• VirtualBox is the most easiest way to run secondary OS on your primary operating system, If your hardware doesn’t allow you to install any other operating system then VirtualBox comes in hand. It is a free and powerful x86 and AMD64/Intel64 virtualization product available for most of the operating systems such as Linux, Microsoft Windows.
• How to Install Windows 8 and 8.1 in VirtualBox This will show you how to install either the 32-bit (x86) or 64-bit (x64) version of Windows 8 and 8.1 in the free program VirtualBox. For FAQs and more information about VirtualBox, see: End-userdocumentation - VirtualBox In order to run.

• Virtualbox 32 Bit Windows 8.1 Windows 8 1
• Virtualbox Download In 32 Bit
• Virtual Boxes For Windows 10
• Virtualbox 32 Bit Windows 8.1dows 8 1

Updated: October 24, 2014

Windows 8 might soon be going away, which is why the notion of using it as a guest operating system in a virtual machine is more appealing than ever before. Hence, this article. Hence, this situation you are facing. You are trying to boot one of the 64-bit Windows 8.X family operating systems as a guest in VirtualBox. This may be Windows 8 or higher. Either way, the initial boot fails within seconds, and the virtual machine must be closed. The Error Code you get is: 0x000000C4.

For the guest, I used the Windows 8.1 (32 bit) VirtualBox setting with 25 GB fixed-size VDI, 2048 MB memory, 2 cores, Enable PAE/NX, and Enable Nested Paging.

This article will show you how to work around this small but cool issue so that you can install Windows 8.1 as a guest operating system inside VirtualBox. You will also learn a little about the nerdy things that happen in the background. Follow me.

Problem

As simple as it sounds, you get the following text on your screen a few moments after booting the virtual machine configured for Windows 8.1, and using either Windows 8.1 DVD or ISO image. This happens with any one version of VirtualBox 4.0 and higher.

Your PC needs to restart.
Please hold down the power button.
Error Code: 0x000000C4
Parameters:
...

Sounds terrible, especially because you need to close the VirtualBox window instance for this particular virtual machine, and try again. But the results will be identical. Now, what do you do?

Solution

There is a lot you need to do here. First, read and understand the error. If you're somewhat familiar with Windows BSOD, then this will look similar. This is a machine instruction exception, meaning the operating system is trying to perform an illegal operation. But now that we know what to look for, it's gonna be easy.

If you search the VirtualBox forums, tickets and online, in general, you will findquite a few references to what this means. It comes down to the fact the CMPXCHG16B instruction is disabled, and it needs to be enabled. It is mandatory for Windows 8.1 in order to boot. Quoting from Wikipedia:

Early AMD64 processors lacked the CMPXCHG16B instruction, which is an extension of the CMPXCHG8B instruction present on most post-80486 processors. Similar to CMPXCHG8B, CMPXCHG16B allows for atomic operations on octal words. This is useful for parallel algorithms that use compare and swap on data larger than the size of a pointer, common in lock-free and wait-free algorithms. Without CMPXCHG16B one must use workarounds, such as a critical section or alternative lock-free approaches. This also prevents 64-bit Windows from having a user-mode address space larger than 8 terabytes. The 64-bit version of Windows 8.1 requires this feature.

Indeed, virtualization is all about creating VIRTUAL hardware. Some of the features are exposed, some are not. VirtualBox has been designed not to expose the CMPXCHG16B instruction to the guests by default, which creates the issue we face. So we need to enable it. This is done by using the VirtualBox command line.

'<VirtualBox Installation>VBoxManage.exe' setextradata
'<Virtual machine name>' VBoxInternal/CPUM/CMPXCHG16B 1

In order for this command to be successful, you still need a modern processor on your host system regardless. If your processor does not have the NX/XD bit, or if it's disabled in BIOS, then you will have to fix the problem on your host first, before moving forward. In some cases, it might not be possible.

Virtualbox 32 Bit Windows 8.1 Windows 8 1

After you execute this command, you will have the instruction available, and Windows 8.1 will boot successfully. After that, you can do the needed, usual stuff, like installing the system, perhaps.

Conclusion

There you are. A bit long, isn't it, this little tutorial. Now, I could have just posted a link to the Oracle tickets database, but that would be missing the point. Dedoimedo is all about education. You want to understand the problem and not just blindly execute random and possibly dangerous commands. Not that you know what this is all about, it's effectively like switching an option on or off in BIOS/UEFI. OK, now you're talking business.

Either way, you've learned a little more about the CPU architecture, about virtualization software, how VirtualBox behaves and works, and how you can control hidden features and settings from the command line. Really neat. And I think we're done here.

Cheers.

Virtualbox Download In 32 Bit

There are often times when you need to install Windows 10, Windows 8.1 or Windows 8 for evaluation or testing in a virtual machine like VirtualBox for example. You may not want to activate it every time with your licensed product key that you use on a real machine. For that purpose, you can use generic keys from Microsoft, which will allow you to install the OS, but won't allow you to activate it. As long as you have an ISO image containing Windows Setup files you can install the OS using a generic key. If you used Windows 7, you might remember you could install it without a key. Generic keys for Windows 10, Windows 8.1 and Windows 8 serve the same purpose.

Generic key for Windows 10

There are two generic keys available for Windows 10 at this moment. One is for the standard edition and the other is for the Enterprise edition.
These keys are as follows:

• Windows 10 Home:
• WIndows 10 Pro:
• Windows 10 Home Single Language
• Windows 10 Enterprise:

Generic key for Windows 8.1

Windows 8.1 has four different editions including Windows 8.1 RT, Windows 8.1, Windows 8.1 Pro and Windows 8.1 Enterprise. Here are generic keys for basic and Pro editions of Windows 8.1:

• Windows 8.1 standard/non-Pro edition:
• Windows 8.1 Pro:
• Windows 8 Pro with Media Center:

Virtual Boxes For Windows 10

Generic key for Windows 8

The RTM release of Windows 8 was available in the following editions: Windows RT, Windows 8, Windows 8 Pro and Windows 8 Enterprise.
Use the following product keys for them:

• Windows 8 standard/non-Pro edition:
• Windows 8 Pro:
• Windows 8 Pro with Media Center:

Remember, these keys can only install Windows for evaluation or testing for a short time. It's not possible to activate it unless you enter a genuine key purchased from Microsoft. Once you decide to activate your installed OS, you will need to change the generic product key to the actual key you purchased. Here is how you do it: How to change product key in Windows 10
That's it.

Virtualbox 32 Bit Windows 8.1dows 8 1

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