In this informative piece, you will find detailed instructions on successfully installing and running Windows 7 Ultimate 64 Bit on a new virtual machine created using the highly efficient Oracle VM VirtualBox virtualization program.
Windows 7 is the most popular operating system developed by Microsoft. By default, this operating system improves the user experience and makes peripheral devices more straightforward to use. It provides a graphical interface to the users and can more easily manage the programs installed on the system.
Windows 7 began development in 2007 and was completed on July 22, 2009. After that, Microsoft confirmed the official release date on October 2, 2009; since then, official downloads have been allowed. Microsoft ended support for the system on January 14, 2020, causing users not to receive operating system updates.
There is a large user base that still uses Windows 7. I do not recommend installing this system on your physical computers, as a system with no support will not be able to protect users against security holes in the future. However, if you still need to use this system for some software, you can install this system on a virtual machine.
After installing VirtualBox on your physical computer, you can follow this video or the following steps to install Microsoft Windows 7 on the virtual computer.
Step 1: First, download the Windows 7 SP1 x64 operating system from or a source online.
Step 2: Run the Oracle VM virtualization software and click the New button from the menu or shortcut tools to launch the VM creation wizard.
Step 3: When you type Windows 7 in the Name field in the Name and Operating System window, the Type and Version values of the virtual system will be automatically set by VirtualBox. You can also change the path in the Machine Folder section to store the VM in a different location. Installing the guest machine on a portable SSD is essential for performance.
Step 4: In the Memory Size window, determine a suitable RAM value for the Windows 7 virtual machine according to the RAM capacity of your physical computer. Select 4 GB or higher as the minimum RAM value.
Step 5: Create a new virtual disk for the Windows 7 VM in the Hard Disk window. Create a virtual hard disk option is enabled by default; if you have a Win7 virtual disk installed earlier in this step, you can continue with the Add an existing virtual HDD option.
Step 6: Continue with the VDI (VirtualBox Disk Image) option checked by default in the Hard Disk File Type window. VHD is a type of virtual disk used by Microsoft. VMDK, on the other hand, is a type of virtual disk used by other virtualization software such as VMware Workstation. If you are using Oracle VM software, it would be better to use the VDI disk file recommended by its developers.
Step 7: Check where the virtual HDD will be stored in the File Location and Size window. To change the location of the virtual HDD file’s site, click the folder icon and choose the desired location on your host computer. In addition, the minimum 32 GB disk space for the Windows 7 virtual machine is determined automatically by the program. If you need high disk space on your VM, you should increase the disk space.
Step 8: After creating the Windows 7 virtual computer, click Settings to add the ISO file to the VM and make other essential settings.
Step 9: To enable file sharing in the General / Advanced section of the virtual machine settings, change the Shared Clipboard and Drag and Drop options to Bidirectional.
Step 10: Set Optical for the first boot order device in System / Motherboard settings, and if you want to install UEFI, you can also enable the EFI option.
Step 11: In the System / Processor settings, set the virtual processor number for the VM to 4 or higher.
Step 12: To better render 3D graphics on the virtual computer, enable the Acceleration option in the Display / Display settings and configure the Video Memory value to 256 MB.
Step 13: Enable the I/O Cache feature of the SATA disk controller in the storage settings of the VM. Set the Windows7.vdi virtual disk file to SSD (Solid State Drive), click on Empty, and then click the DVD icon to add the Windows ISO file and the image file to the VM.
Step 14: After preparing the Windows 7 VM, click the Start button and start the installation.