Hello all,
First post here. Most info in subject line VirtualBox is the latest 4.1.8. Not sure this is even possible. I have the Pentium 1.3 GHz processor M on a Dell Inspiron 600M. The Wiki says it will handle virtualization, but I'm not certain. The VB is for a 32-bit OS.

My problem is that I can't figure out how to install XP (Pro SP3) as a Guest system. I really don't want to have XP as my host system, but it may be that I will be forced to.

Any comment or advice is greatly appreciated.
Larry

This may help you
https://seogadget.co.uk/how-to-install-virtualbox/

1 members found this post helpful.

Thanks Eddie. I think I'm going to commit to the Debian distro. This machine is pretty old and even though I think I could run the VirtualBox with Windows as a host, several attempts at using it on the Linux side have failed. I will check out what you linked, but I just got a bit greedy in terms of what I can expect from this box.
Best,
Larry

You have to point vbox to boot from the iso, which is at the end of the tutorial.
I'm pretty sure that you're making the same misatke that I was making & just setting up virtual disk without loading the disk to it.

I also thought you were running windows as the guest OS, please confirmas the tutorial is for running wins inside of vbox as guest

Eddy, Thanks again for responding. I am in fact running XP Pro as the guest machine. It works but I am having some trouble with the product key/activation.

I have installed the Guest Additions on the XP machine, but I have no idea what you mean by 'point vbox to boot from the iso' at this moment. I will scout around and see if I can get this accomplished, but I didn't see this in either tutorial (the link at the bottom of the page you linked me to only tells how to install guest additions). Is that a command line setting or a GUI option (or is it only for the install of the Guest Additions)?

Merry Christmas,
Larry

The key needs to be a real key and not a cd from some OEM company like dell or hp or such. They don't use real keys and you can't get the cd to activate on a virtual machine.

Also if you have activated it a few times, you may have to call ms and tell them to give you a new key. Your eula on the disk may or may not include this ability.

Thanks for responding, but you appear to be incorrect. I copied the product key incorrectly last night in the lamplight, but upon correcting that, my Dell OEM software works perfectly.

My main concern now is that when XP support terminates, I would not be able to get a renewed key. My plan is to save the image file which I believe can be imported in toto should I ever need to reinstall.

The way XP is running on the VirtualBox is very impressive. It's faster, and I hope more stable (I have had to reinstall several times in the native config!).

Thanks to all who've responded.
Larry