Here today we are looking to install Windows Server 2012 as virtual machine in VMware workstation

I have a Windows 8 machine that’s great for browsing. Unfortunately, for anything serious development-related – not so much. (There’s that annoying lack of Local Users and Groups, for example, which crippled my BT2013 install.)

First make sure you have Oracle’s VirtualBox set up. This is really quite painless and a very light install (as distrustful as I am of Oracle products). Download the ISO file for the Windows version you wish – in this case it’s Windows Server 2012 off my trusty MSDN universal subscription.

(Hugs and kisses MSFT!!! Mwah!) I had an error that virtualiation support was disabled in my firmware – this wasn’t from a lack of resources but a setting in my Bios (Shift-Restart to go to Bios mode or in Windows 8 click General, Restart Now, and then select the Troubleshoot option for this.) You may need to enable Second Level Address Translation and a few other settings.

Choose a fixed size, not a virtual (it’s faster).

I selected all the default options. For Windows Server 2012, that’s a 25 GB partition.

Click on the Processor tab. Above, see the Enable IO APIC option check. This is the default value.

Above, I selected Enable PAE/NX.

If there’s problems with your virtualization BIOS settings, the two checkboxes above won’t be enabled.

Above, click on Settings to load the ISO file.

This is a great article I used as a base. It really is, sigh, painless : Technorms