Summary: Guest blogger, Greg Lindsay, tells how to configure Hyper-V on a computer running Windows 8.1 or Windows 8.
Microsoft Scripting Guy, Ed Wilson, is here. Today we welcome a new guest blogger, Greg Lindsay. In Greg’s own words: I am a technical writer for Windows Server. I have written documentation for Network Access Protection (NAP), DNS, DHCP, and IP Address Management (IPAM).
You might already have experience using Windows Virtual PC in Windows 7, which enables you to run virtual machines on a client operating system. You can still install Windows Virtual PC in Windows 8, but be aware that with Windows 8 there is now a requirement that the host computer’s microprocessor support SLAT. For more information, see Hyper-V: List of SLAT-Capable CPUs for Hosts.
The good news is that if your processor supports SLAT, you don’t need to download and install Windows Virtual PC because Hyper-V Manager is already included in Windows 8.1 and Windows 8 under Programs and Features. Hyper-V manager has several advantages over Windows Virtual PC, including the ability to create virtual switches with VLAN tagging and virtual machine snapshots.
Note If you installed a 32-bit version of Windows 8, you won’t be able to create and manage local virtual machines. To fully manage virtual machines by using the host computer, you must install the 64-bit version of Windows 8.1 or Windows 8.
The Hyper-V feature is not installed by default in Windows 8. To get it, you can use the following Windows PowerShell command:
Enable-WindowsOptionalFeature -Online -FeatureName Microsoft-Hyper-V –All
You can also install it via the Control Panel in Windows under Turn Windows features on or off, as shown here:
Important If you know that your processor supports SLAT, but you still get an error message that states Hyper-V cannot be installed, you might need to enable virtualization in the BIOS. The location of this setting will depend on the manufacturer and BIOS version. The following image shows an example of the required settings (under Security) in a Hewlett-Packard BIOS for an Intel processor:
After you have Hyper-V installed, check out Using PowerShell to Set Up Hyper-V.
Note Hyper-V Manager running on Windows 8.1 or Windows Server 2012 R2 also supports enhanced session mode, which allows you to more easily share local resources among virtual machines. For example, enhanced session mode enables you to copy text from a Windows PowerShell session on one virtual machine and paste it into the Windows PowerShell session on another virtual machine. For more information, see Virtual Machine Connection - Enhanced Session Mode Overview.
Hyper-V Manager in Windows 8.1 and Windows 8 brings the power of Hyper-V to your client computer. If you’ve used Hyper-V Manager before, you will recognize it immediately:
If you haven’t tried Hyper-V yet, you should definitely check it out!
Also see these resources:
- Client Hyper-V Survival Guide
- Client Hyper-V
- Bringing Hyper-V to Windows 8
- Installing Hyper-V in Windows 8
~Greg
Thank you, Greg, for writing this and sharing.
I invite you to follow me on Twitter and Facebook. If you have any questions, send email to me at scripter@microsoft.com, or post your questions on the Official Scripting Guys Forum. See you tomorrow. Until then, peace.
Ed Wilson, Microsoft Scripting Guy