Step 7: Here the Virtual Machine automatically assigns the memory, to configure it, you should click on “Customize Settings” and save the virtual machine. Step 5: Check Easy Install and give your details and enter the Windows registration key. Once you select it, it appears as the following. Step 3: Click on “ Use another disc or disc image“ Step 4: Select the iso image of Windows 8.1 from the file chooser. Select the “ Install from disc or image” option and click on continue. Step 1: Fire up VMware Fusion and click on “ +” and select “ New“. I got it for freeeeeeeeeee!! Good stuff!! Anyways, following are the steps to be followed to install Windows 8.1 on your VMware Fusion on a Mac Machine. As I am a student enrolled at a university. If you don’t have it, download and install it. This post assumes that you have VMware Fusion already installed on your machine. So even though you have an i5 processor with 8 GB of RAM, its good to go. I have a MacBook Pro Retina 15 inch Mid 2014 (latest) currently running OS X Yosemite Version 10.10.2 Okay coming to the configuration of my machine. Because, I thought there would be performance issues and I was trolled for doing that. One might be thinking, why did I install windows using boot camp instead of installing it on virtual machine. One more thing, I spent over an hour to install windows using the boot camp. I couldn’t update Visual Studio further and I couldn’t install SQL server on the partition because of low disk space.

I allocated 60 GB for Windows partition because I only have 256 GB Flash drive. I ran out of memory in a couple days after installing Visual Studio and I had only 7 GB of space left. I can’t utilize my trackpad to the fullest. I have to install all the software applications again in the other partition. One thing is clear, personally I felt dual booting was a pain. I have even personally experienced the Windows 8.1 installed using the Boot Camp Assistant on a separate partition. I did good amount of research on the internet reading various posts and reviews on the performance issues one might have by installing windows on virtual machine. Frankly speaking, it’s a piece of cake if you do everything right. This post demonstrates how to install Windows on your VMware Fusion on Mac.

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