Gib. Also I like "fixed" vs "Dynamic" but that is just my preference.
3.) When going through the settings I do General>Advanced>Bidirectional for both Clipboard and Drag n Drop - just a convenience. That way I can move around between host and guest.
4.) I also recommend 4 processors - but again just my preference.
5.) You don't need the network to be bridged - and it is not as safe - stick with NAT.
6.) once you boot Windows click on devices>Insert Guest Additions CD and run

Steps 2 and 4. Can you go back after the fact and change these parameters. I had set the size to 32Gb and would like to increase it. Also I would change the number of CPU on mine

[AndyMH]

Steps 2 and 4. Can you go back after the fact and change these parameters. I had set the size to 32Gb and would like to increase it. Also I would change the number of CPU on mine

#4 - easy it's just one of the settings in VB.
#2 - yes, but... you can have either a dynamic disk (only uses space on your linux system as needed up to the specified size) or fixed. One is easy the other more difficult. You will need to google which is which. Whatever, the one I had wasn't easy. From memory (this was over 3yrs ago), I had to clone the VM (tools to do this in VB) and then increase the size of the clone (in a terminal using VB commands). Office 2013 then complained it wasn't registered, fortunately I still had some unused licences.