Fix Setup Microsoft Windows 8.1 or Server 2012 R2 Preview on VirtualBox

If Windows 8.1 or 2018 R2 Preview setup fails when you try installing on Oracle VirtualBox, try the following:

1. Download and install latest version of Oracle VirtualBox and accept all its new extensions upgrades.
2. Be aware that Microsoft has changed hardware requirements for Windows8.1 and Windows 2012 R2, they now expect CX16 flag to be set, specifically the CMPXCHG16B flag. This topic is too complicated for this blog posting, but suffices to say that this flag allows for atomic operations on 128-bit data types. For more information on this and other flags, see http://goo.gl/PrnIA
   
3. Create a new machine in VirtualBox, for example name it vbox_W2012R2_Prev
   
4. Open a command line and enter the following:

    "c:\Program Files\Oracle\VirtualBox\VBoxManage.exe" setextradata 
   "vbox_W2012R2_Prev" VBoxInternal/CPUM/CMPXCHG16B 1

5. Attach the Win 8.1 or 2012 R2 Prev ISO image, I used

   9431.0.WINMAIN_BLUEMP.130615-1214_X64FRE_SERVER_SOLUTION_EN-US-
   IMP_SSSO_X64FRE_EN-US_DV5.ISO

   and run and install Windows. With serial numbers, using these serial numbers (not sure if you got same serial numbers):
   Windows Server 2012 R2 Essentials Preview now supports two types of activation:
   Product Key :

   N4F2V-VRDD2-7VQ6J-JJYHK-WTT88

   for Automatic Virtual Machine Activation (AVMA), the key was:

   7VW9N-8C48X-J6442-J3KM6-FVTM9