Windows 10 Preview Install Crashing/Restarting In Virtualbox

Microsoft has released Windows 10 Technical Preview. You can download an .iso from their website at https://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/preview-iso

Below are a few tech notes on the issues we have encountered that may assist you in getting your preview up and running without errors.

To get Windows 10 Technical Preview working in Virtualbox, the first step is to upgrade Virtualbox to 4.3.14 or higher. In our testing this is what caused the virtual machine to reboot when it first boots. Also there’s no need to sign up for the Windows Insider Program unless you want to send bug reports and feature requests to Microsoft.

Here are the other items to ensure are checked:

Under System, General, Motherboard check these settings:
OS Type is Windows 8.1.
PS/2 Mouse is the Pointing Device.
CD/DVD is first in the Boot Order.
Enable I/O APIC is checked.

We will continue to list more as we find them.

Microsoft’s system requirements mention using 1GB of RAM for the 32-bit version or 2 GB for the 64-bit version, but as with all Microsoft OSes, it’s better to use more than what is recommended. Our testing has shown that 2GB for 32-bit and 3 GB for 64-bit gives good performance.