{"id":3391,"date":"2014-12-10T12:11:47","date_gmt":"2014-12-10T18:11:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/bililite.com\/blog\/?p=3391"},"modified":"2014-12-10T12:11:47","modified_gmt":"2014-12-10T18:11:47","slug":"running-windows-xp-in-windows-8","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bililite.com\/blog\/2014\/12\/10\/running-windows-xp-in-windows-8\/","title":{"rendered":"Running Windows XP in Windows 8"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>I wanted to run some of my old games (notably <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Riven\">Riven<\/a>) on my shiny new Windows 8.1 machine, but it wouldn't even try to install on a 64-bit operating system. Luckily, Oracle offers <a href=\"https:\/\/www.virtualbox.org\/\">VirtualBox<\/a> to run virtual machines, and Microsoft offers a Windows XP virtual hard drive (<code>.vhd<\/code> file) through its <a href=\"http:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/download\/details.aspx?id=8002\">Windows XP mode for Windows 7<\/a>. Note that it won't run directly on Windows 8, but you can extract the <code>.vhd<\/code> file as outlined by <a href=\"http:\/\/lifehacker.com\/5965889\/how-to-run-windows-xp-for-free-in-windows-8\/all\">lifehacker<\/a>:<\/p>\n<p>Then use 7-Zip open the <code>EXE<\/code> file as an archive.<\/p>\n<p>Within that archive, find the <code>sources\/xpm<\/code> file within it, and extract that folder to your hard drive.<\/p>\n<p>Finally, in the extracted <code>xpm<\/code> file, you'll find a file called <code>VirtualXPVHD<\/code>. Export it and rename it to <code>VirtualXPVHD.vhd<\/code><\/p>\n<p>In VirtualBox, create a new virtual machine running Windows XP, and instead of creating a new virtual hard drive, use the one created above.<\/p>\n<p>This will give you a new virtual machine that will require you register within 30 days, which you can't do (since Windows XP isn't supported anymore). We'll fix that later.<\/p>\n<p>Start up the virtual machine, deal with the craziness of mouse capturing (toggle the right control key to get the mouse back) until you install \"Guest Additions\":<\/p>\n<p>In the \"Devices\" menu in the virtual machine's menu bar, select \"Insert Guest Additions CD image\" then run that installer in the virtual machine. Now the mouse should integrate smoothly. <\/p>\n<p>In the VirtualBox Manager, in the Network tab, unclick \"Cable Connected\". You don't want this virus-friendly operating system talking to the internet!<\/p>\n<p>To activate Windows XP, you can try the file named <code>KEY<\/code> in the <code>exe<\/code> file with the virtual hard drive, but the comments on lifehacker indicate it won't work. I got a new <a href=\"http:\/\/www.vmlite.com\/images\/fbfiles\/files\/pcbios.zip\">bios<\/a> from <a href=\"http:\/\/www.vmlite.com\/index.php?option=com_kunena&Itemid=158&func=view&catid=9&id=6706&limit=6&limitstart=12#8420\">vmlite<\/a>, and install it as:<\/p>\n<pre><code>path\\to\\VirtualBoxFolder\\VBoxManage.exe setextradata your-vm-name \"VBoxInternal\/Devices\/pcbios\/0\/Config\/BiosRom\" \"path\\to\\pcbios.bin\"<\/code><\/pre>\n<p>And it all seems to work. I don't feel guilty about using a pirated operating system license, since I am running Windows 8 legally, and Microsoft won't sell me XP.<\/p>\n<p>Installing CD's is a pain, and Riven wants to keep swapping them, but making them virtual images makes it much easier. Install <a href=\"http:\/\/isorecorder.alexfeinman.com\/W7.htm\">ISORecorder<\/a> (the Windows 7 version works with Windows 8) and now the contextual menu (right-click) for CD's includes a \"Create Image from CD\" option. Save with the <code>iso<\/code> extension, and VirtualBox will mount them just fine.<\/p>\n<p>Unfortunately, I now do not have any time to play anything.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I wanted to run some of my old games (notably Riven) on my shiny new Windows 8.1 machine, but it wouldn't even try to install on a 64-bit operating system. Luckily, Oracle offers VirtualBox to run virtual machines, and Microsoft offers a Windows XP virtual hard drive (.vhd file) through its Windows XP mode for [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bililite.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3391"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bililite.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bililite.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bililite.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bililite.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3391"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/bililite.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3391\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3394,"href":"https:\/\/bililite.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3391\/revisions\/3394"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bililite.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3391"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bililite.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3391"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bililite.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3391"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}