Download, Install and Use VirtualBox & Ubuntu on Windows 10

Prerequisites: 4GB of RAM

20GB of Disk Space

Administrator Rights to install VirtualBox

Processor capable of Virtualization and has Virtualization Technology Enabled

How to Check System meets Prerequisites If you’re sure that your system meets the prereqs, please jump ahead to Download and Install Virtual

Box.

For Windows please Right Click on your task bar and click on Task Manager:

Click on the Performance tab along the top, and choose CPU if not already chosen. If you DO NOT see a

Performance tab, at the bottom left of Task Manager is a down arrow with More Details, please click

that to see all the information:

Verify that Virtualization is Enabled, and that your total Memory is 4 GB or greater (in the shot above,

31.9 GB is the total memory, you may see 3.9 GB, that is also fine). If Virtualization is not enabled,

please see the next section. (Enabling Virtualization Extensions)

An example of a system without Virtualization Technologies enabled:

Make note of your CPU name, here it’s AMD Ryzen 5 3600X, in the previous example it’s Intel Core i7-

6700k. You can google the CPU name and virtualization support to determine if your CPU does support

virtualization, but just is not enabled, like this second example.

Next Right click on your Start Menu and choose File Explorer:

Find This PC and observe your available drives, you may have more than just a C:, but just be sure you

have more than 20 GB free.

Enabling Virtualization Extensions

Most, but not all processors support Virtualization. To verify if your CPU supports virtualization at all,

google the name of your CPU and support virtualization.

The other method is to go to your Start Menu, type in CMD, and then type in systeminfo and hit enter.

At the very end of the output you will see the following.

This example above is ready to go.

Hyper-V Requirements: VM Monitor Mode Extensions: Yes

Virtualization Enabled In Firmware: No

Second Level Address Translation: Yes

Data Execution Prevention Available: Yes

This example requires the BIOS changes, but does support Virtualization:

If you do not have Virtualization enabled, this is going to require that you reboot your computer and

enter your BIOS. When your computer first boots up, it will typically say something along the lines of

please hit F1, Escape, F2, DEL to enter the BIOS. This sort of depends on the machine, but often times F1

or DEL will be the key to hit to enter it. Dell’s also use F12.

The BIOS screen will flash by pretty quickly, so if you are unsure of which key you need to press, it may

take you a couple attempts to successfully get into the BIOS. Feel free to start pressing the key

periodically after you’ve told Windows to restart. You may also want to take a picture of these

instructions with your phone, or view this PDF on your phone while doing this.

*** Be aware, changes in your BIOS may result in your system not booting up normally. Turning on

Virtualization Technology won’t cause any issues, but exercise caution and don’t change other things

unless you know what you are doing. ***

Your best bet may be to google your computer’s make and model and enable virtualization, (example

Dell XPS 13 enable virtualization).

Additionally, depending on the age of your computer, you may find that your mouse does not work in

the BIOS. You will have to use your Arrow Keys, Enter(yes) and Escape(no/exit), and likely some of your

F functions keys along the top of your keyboard to do some tasks, pay attention likely to the bottom of

the screen for keystroke help.

Otherwise, you are going to be looking for BIOS Setup, CPU, or Virtualization Options. They may also be

under Chipset, or Advanced CPU Configuration. If you are looking at Basic/EZ Mode, you may have to

switch to Advanced Mode to get more options.

Make note of the following at least before rebooting into the BIOS:

Intel Processors, you will be looking to enable VT (Virtualization Technology) and VT-d (Virtualized

Technology for Directed I/O).

AMD processors you will be looking for AMD-V or SVM, and AMD IOMMU.

Once you have changed those two things, you are going to want to exit the BIOS, but also save the

changes you have made. Again this will depend on your BIOS, usually hitting Escape will get you out, but

be sure to SAVE before exiting.

Download and Install VirtualBox Download VirtualBox from here:

https://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/Downloads

Grab Ubuntu’s ISO from here:

https://ubuntu.com/download/desktop

Find where you downloaded VirtualBox to, usually in your Downloads directory, and double click the

installer (named VirtualBox-6.1.10-138449-Win.exe), or click to run it from your browser when it’s

finished downloading.

VirtualBox’s install is quite simple, we aren’t going to change any of the defaults, so next, next, finish

your way through the install:

Click Next, and leave all the defaults on the next screen:

Click Next.

Next.

Click YES.

Click INSTALL

You may or may not see this, depending on whether or not you have User Account Control on, click YES

Click INSTALL

Clicking Finish here will complete the install, and you should see the following shortly after:

Creating the Ubuntu Virtual Machine

If you haven’t already, please download Ubuntu 20.04 from here:

https://ubuntu.com/download/desktop

Once completed, open up Oracle VM VirtualBox (VirtualBox), either from your Start Menu, or from the

icon on your desktop, and you should see the opening screen:

Click on the NEW button:

Please type a Name, and ensure the Type and Version match above, and click NEXT.

For testing purposes, this can be left be. If your computer has 8G of RAM, feel free to bump this to 2048,

or if you have 16G or more RAM, 4096. Be aware that while the VM is running, it will consume your

systems RAM/memory. Click Next.

10GB will be sufficient for this VM (virtual machine). Click Create.

Next…

This basically just means that the 10G disk we are creating will only use the amount of space needed, it

will dynamically fill. Click Next.

So if you have multiple drive letters, you may want to install this to the drive with the most space. In

most cases you may only have 1 drive, so the defaults here are fine. Click Create.

Click the START arrow, and you will be asked where the ISO is:

Click the Folder with the Green up arrow to the right of where it says Host Drive ‘D:’

Click ADD, navigate to your Downloads folder

Click on Ubuntu-20.04-desktop-amd64 and then click the OPEN button.

Click CHOOSE

Click START

You can close these bubbles by clicking the blue circle with the X in them. Essentially they are telling you

the VM may capture your keyboard and mouse, if you find you are “stuck” in the window, pressing your

right ALT key should release it.

Installing Ubuntu

The install may be quite slow, depending on your computer, and its hard drives. Be patient with the

installer, you should eventually see the below:

Choose INSTALL UBUNTU

Some times I’ve seen the installer drop out, if you end up at the desktop, simply double click the Install

Ubuntu 20.04 LTS link on the desktop, if not, please continue to the next page:

If you’re impatient, you might find watching the icons at the bottom of the screen to be some comfort,

the far left one is the hard drive, followed by the DVD/CD Drive, a little green dot will show up on top

when there is activity to that device.

This keyboard should suit most, switch if needed. Continue

A minimal install will take up less room. Normal install includes an Office Suite and other multimedia

tools, your choice. Click Continue.

Keep in mind that we are installing this into a Virtual Machine, it will not affect your Windows install. In

fact, when the VM is off, the only thing it will still consume is the disk space it uses after install (~5G of

disk space), click Install Now.

Just explaining the changes it’s making to that 10G disk we created earlier, click Continue.

Choose your time zone and hit Continue.

If you have problems typing in the boxes, try right clicking and choosing Insert Emoji, and then just click

back into one of the text boxes. You may choose to click Log in automatically if you want. Click Continue.

Home stretch, wait for the install to complete. At the end it will tell you the following:

Click Restart Now.

You can go ahead and press ENTER as the install “ejects” the DVD when it is done.

Post Install Steps

If all has gone well, you should see something similar to the above, the Minimal install will have fewer

icons on the dock on the left. We’re going to move through the post install without making many

changes, so click SKIP.

Click Next

Your choice here, and click Next.

Enabling location services allows your computer to know where it is in the world, helpful maps, screen

dimming based on sunrise/sunset, etc. Your choice, hit Next.

Click DONE and the post install portion is mostly complete. You may see something like the following,

depending on whether or not you installed updates as part of the install:

Click Install Now, you’ll likely need to punch in the password you made during set up.

Post install, let’s Right Click on the desktop and choose Display Settings.

Most modern screens these days run at 1920x1080 (1080p) or higher, but if you have an older laptop,

you might be at something like 1280x720 (720p). Choose something that isn’t as big as your Windows

resolution, but 800x600 is pretty tight. Could try a few until you get a screen size you like, 1024x768,

1280x720. Click Apply in the top right and then either Revert Settings/Keep Changes. Close the settings

window.

Click on the 9 dots icon (Start Menu so to speak) in the bottom left hand corner:

In the top box type in terminal, or if you see there, Right Click on it and choose Add to Favorites.

This will add the icon to your dock on the left hand side. Click on the 9 dot menu button to get back to

the desktop, or click on the Terminal program to open a command prompt.

If you clicked on the Update button earlier, you might find it is complete, and may want to reboot, you

can choose to Restart Now (or later).

Congratulations! You now have a fully functional Ubuntu install!

Powering Down

Once you are done using your new Ubuntu VM, you’ll want to power it off so that it’s not using your

computer’s memory and CPU. To do this from inside the Ubuntu VM, in the top right corner there is a

small down arrow, click there and choose Power off/Log out, and choose Power Off…

From VirtualBox, you can also shut it down by Right Clicking on the VM, choosing Close -> ACPI

Shutdown (Power Off would be like pulling the plug). Later you can choose Start to power it back on.

Removing Ubuntu

Should you want to remove the VM to free up disk space, in VirtualBox, Right Click on the VM and

choose Remove, then click Delete all files.