Like many of you, VMware is getting familiar with Windows 8 preview. VMware is hard at work testing and enabling support of Windows 8 on vSphere.
Consider this guidance, which is based on testing Windows 8 up to build 8224:
- Windows 8 Developer Preview release does not boot on ESXi 5.0. To resolve this issue, you must install patch ESXi500-201112001 (Patch 02):
- Download and install ESXi500-201112001 (Patch 02).
- Create a new virtual machine configured for either Windows 7 or Windows 2008 R2.
- Enable 3d graphics or do not install VMware's WDDM video driver.
- Install Windows 8 from Media.
- Install Tools.
Note: VMware does not recommend installing VMware's WDDM video driver. Use the default VESA driver.
- If you experience a black screen after installing VMware's WDDM video driver in a virtual machine with Windows 8, enable 3d graphics or reinstall the operating system and Tools without VMware's WDDM video driver.
-
USB xHCI is currently not recommended for use with Windows 8. To work around this issue, remove the USB xHCI controller or use the USB EHCI+UHCI controller.
Note: Any changes to the virtual hardware should be preceded by a full shutdown on the command line (shutdown /s /t 0 /full). Otherwise, the Windows 8 hibernate-shutdown may not fully detect hardware changes and you may experience a blue diagnostic screen or triple fault at boot. - vmxnet3 virtual NIC does not work in a Windows 8 virtual machine with ESXi 5.0. To work around this issue, use e1000e or e1000 NICs
