Hi all,

I have a Win7 Ultimate system, and would like the hardware machine to become my Windows 8 Pro (RTM) unit. I don't want to upgrade. I would like to turn the Win7 install running now into a VHD, copy it someplace, wipe this machine and put Win8 on, then bring the Win7 VHD into Win8 to make it a VM.

What's the most convenient way? Should I look at somethin from Systernals? Ideally I would boot to a DVD, run something that makes my Win7 a VHD, copy that to an attached USB drive, and go from there. But any workable solution is fine too.

Thank you!

Hi Phd,

Welcome to our forum.

I got two blogs for your reference.

Have You Tried Windows 8 Enterprise RTM on Latest VirtualBox 4.2?

How to Install Windows 8 Release Preview on VirtualBox

I was hoping that Hyper-V was supposed to be the answer for this type of thing, very high hopes. My notebook is fully equipped for it & I was looking forward to using it. But after installing it through the "Turn Windows features on & off", it's not the easy to use, user friendly app that MS promised.

It's a shame that consumers once again have to revert to 3rd party VM apps. And double shame on MS for promising this. Looks like those of us who wants to run VM's will have to use VBox or VMWare Player (the free ones), or VMWare Workstation (what Hyper-V was supposed to be on par with).

Like you, I don't want to upgrade, I wish to keep my OEM install of 7 that I converted to Pro via Windows Anytime Upgrade (for XP Mode). I'll probably buy another SSD, around a 60GB one, as these are costing less & less, & place it where my DVD drive is (I already have all necessary components, including a USB adapter for my DVD ROM.

I may get rid of 7 after Win 8 SP1 is delivered, but not before then. Though 8 is good, 7 is still the stable OS, & my accounting/Office software is on those installs. Once 8 SP1 is delivered, I'll probably change this.

Currently, I run several VM's, using a mixture of VBox & VMWare Player. A couple are Win 2000 & XP, most of the others are Linux Mint & Ubuntu. They run fine via VBox.

Cat