How to Enable Hyper-V for Virtual Machines

What Hyper-V Is

Hyper-V is Microsoft's native, Type-1 hypervisor built directly into Windows 10 and 11 Pro, Enterprise, and Education editions. Unlike VMware Workstation or VirtualBox, which run as Type-2 hypervisors on top of your OS, Hyper-V sits below Windows itself once enabled — Windows becomes a guest of its own hypervisor (the "root partition"). This gives virtual machines running under it near-native hardware performance, at the cost of some compatibility conflicts with other hypervisor-based software, which this guide covers below.

Requirements

• Windows 10/11 Pro, Enterprise, or Education — Home edition does not support Hyper-V.
• A 64-bit CPU with Second Level Address Translation (SLAT) — virtually every CPU sold since roughly 2010 has this.
• Virtualization extensions (Intel VT-x or AMD-V) enabled in BIOS/UEFI.
• At least 4 GB RAM (more, obviously, if you plan to run multiple guests simultaneously).

Step 1: Confirm Virtualization Is Enabled in Firmware

1. Open Task Manager (Ctrl + Shift + Esc).
2. Click the Performance tab, then CPU.
3. Check the Virtualization field near the bottom right — it must say Enabled.

If it says Disabled, reboot into your BIOS/UEFI setup (usually Del, F2, or F10 at boot depending on your motherboard) and enable Intel VT-x / VMX or AMD-V / SVM, typically found under a CPU or Advanced settings menu.

Step 2: Enable Hyper-V

Option A: Windows Features Dialog

1. Press Win, type Turn Windows features on or off, and open it.
2. Check Hyper-V (this selects all its sub-components: Management Tools and Platform).
3. Click OK.
4. Restart when prompted.

Option B: PowerShell (elevated)

Enable-WindowsOptionalFeature -Online -FeatureName Microsoft-Hyper-V -All

Option C: DISM (elevated Command Prompt)

DISM /Online /Enable-Feature /All /FeatureName:Microsoft-Hyper-V

All three do the same thing. Restart the PC once the feature installs.

Step 3: Open Hyper-V Manager

Press Win, type Hyper-V Manager, and open it. In the left pane, right-click your PC's name and confirm it shows as connected — this is your management console for creating and controlling VMs.

Step 4: Create a Virtual Switch (Networking)

Before creating a VM, set up a virtual switch so your guest can reach the network:

1. In Hyper-V Manager, click Virtual Switch Manager in the right-hand Actions pane.
2. Choose External (bridges directly to your physical network adapter, giving the VM its own IP on your LAN — the most common choice) and click Create Virtual Switch.
3. Name it, select your physical network adapter under Connection type > External network, and click OK.

Step 5: Create a Virtual Machine

The fastest path is Quick Create:

1. In Hyper-V Manager's right-hand Actions pane, click Quick Create.
2. Pick a preconfigured image (Microsoft offers a few, including Ubuntu options) or click Local installation source to point it at an ISO you've already downloaded, e.g. an Ubuntu Server or Desktop ISO.
3. Click Create Virtual Machine.

For more control over CPU cores, RAM allocation, and virtual disk size, use New > Virtual Machine from the Actions pane instead, which walks through a full configuration wizard.

Step 6: Start and Connect

Select your new VM in the list, click Connect, then the green Start button inside the connection window. Install the guest OS as you normally would from the ISO.

The Big Gotcha: Conflicts With VirtualBox and VMware

Disabling Hyper-V Later

If you need to fully disable it — say, to restore maximum compatibility with an older hypervisor — reverse the same steps:

Disable-WindowsOptionalFeature -Online -FeatureName Microsoft-Hyper-V -All

Restart afterward for it to take effect.

Troubleshooting

• Hyper-V option is grayed out in Windows Features: confirm you're on Pro/Enterprise/Education, not Home, and that virtualization is enabled in BIOS.
• VM has no internet access: double check the virtual switch is set to External and bound to the correct physical adapter, and that the VM's network adapter is attached to that switch in its settings.
• "Hyper-V cannot be installed: a hypervisor is already running": another virtualization product with its own hypervisor is active and conflicting — close it or check its Hyper-V-compatibility mode setting.