Windows 8 Consumer Preview

Build 8250 of Windows 8 is here !

I have installed it and it runs fine with Hyper-V (2008R2)
The Install worked perfectly.

Productkey:
DNJXJ-7XBW8-2378T-X22TX-BKG7J. If you create installation media, start your PC from the media, and then install Windows 8 Consumer Preview. You'll need to enter this product key: NF32V-Q9P3W-7DR7Y-JGWRW-JFCK8.

ISO files can be downloaded from:
http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows-8/iso

Windows Server 8 can be downloaded from:
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/evalcenter/hh670538.aspx

Windows 8 (8250) FAQ:
http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows-8/faq

Windows 8 8250 forum:
http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_8

Blog Windows 8 team:
http://blogs.msdn.com/b/b8/

WinSuperSite info on Windows 8 (8250)
http://www.winsupersite.com/windows-8

The following virtualization products have been tested and verified to install and function in basic scenarios with the Windows 8 Consumer Preview. Note that in some cases, special options need to be selected while loading Windows 8 Consumer Preview in the virtualization product.

Functional:

• Hyper-V in Windows 8 Developer Preview

• Hyper-V in Windows Server 2008 R2

• VMware Workstation 8.0.2 for Windows

· Note Do not use the “Easy Install” option when setting up the Windows 8 virtual environment using VMWare Workstation. Use the new virtual machine wizard, and select the option for “Windows 7”.

• VirtualBox 4.1.8 for Windows

· Note Use the VirtualBox config manager to “enable PAE/NX” when setting up the Windows 8 virtual environment.

• Parallels Workstation 6 for Windows

• Parallels Desktop 4 for Windows

• XenDesktop 5.5

Non-functional:

• Microsoft Virtual PC (all versions)

• Microsoft Virtual Server (all versions)

• Windows 7 XP Mode

• VMWare Workstation 7.x or older
Source: http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_8-windows_install/compatible-vm-products/ff0259e8-42b9-4652-86c9-bd91ac08d86c

Next take the following steps:

Open VirtualBox and create a new virtual machine, choose Windows/Windows 8 as the type. If that’s not an option, you need to update VirtualBox. Be certain to pick the version, 32 or 64-bit that matches your download.
During the initial installation process choose to create a virtual disk. You’ll need at least 20GB to get the job done.
For the virtual disk type, I prefer to use VDI (VirtualBox Disk Image), but the others will work as well.
For the virtual disk storage details, I prefer to use a dynamically allocated disk rather than a fixed size virtual disk. That way, if I end up using the VM for production, I don’t need to manually give it more room down the road.
Once the virtual disk created, go to Settings and get ready to start tuning.
In the System > Motherboard setting enable IO APIC.
Set the VM’s memory to 2GBs for a 32-bit Windows 8 instance and at least 4GBs for the 64-bit version. Remember you can’t use all your system’s memory for this.
Change the chipset to ICH9. You may also be able to us the PIIX3 chipset, but I see poorer performance with this setting.
Next, move to System > Processors and enable PAE/NX.
If you have a very fast machine with multiple-cores or CPUs, as I do with my six-cored Intel Core i7, you can set it to run with two or three processors. I use two.
Follow this up by going to System > Acceleration and enable VT-x/AMD-V and Nested Paging.
Now move to the left menu bar and go down to Display > Video and enable both 3D and 2D acceleration. After you do this you can push the Windows 8 VM’s video memory to 256MB. Do so. Windows 8 needs all the video room it can get.
Hop once more over to the left and under Storage go to your virtual hard drive (.vdi) under the SATA controller and click host I/O cache. While there, your Windows 8 Preview .ISO file should have been mounted already. If it hasn’t been yet, mount with IDE and make sure you’re using IDE with the ICH6 IDE controller.
Now, start running the virtual machine and follow the standard Windows installation instructions. From here on in it should be just like installing Windows 8 on native hardware.
Source: http://www.zdnet.com/blog/btl/virtually-windows-8-how-to-set-up-the-consumer-preview-in-virtualbox/70330