Anybody installed Windows 8 RTM yet?

Discussion in 'Windows Virtual Machine' started by danieltharris, Aug 15, 2012.

  1. danieltharris

    danieltharris Member

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    Just wondered if any other developers here have installed Windows 8 RTM. I am still download from MSDN at the moment.

    I was wondering if you decided to go with a Boot Camp partition, and load that into Parallels, or did you just go with running a Parallels VM?

    My machine is easily fast enough to run it as a VM, but as it is the Retina MBP Windows won't look great if it's the same as with Windows 7 (Down-Scaled, then Scaled Back Up).

    If you could post here how it went for you, any problems you encountered etc.

    The only issue with running Windows 8 Release Preview that I had was that in Mountain Lion full screen, the Mac task bar pops up when you move the mouse to the top of the screen. This gets in the way of Windows 8, but don't think there is a way around it.
     
  2. Kevin Dorle

    Kevin Dorle Bit poster

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    I've just attempted to install Windows 8 RTM in a parallels VM (no boot camp) and immediately after the starting up screen i get a prompt for a media driver. I've configured the VM as Windows 8 and Windows 7, same effect.

    Curious if others have seen this and solved it.
     
  3. Bmanning81

    Bmanning81 Bit poster

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    I've installed it, and have the latest version of Parallels. Everything runs fine, except when i go into full screen mode. It starts freaking out at that point. The Windows side stays fine, but my Mountain Lion side video starts getting all jittery and choppy. If i take it out of Full screen its fine, and I can even expand it to the screen size its fine too. Coherence mode is ok, but the taskbar hovers above my Lion Launch bar, and doesn't go away...

    Also i set this up as a new VM. I dont feel like running BootCamp. In my experience doing bootcamp and then creating a VM from that causes to many issues.

    You get yours installed yet?
     
  4. Kevin Dorle

    Kevin Dorle Bit poster

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    Unfortunately no. Curious if you customized the VM. The only options I changed from the default were cpu (4 vs 1, also tested 2 vs 1) and memory (3GB vs 1GB). I did not modify HD settings, CD drive settings, etc.
     
  5. Bmanning81

    Bmanning81 Bit poster

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    I did customize the settings, i have LOTS of ram in this, so i gave it 8GB of Ram, and 256MB of Video Ram, and Turn off the Mountain Lion Full Screen. The CPUS are set to two so that it would handle the load a little better. I did use the default Windows 8 install though. Parallels detected it as Windows 8, and I used that.
     
  6. Kevin Dorle

    Kevin Dorle Bit poster

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    hmm. Ok. thanks for the information. I'll keep at it and reply back to the thread if/when I resolve it.
     
  7. Bmanning81

    Bmanning81 Bit poster

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    Good luck! Yeah its weird your getting a Driver issue. I never once got anything like that.
     
  8. danieltharris

    danieltharris Member

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    I now have it working.

    Originally I download Windows 8 Pro (Volume License), and I got the media error. However, I checked the size of the file and it was around the 2.2GB mark, where as I think it should be 3.2ish

    That was downloading in Chrome on Mac OS.

    I went into my Win 7 VM and used IE to go and download Windows 8 Enterprise (x64), and used the download manager it prompts you to use, the ISO is around the 3.3GB mark this time, and I didn't get the error.

    So it could have been that Chrome reported the download as finished, when it wasn't. Or the problem was with the Windows 8 Pro version.

    I'd try re-downloading using the download tool, just try and download in Windows and it will prompt you. I always use the download tool on my windows machines and always found it to work really well.

    I would try:

    - Check the size of the ISO, is it the right size?

    If not I would try either downloading a different version, or download using the same version again using the download tool.

    I didn't customise mine the second time (Enterprise (x64)) during installation, but I have since set it to 8GB Ram, 256MB Video. I have 16GB RAM in this and always set my main Windows VM to use 8GB.

    Let us know if you try the above and still have an issue.

    I just installed as a VM for now, hoping for Parallels to release an update soon to allow 1:1 pixel mapping in full screen VM's.
     
  9. danieltharris

    danieltharris Member

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    Mine seems to be fine with Windows in full screen, switching back to Mac OS doesn't cause any video issues.

    I'm on a retina MBP with 16GB Ram, if you have a different machine maybe you have an ATI card where Parallels drivers don't quite work?

    One annoying thing in full screen is that when you mouse near the top of the screen, the task bar appears for Mac OS. Any idea if there is a way to stop that from happening, just for Parallels? It's kind of annoying as Windows 8 added the hot spots in the corners, hopefully if it isn't possible now, a future update will stop that happening.
     
  10. Kevin Dorle

    Kevin Dorle Bit poster

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    Thanks. That makes complete sense as I've seen that same issue when I've downloaded MSDN content before in Safari. I'll give it a try in IE.
     
  11. Kevin Dorle

    Kevin Dorle Bit poster

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    Downloading in IE worked. Thanks for your help.
     
  12. Bmanning81

    Bmanning81 Bit poster

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    Well I first was running it on a new Mac mini, and figured maybe the low video ram on that machine was the issue, but then tried it out on my Mac pro that has a 1GB ATI video card, with 20GB installed and has the same issue. Sooo im guessing its a issue with Parallels that is making it not fully compatible yet.
     
  13. danieltharris

    danieltharris Member

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    It's working perfectly for me on my Retina MBP. Using it in full screen, not attached any external monitors yet.

    No graphical glitches though either in OS X or Windows 8. There is the scaling issue which makes things look less than their best in Windows, but that's an issue related to the Retina MBP and the way Parallels (doesn't) support it.

    From what I have seen so far it's mainly people with ATI graphics cards reporting graphical issues. But I have no figures to back that up, just an observation.

    Running beautifully for me. :)
     
  14. Bmanning81

    Bmanning81 Bit poster

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    You know, now that you say that... Both my machines are using ATI. I haven't tried it on my MBP Retina yet. I'll give it a try there and see if i get it as well. I know Parallels doesn't "officially" support this setup yet, so im sure they will fix it. I hope...
     
  15. danieltharris

    danieltharris Member

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    I'm sure they will once it's available to the general public, possibly even before. It would be interesting if you could try it on your MBP Retina, as that's where it's working great for me. Be interesting to see if it is somehow related to specific cards.
     
  16. Bmanning81

    Bmanning81 Bit poster

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    yeah im gonna do that tonight. I'll even hook up a secondary monitor and see if i get the same result... i'll let you guys know! :)
     

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