We would need to know the results of testing to install Win8 RP on the physical machine, to identify if it is a CPU check that fails on that hardware (and if so, get all the details about the hardware), or specific to VirtualBox with its virtualized presentation of the hardware.

-X-, would you have the possibility to test a bare metal install on that system?

I couldn't wait for the reply so I installed it already! It works fine. I shrinked D so that I had a new partition of 40 GB and installed W8 RP there. Here's something I like from the Display:

It allows changing font size without enlarge everything else. So cool!

Edit: remove the image

Edited June 4, 201214 yr by Aloha

Mr Snrub, the CPU check fails on my real system using Windows8-ReleasePreview-UpgradeAssistant.exe. It's not just in VirtualBox.

What do you mean by a bare metal install? Install it to my real hardware? I'm afraid I'm low on DVDs and don't want to waste one on Win8.

UPDATE! I got it to work thanks to a post at the answers forum. I needed to turn on DEP for ALL programs. Silly MS

Stupid DEP made my FF take 30 seconds to start.

Edited June 2, 201214 yr by -X-

yes, DEP = NX Bit. So disabling this feature let Windows think your CPU doesn't support it.

What do you mean by a bare metal install? Install it to my real hardware?

...

UPDATE! I got it to work thanks to a post at the answers forum. I needed to turn on DEP for ALL programs.

Yes, booting the physical machine from a USB memory stick or DVD would be considered "bare metal" - and that would have worked, as your update indicates the problem was the change you made to the Data Execution Prevention setting within your current OS installation.

Glad you figured it out though

I couldn't wait for the reply so I installed it already! It works fine. I shrinked D so that I had a new partition of 40 GB and installed W8 RP there. Here's something I like from the Display:

It allows changing font size without enlarge everything else. So cool!

Don't be so thankful so soon. You could do the same and more since Windows 95 via this dialog: http://i51.tinypic.com/14se15x.png.

They removed that dialog in Windows 8 which allowed total customization of any user interface element for themes not based on visual-styles and to compensate for the loss of this dialog, they are throwing a bone to us in the Display control panel to allow us to change font sizes.

Edited June 3, 201214 yr by xpclient

Gosh I didn't say I was thankful for that, I just said I liked it! I used to change the font size the way you mentioned when I still used XP. I never tried it on W7, though. W8 RP makes it easier and faster for you to change the text size only and it remains the size even when you change the theme. On XP, you will have to change the text size again everytime you change the theme again.

Btw, I find out the caption on the title bar of W8 RP isn't as good as the one on W8 CP. Now if the theme changes into some dark color, it's quite hard to read the text on the title bar.