If you don’t already have VirtualBox installed, you can follow this tutorial. It should be possible to follow even if you have a different operating system than Windows 11.

Linux Mint can be downloaded from https://linuxmint.com/download.php

Check system requirements and then make the virtual machine in Oracle VM VirtualBox, I’ll give it 2GB RAM and 20GB of disk space

In Oracle VM VirtualBox Manager click on the blue symbol for “New”

Give the virtual machine an appropriate name, choose where to store it, and make sure “Type” is set on “Linux” and “Version” is set on “Ubuntu (64-bit)”, then click on “Next”

Give the machine at least 2GB RAM, more if possible, then click on “Next”

Choose “Create a virtual hard disk now” and then click “Create”

Choose “VDI (VirtualBox Disk Image)” and click “Next”

Choose “Dynamically allocated” and click “Next”

Give the machine enough disk space as needed, then click on “Create”

The virtual machine is now ready for the operating system to be installed.

Under “Storage” click where it says “[Optical Drive] Empty” and “Choose a disk file”

Find and choose the Linux Mint Xfce iso-file and click “Open”

In Oracle VM VirtualBox Manager click on the green arrow symbol for “Start”

Choose “*Start Linux Mint 21.1 Xfce 64-bit” and hit the ENTER

Linux Mint Xfce will start up for you to try if necessary, otherwise, start the installation by clicking on “Install Linux Mint”

Choose your preferred language and click “Continue”

Choose your keyboard layout and click “Continue”

Choose whether or not to install multimedia codecs, then click “Continue”

Since we just made a virtual machine for this installation, choose “Erase disk and install Linux Mint”, then click “Install Now”

There will be a pop-up window, confirm your choice by clicking “Continue”

Choose your timezone and click “Continue”

Create a user with a password, and give the server a name. Choose whether or not to log in with a password. If a password is required, you can choose to encrypt your home folder. When finished click “Continue”

When the installation is complete, reboot into the installed Linux Mint Xfce by clicking “Restart Now”

When you see the symbol for the installation medium is greyed out, hit ENTER

Write in the password for the user you created and hit ENTER

There will be a welcome pop-up. If this should not show every time the machine is booted, untick the box “Show this dialog at startup”

Since we’re online, let’s make sure it is up to date. Open the “Terminal” and run the commands “sudo apt-get update & sudo apt-get upgrade -y”

For a better experience with this virtual machine, install the VirtualBox guest additions. Click on “Devices” and choose “Insert Guest Additions CD image…”

Open “Terminal” and change directory “cd /media/<insert username here>/VBox_GAs_6.1.40” and then run the command “sudo sh ./VBoxLinuxAdditions.run”

When the installation is done, restart the machine by running the command “reboot”

Now that the system is up to date, and we got the Virtualbox guest additions installed, let’s change the password for the user ‘root’.

Change to the user ‘root’ by running the command “sudo -i”

Change the password with the command “passwd”, write the new password twice, and then return to your user with the command “exit”

Linux Mint Xfce edition is now installed on the virtual machine in Oracle VM VirtualBox.

This tutorial can be used to install the Cinnamon edition as well. The difference is when inserting the VirtualBox Guest Additions CD Image, it will autorun, so the installation can easily be done in GUI instead of with commands in the Terminal.