Close

OpenFOAM on Windows with a Virtual Machine

OpenFOAM is written for the UNIX and GNU/Linux operating systems. One option for installing OpenFOAM on Windows is through a a virtual machine (or hypervisor) such as VirtualBox  which supports all versions of Windows.  Below are some instructions for installing OpenFOAM on a VirtualBox.

Installing OpenFOAM on a Virtual Machine

Users can install a virtual machine on their Windows Host, in which they install Ubuntu as the guest OS for OpenFOAM as follows:

  1. from VirtualBox Downloads, select VirtualBox for Windows hosts to install VirtualBox;
  2. find out if your version of Windows (and VirtualBox) is 32bit or 64bit;
  3. download the ISO image of Ubuntu 14.04.4 for the relevant architecture – 32bit / 64bit;
  4. install Ubuntu on VirtualBox using your ISO image (referred to in step 5 “select iso”);
  5. install OpenFOAM on Ubuntu guest OS.

Note: some users have reported problems running either the VM itself, or specifically ParaView, with 3D acceleration.  Symptoms include “blank screen” and “blue screen”.  If this occurs, 3D acceleration can be disabled in Settings before launching the VM.