Note: Due to the USB 3.0 translation layer between native hardware and virtual machine, the librealsense team does not recommend or support installation in a VM.
librealsense should compile out of the box with Visual Studio 2013 Release 4, both Professional and Community editions. Particular C++11 features are known to be incompatible with earlier VS2013 releases due to internal compiler errors.
Note: When working on Windows 8.1, make sure you have KB3075872 and KB2919355 installed. These patches are addressing issues with 8.1 video drivers, resolved in Windows 10.