I think I am not doing anything wrong, but to test our website on IE 7, 8, I am using VirtualBox 4.0.6 on Mac to run the VHD image from Microsoft: but it keeps on asking me to 'activate' Windows XP. Is there a way to activate it?

Gafii, >:-DDD, windows_xp_skachat_obraz. Jzd, 438563,.

Can I use any special key to do it? Or what if I use my own key of my retail box of XP. But won't that affect my activation if I need to install that XP on another VirtualPC later on?

I am trying to help make the website work better on IE 7 and 8. Really a thing good for Microsoft, and it is making it so hard to run an expiring OS (expires on May 18, 2011) on a virtual machine. It seems as though the images only allow you to restart windows 3 times before you get locked out.

When locked out out of my XP/IE6 image today, I: • 'Do you want to activate Windows now?' - Yes • 'Yes, let's activate now' → Next • Activate online • 'Do you want to Register?' - No • At this point my copy surprisingly registered itself! If you find that registration fails you may be able to: • 'If you believe you have received this message in error' notice • → 'Microsoft Activation Assistance Web Site' • This might give you access to an IE window.

Last week my colleague Mihaita Bamburic explained how to install the freshly released Windows 8.1 in, and I wanted to follow that up by showing how to set up the new OS in my personal favorite virtualization software -- Oracle VirtualBox. There are many reasons why you may want to try out Windows 8.1 before committing to it as your primary operating system -- if you used Windows 8 and hated it, you may want to see exactly how much better the updated release is.

If you’re thinking of upgrading from an old OS but aren’t sure about the Modern UI, this a good way of trying it out first. The process is very simple -- all you need is a copy of and the Windows 8.1 ISO. If you have a Windows 8 key you can download the required image file by following my instructions. The ISO can also be downloaded from MSDN or TechNet, or created from a Windows 8.1 DVD if you have one. If you don’t have a Windows 8 key, or an MSDN or TechNet subscription, you can download.

To set up Windows 8.1 in VirtualBox, launch the software and click New in the Manager window. In the Create Virtual Machine dialog box enter 'Windows 8.1' as the name of the operating system. VirtualBox will fill in the rest of the details. If you have an ISO of the 64-bit version of the OS, name it 'Windows 8.1 64' and VirtualBox will switch to the 64-bit version. Set the Memory Size.

The recommended figure should be fine. On the following screen choose to 'Create a virtual hard drive now' and click Create. Accept VDI (VirtualBox Disk Image) as the hard drive file type. You’ll be asked if you want the new virtual hard drive to be dynamic (it will resize as required) or a fixed size. The latter option is faster, so select that.