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Microsoft Hyper‐V

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Your Name edited this page Mar 29, 2026 · 2 revisions

Quick Setup (Run as Administrator)

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

Note: A restart is required after enabling Hyper-V.

Overview

Microsoft Hyper-V is a native Type-1 hypervisor built into Windows. It is used in OSDWorkspace to create and manage virtual machines for testing WinPE boot media and OS deployments.

Refer to the official Hyper-V documentation for full details.

Requirements

Hyper-V requires a supported version of Windows and compatible hardware.

Supported Windows Editions

Edition Supported
Windows 11 Home No
Windows 11 Pro Yes
Windows 11 Enterprise Yes
Windows 11 Education Yes

Hardware Requirements

Requirement Details
Processor architecture 64-bit with Second Level Address Translation (SLAT)
Hardware virtualization Intel VT-x or AMD-V, enabled in BIOS/UEFI
RAM 4 GB minimum (8 GB or more recommended)
Data Execution Prevention (DEP) Must be supported and enabled

To verify your system supports Hyper-V before enabling, run:

Get-ComputerInfo -Property HyperV*

Enabling Hyper-V

Using PowerShell (Recommended)

Run from an elevated PowerShell session:

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

To suppress the automatic restart prompt and reboot manually:

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

Using DISM

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

Using Windows Features (GUI)

  1. Press Win + R, type optionalfeatures, and press Enter.
  2. Scroll down and expand Hyper-V.
  3. Check Hyper-V Management Tools and Hyper-V Platform.
  4. Click OK and restart when prompted.

Hyper-V Components

The following optional feature names can be used individually with Enable-WindowsOptionalFeature or DISM:

Feature Name Description
Microsoft-Hyper-V All Hyper-V components (recommended)
Microsoft-Hyper-V-Hypervisor Core hypervisor engine
Microsoft-Hyper-V-Services Hyper-V host services
Microsoft-Hyper-V-Management-Clients Hyper-V Manager GUI (MMC snap-in)
Microsoft-Hyper-V-Management-PowerShell Hyper-V PowerShell module
Microsoft-Hyper-V-Tools-All All management tools

Post-Installation Steps

1. Verify Hyper-V Is Enabled

Get-WindowsOptionalFeature -Online -FeatureName Microsoft-Hyper-V

The State property should return Enabled.

2. Create an External Virtual Switch

An external virtual switch allows virtual machines to access your local network and the internet. Run from an elevated PowerShell session:

# Find the physical adapter name
Get-NetAdapter | Where-Object { $_.Status -eq 'Up' } | Select-Object Name, InterfaceDescription

# Create the external switch (replace 'Ethernet' with your adapter name)
New-VMSwitch -Name 'External Switch' -NetAdapterName 'Ethernet' -AllowManagementOS $true

3. Open Hyper-V Manager

Launch Hyper-V Manager from the Start Menu, or run:

virtmgmt.msc

Additional Resources

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