A blast from the past – Installing Windows XP as a VM on Hyper-V

Windows XP is an operating system which I have very fond memories of. It was the Windows operating system I first used when I began my career as an IT Professional back in 2004 and gained alot of experience using it.
That background wallpaper with the green fields and blue skies still looks so good.

In this guide I will show you how to install Windows XP as a VM in Hyper-V so you can get a flavour of what Windows XP was like. You will probably see some of the tools and features from Windows XP still haven’t changed much in later Windows operating systems such as NTFS file system, folder properties, the right click menu and the System Information tool to name a few.

Here is a guide on how to install Windows XP as a Virtual Machine using Hyper-V

Requirements

Windows XP SP3 Installation Media and Product Key
Hyper-V Role on Windows 10/11

Create Virtual Machine in Hyper-V

Start Hyper-V

Create New Virtual Machine

Click Next

Give the VM a name then click Next

Choose Generation 1 VM the click Next

Choose Memory to allocate. I chose 4096MB but 512MB should be sufficient

Choose the network adaptor to connect then click Next

Configure the Hard Drive options. I decided on 40GB

Select the Installation Media then click Next. As I have a physical installation CD I chose this. You can also choose an ISO image file if you have this

View the summary and then click Finish

Windows XP Installation

Start the VM which you created earlier

Setup should begin. Wait for setup files to load

Press Enter to begin Installation Setup

Press F8 to Accept the Licensing Agreement

Choose where to install the operating system. I chose the default and pressed Enter as I wanted to have just one partition. If you want additional partitions click ‘C’ instead to create a smaller partition where you want to install Windows XP

Choose the Quick Format option and press Enter

Wait for formatting to complete

Wait for Setup files to be copied

Wait for PC to reboot

Installation will now begin

A few options need configuring such as the language and keyboard settings. Click Next once you have done this

Enter your name and organisation then click Next

Enter your product key then click Next

Enter a Computer Name and Administrator password then click Next

Set your timezone settings then click Next

Sit back and wait for installation to complete. This can vary depending on host machine and VM specs. It took 10 minutes for me. Below are some screenshots of the installation process