Installing Windows 7 Under Sun VirtualBox

Before installing Windows 7 as a virtual system, you need to make sure your host operating system is installed on your computer and you have installed the Sun VirtualBox software.

After you have done these two things, you can start installing Windows 7.

1. Your first task is to start the VirtualBox console and then use it to create and configure a virtual hard disk instance for your Windows 7 installation. We have found that the settings shown in Tables below and table below are the bare minimum that is acceptable for running Windows 7 from within VirtualBox.
   
   Minimum Settings for Running Windows 7 Under Sun VirtualBox

   OS Type	MicrosoftWindows
   Version	Windows Vista (see note below)
   Base Memory Size	512MB
   Boot Hard Disk	Click New, and see below
   Hard Disk, Storage Type	Dynamically Expanding Storage
   Hard Disk, Location	Any appropriate location on your system
   Hard Disk, Size	20.00GB

   
   
   Expanded Recommended VirtualBox Settings for Windows 7 Virtual System

   Section	Tab	Field	Notes/Entry
   Section	Basic	Operating System	Microsoft Windows
   General	Basic	Version	Windows Vista (we expect that an updated version withWindows 7 compatibility will be available by the end of 2009).
   	Basic	Base Memory	800MB
   	Basic	Video Memory	128MB
   	Basic	Enable 3D Acceleration	Yes
   	Basic	Boot Order	Whatever you think is appropriate.However, note that initially you will need to enable CD/DVD-ROM boot ahead of the hard disk.
   	Advance	Enable ACPI	Yes
   Hard Disk		Enable SATA Controller	Yes
   	Slot	Hard Disk	The VDI file that you create for the virtual system instance.
   CD/DVD-ROM		Mount CD/DVD Drive	Yes
   	Host CD/DVD Drive		Normally we would suggest this.However, see the next item for an alternative.
   	Host CD/DVD Drive	Enable Passthrough	You must enable this option if you plan to let the virtual installation ofWindows 7 use your computer's CD/DVD drive.
   	ISO Image File		We found some issues with DVD drive passthrough from our host system. As a result,we wound up creating an ISO from the DVD drive on the host system and then mounting the ISO as a DVD image with this option to installWindows 7 to our virtual environment.
   Floppy	Mount Floppy Drive		If your system has a floppy drive, and you plan to allow the virtual system to use it, you must select this option.We never used it because none of our test systems had floppy drives.
   Audio	Enable Audio		If you want your virtual system to be able to use the host computer's audio capabilities, you must enable this option.
   Audio		Host Audio Driver	If you select Null audio driver, theWindows 7 virtual system will "see" an audio card but will not be able to send any sound out through it.
   Audio		Audio Controller	SoundBlaster 16.
   Network	Adapter 1	Enable Network Adapter	You must enable at least one network adapter for your virtual system to be able to communicate on the Internet
   Network	Adapter 1	Adapter Type	Intel Pro/1000 MT Desktop.
   Network	Adapter 1	Attached to	NAT
   Network	Adapter 1	Cable Connector	YES
   Serial Port	Port 1	Enable Serial Port	Enable this only if you plan to let the virtual system use your computer's serial ports. In our test cases, we left this turned off.
   USB		Enable USB Controller	Yes
   USB		Enable USB 2.0 (EHCI) Controller	Yes
   Share Folder			By default, no shared folders are created.We found it useful to create a shared folder for the virtual system, which linked to the host system's desktop. Click the plus sign (+) icon in the upper-left corner to create a shared folder.

2. After you have created the virtual system instance, including its associated virtual hard disk image (VDI file), you can install Windows 7.
3. Mount the Windows 7 DVD in your system's DVD drive.
4. From within VirtualBox, select the Windows 7 virtual system instance and then click the Start arrow.
5. Based on the recommended settings, your virtual system should start to boot and then load from your host system DVD drive. If you have any issues with this process, stop the virtual system, copy an ISO image of the Windows 7 DVD to your system, and then mount that ISO image as the DVD drive under VirtualBox.
6. Install and configure Windows 7 as you normally would.
7. After Windows 7 is installed in your virtual environment, test the network connectivity from within the virtual system using Internet Explorer.
8. Configure the Windows 7 virtual instance as you would any other system installation. Note that you can perform normal application migration operations from within VirtualBox with no issues, so migrating applications and settings should be as simple as they would be to a regular Windows 7 installation.