This is a simple post that shows how I Installed Windows 11 on Windows 10 inside a Oracle VM Virtual Box Virtual Machine.

I love Windows 10 and have many applications I rely on for work and fun.  Before I update to Windows 11, I want to test my software in a Virtual installation of Windows 11.  

I could:

1. Remove my Windows 10 Drive (nVME SSD) and insert new drive and install a fresh copy of Windows 11.,
2. Upgrade my primary Windows 10 to Windows 11
3. Install Windows 10 inside a virtual machine.

If all goes well I will upghrade my primary Windws 10 machine.

Virtual Machines

A Virtual Machine allows youn to  install an Operating System in a virtual environment (as long as you have enough processor cores, memory and storage space).

I am collecting many Virtial Machines from WIndoiws 1 to WIndows 11.

I cna can run upto 6 VM’s at once (normally virtual Box does not like more than this running at once.)

Downloading Windows 11

To downlaod Windows 11 visit https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows11

I selected Windows 11 in the dropdown then clicked Download.

I selected English language

I then selected 64-bit Download

The Downlaod (ISO File) was 5.1GB)

The ISO file downloaded

Before You Begin

Before you begin, set your Processors Power Plan to High or Ultimate (how to). Virtual Machines rely on a fast processor and having your power plan on Power Saving plan is a bad idea.

You will need at least 4 spare processor cores, memeory etc

Also consult your Mainboard manual and enable Virtualizaion/SVM (Google will help)

 

Now I need to set this up as a Virtual Machine in VirtualBox

Setting up a Windows 11 Virtiual Machine

Download Oracle VM VirtualBox from Downloads – Oracle VM VirtualBox and install it.

In Oracle Virtual Box click Machine then New

I named the machine”Windows 11“, Set Type “Windows“, Version “Windows 10 (64bit)”, this is jujst to allow the mahcien to boot (its not gong to install Windows 10).

I set 8GB of memory and selected “Create a virtual hard disk now“

I allocated 70GB storage to the disk (dynamically allocated) as a VDI file type

Under System I enabled PAE/NX (Physical Address Extension – Wikipedia) and allocated 8 Processor cores (4 is enough).

Under Display I allocated 256MB video memory and enabled 3D Accelaration

Under Storage for the virtual CD-ROM I attached the downloaded (above) ISO Image for WIndows 11.

The Windows 11 ISO Image was attached to the virtual CD-ROM

I am now ready to strat the Windows 11 Virtual Machine for the first timn.

Starting the Windows 11 Virtual Machine

I started the Virtual Machine

The Virtual Machine is starting

Windows 11 Boot Logo (this is a good)

Windows 11 is asking for a language and time and currency preference.

I clicked Next then Install

Setup is starting

I was prompted to enter a serial.

I purchased one from VIP-Scdkey: The Professional Marketplace to sell Digital Game keys, Gift Cards for #27.53 USD

These are single use keys

I received an error “This PC can’t run Windows 11. THis PC doesn’t meet the minimum requirements to install this version.”

Researched a Fix

I researched a fix and I needed to enable “Enable EFI(special OSes only)” in Virtual Bax.

Start the Virtual Machine Again

I started the VM again and was greeted with UEFI boot screen

Virtual Box was booting the Virtual Machine via UEFI

Turn Off TPM etc

I started the Setup again and wnt to the wizard step with “Install now”.

I pressed Shift+F10 to reveal a command prompt

More Information here.

In the command prompt windows I typed “regedit” and pressed enter and added the keys as described here.

I exited the registry editor and command prompt, pressed back and resumed the setup.

I entered my serial number again

I accepted the terms

I selected Custom install.

I clicked Next

Setupo was installing 🙂

When setup finished the Virtiual Machien rebooted

WIndows was starting services

WIndows setup took many minutes.

Windows rebooted again

Setup was processing for few minutes.

Windows 11 boot screen is very bright.

Windows 11 Setup

I selected Australia as the country

Setup was thinking.

I selected US as the keyboard type

I skipped adding a second keyboard layout.

Windows was checking for updates

Setup spent a few minutes thinking

I entered a PC name

First Boot

Now Windows 11 is almost ready

Much thinking (I should have installed this on a solid state drive not a magentic spinning drive)

I selcted that I will use this PC for personal use

It looks like I cannot have a stand alone account. I entered my Microsoft email.

I validated my Microsoft account

I have linked my Microsft account to Windows 11

I created a login pin

I set the pin

The pin applied

I turned off location and diagnostic data

I ticked all experience options.

I skipped pask OneDrive Backup

I skiped Office Microsoft 365 trial

I prefer to buy one off Office serial keys

I skipped the XBox game pass

Windows 11 looked for updates

Windows 11 is getting ready again

A few minutes

I should have installed this on a solid state drive

Windows 11 Setup is Complete

Yay, Windows 11 is installed, much bloatware was installed by default

Updates

I fiorst looked for Windows updates.

I installed all software updates

I rebooted Windows 11 one more time.

Timezone

The time was wrong so I set the right timezone.

I set my timezone

I had to sync the time.

Right Click Menu

I noticed that the traditiona rigth click menu for files has been moved to a sub menu

Themes

Looks customizing your theme is back now.

It looks like Microosft is now selling themes and icons.

I enabled Desktop Icons

Inlike all the main icons

That is better

I uninstalled all the bloat software

I uninstalled all other software that I was not going to use.

Dark Theme

I set the Dark Theme

I opend Edge and turned off syncing my data

I had to find the task manager

I linked my Android mobile phone

I noticed Virtual Desktops are back

Boring Widgets

Why is Microsoft parterning with Sky News?

I hid all stories from Sky News Australia.

I set defaults in my Task Bar

Task Manager has not changed

I disabled Teams

Virtual Box Guest Addons

I installed Oracle VirtualBox Guest addons

I opened the connected drive from Windows Explorer

Run VBoxWindowsAddons.exe

I installed the Guest Addons

Now I can run higher resolutions in the Virtual Machine

Resize the Disk

I realised that 70Gb was not enough to install all of my applations.

I shutdown the WIndiows 11 Virtual Machiene and expanded the disk to 150GB in the Oracle Virtual Media Manager

I booted Windows 11 and enterred the Disk Management Snap In and tried to expand the disk.

The problem was a smaller partiton was between the end of the 70GB disk and the new free space.

I installed my valid copy of EaseUS Partiton Master software but it did noallow me to move and resize the partition.

I downloaded and installed AOEMI Partition Assistant.

I cliked “Resize/Move Partition” on the smaller partition.

I nextended the 70GB partition to 150GB

Long story short, the Deme version cannot make chnages. I purchased AOMEI Partition Assistant and moved the smaller partition and resized the 70GB disk to 150GB

AOEMI Partition Assistant created a Windoiws PE Boot Image to carry ouit the disk changes. Nice

The disk operations started after the reboot

Nice progress bar.

All disk operations completed

Increased Disk

Yay, the Windows 11 disk has been increased.

Testing Software

Now I can install all of my software and test it in WIndows 11.

• Office 2021
• Adobe CC (Photoshop, Adobe DC, Premere Pro, After Effects, Media Encoder)
• Filezilla
• WinDirStat
• Discord
• Blenmder
• DUMo, SUMo
• balenaEtcher
• Sublime Text 3
• Visual Studio Code
• WinSCP
• Putty
• WinRAR
• WInMerge
• NotePad++
• VLC Media Player
• GIMP
• CDBurnerXP
• 7Zip
• Agent Rancsack
• YubiKey AUthenticator
• Core Temp
• CPU-Z, GPU-z
• etc

I will not be able to tets games on this Virtula Machine though.

All apps so far are working a treat.

The spinning magnetic disk is a bit slow though

Conclusions

Windows 11 has presented no issues yet. Some things are hard to find but this will be ok, I will upgrade to Windows 11 when all the bugs are ironed out in a few months.

TPM Security

Windows 11 required your processor has TPM compatibility.

Recent Mainboard BIOS have been adding TPM support, but I bought a physical TPM chip to have BitLocker not die when I upgrade my BIOS.B

In my BIOS I can select the BIOS-based TPM (“Enable Firmware TPM) or the Physical TPM (Enable Discrete TPM)

AMD Processors

It looks like AMD Processors are having issues with Windows 11 so I will hang off on installing Windows 11 on my main PC

I will move the Virtual Machines to a Solid State drive to get extra speed. Guide here: Moving Oracle Virtual Box Virtual Machines to another disk

Version: 1.1 Added Moving Oracle Virtual Box Virtual Machines to another disk (fearby.com)