[Guide] How to Install Windows 8 on VMware ESXi 5.0
In Previous version of VMware ESXi 5 Windows 8 Developer & Customer Preview is not on the list as it was not supported. Some of you already noticed it by geeting (HAL_INITIALIZATION_FAILED) error.
Now there is a guranteed solution to install Windows 8 on VMware ESXi 5.0 and its to patch ESXi 5.0 to ESXi 5.0 update 1. There are two ways to upgrade/patch VMware ESXi 5.0 to ESXi 5.0 update 1. Check below guides which I covered step by step,
[How to Guide] How to Upgrade ESXi 5 to ESXi 5 update 1 from CLI Without Update Manager
[Guide] How to upgrade VMware vSphere ESXi 5 to vSphere ESXi 5 Update 1 using the vSphere update manager
Also there are couple of guides which will help you if you are newbie to VMware ESXi 5,
[Guide] Install VMware vSphere 5 (ESXi 5) in VMware Workstation 8
[Guide] Installing VMware vCenter Converter 5
So lets get started,
To install Windows 8 on VMware ESXi 5 follow below steps,
1. Update ESXi 5 to ESXi 5.0 update 1, check below guides for the same,
[How to Guide] How to Upgrade ESXi 5 to ESXi 5 update 1 from CLI Without Update Manager
[Guide] How to upgrade VMware vSphere ESXi 5 to vSphere ESXi 5 Update 1 using the vSphere update manager
2. Now create new Virtual machine for Windows 8, now Windows 8 will be listed in the supported Guest OS.
3. Mount the Windows 8 ISO image & turn on the Virtual machine.
4. Install Windows 8
5. Here we go, Windows 8 is installed & running on VMware ESXi 5.0 without any issue thanks to the VMware ESXi 5.0 update 1 patch.
