How to install Microsoft Windows 11 on VirtualBox!
Stone LiSeptember 29, 2021 | 4 minute read
Simon CoterDirector, Oracle Linux and Virtualization Product Management
The following step-by-step guide shows how to install Microsoft Windows 11 (latest Insider Preview build 22463.1000) on top of VirtualBox 6.1; this guide has been tested and verified on both macOS as well as Linux hosts. This is to address the reported issue that Windows 11 could not be installed as a VirtualBox VM.
NB: those instructions should be also valid for Microsoft Windows 11 Generally Available release, actually targeted for October 5, 2021.
The first step is to properly configure the virtual machine that will guest the "Microsoft Windows 11" Installation; the virtual machine has to be configured in the following way (minimum requirements), based on official "Windows 11 Specs and System Requirements" and your system needs to have proper updated x86 CPU:
- System - MotherboardRAM: 4GB (minimum) - 8GB (minimum suggested)
- EFI (Special OSes only) enabled
- System - ProcessorCPU: 2 (minimum)
- Storage64 GB Virtual Disk (minimum size)
- Display - ScreenVideo Memory: 256MB
- Graphics Controller: VBoxSVGA
- Enable 3D Acceleration enabled
With those configuration options in-place and the "Microsoft Windows 11" ISO properly added as "virtual cd-rom" we can then start the installation process:
Click next to show-up the "Install now" button; when you see the installation button, press "Shift+F10" on your keyboard at the same time to launch a command prompt. At this command prompt, type "regedit" and press enter to launch the Windows Registry Editor.
When the Registry Editor opens, navigate to "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\Setup", right-click on the "Setup" key and select "New => Key".
When prompted to name the key, enter "LabConfig" and press enter.
Now right-click on the "LabConfig" key and select "New => DWORD (32-bit)" value and create a value named "BypassTPMCheck", and set its data to "1". With the same steps create the "BypassRAMCheck" and "BypassSecureBootCheck" values and set also their data to "1", so it looks like the following image.
With those three values configured under the "LabConfig" key, close the "Registry Editor", and then type exit in the "Command Prompt" followed by enter to close the window. You can now click on the "Install now" button to proceed to get "Microsoft Windows 11" installed as a virtual-machine on top of VirtualBox.
I'm going to keep this article updated in case the same does not work with updated build(s) or with the GA release of Microsoft Windows 11 and, obviously, I'm open to comments on this so feel free to reach out on twitter here!