# How to Enable Hyper-V in Windows 11

URL: https://www.mytechnician.tech/tips/how-to-enable-hyper-v-windows-11/
Published: 2026-08-04 | Author: Ankit Kumar
Tags: Windows 11, System, Setup, Apps
Summary: Hyper-V lets you run virtual machines natively in Windows 11 Pro. Here is how to turn it on, create your first VM, and avoid the conflicts it causes.

## The Problem
**Hyper-V** is Microsoft's built-in hypervisor. It runs full virtual machines — a second copy of Windows, a Linux desktop, a throwaway environment for testing something you do not trust — with no third-party software and no licence to buy.

Two things trip people up. First, **Hyper-V is not included in Windows 11 Home**; the feature simply is not there, and installing it via unsupported scripts causes update failures later. Second, once enabled, Hyper-V takes ownership of the CPU's virtualization extensions, which historically broke VirtualBox and VMware. That is largely solved on current versions, but it explains a lot of confusing errors.

> **Only want a Linux command line, not a whole virtual machine?** WSL is lighter, faster, and works on Home too — see [how to install WSL on Windows 11](https://www.mytechnician.tech/tips/how-to-install-wsl-windows-11/).

## Symptoms
* **Hyper-V** does not appear in **Turn Windows features on or off**.
* Hyper-V is ticked but **Hyper-V Manager** will not start, or shows no virtual machines.
* A VM refuses to start with a virtualization or hypervisor error.
* VirtualBox or VMware stopped working after enabling Hyper-V.

## Step 1: Confirm Your Edition Supports It
1. Press **Windows + R**, type `winver`, and press Enter.
2. Hyper-V requires **Windows 11 Pro**, **Enterprise**, or **Education**. Home does not include it.
3. On Home, your options are: upgrade to Pro through **Settings** → **System** → **Activation** → **Upgrade your edition of Windows**, use [WSL](https://www.mytechnician.tech/tips/how-to-install-wsl-windows-11/) for Linux workloads, or install VirtualBox for full VMs.
4. Check the rest of your hardware: [how to check your PC specs](https://www.mytechnician.tech/tips/how-to-check-pc-specs-windows-11/).

## Step 2: Check the Hardware Requirements
1. Right-click **Start** → **Terminal** and run:
   ```
   systeminfo
   ```
2. Scroll to the **Hyper-V Requirements** section at the bottom. All four lines should read **Yes**:
   * VM Monitor Mode Extensions
   * Virtualization Enabled In Firmware
   * Second Level Address Translation
   * Data Execution Prevention Available
3. If the output instead says *"A hypervisor has been detected"*, Hyper-V is **already running** — skip to Step 5.
4. If **Virtualization Enabled In Firmware** is **No**, fix that next.

## Step 3: Enable Virtualization in Firmware
1. Enter firmware setup: [how to enter BIOS or UEFI](https://www.mytechnician.tech/tips/how-to-enter-bios-uefi-windows-11/).
2. Enable **Intel Virtualization Technology / VT-x**, or **SVM Mode** on AMD systems.
3. While there, enable **VT-d** (Intel) or **IOMMU** (AMD) if present — needed for passing hardware through to a VM.
4. Save, exit, and confirm in **Task Manager** → **Performance** → **CPU** that **Virtualization** reads **Enabled**.
5. Full vendor-by-vendor detail: [how to enable virtualization (VT-x / AMD-V) in the BIOS](https://www.mytechnician.tech/tips/how-to-enable-virtualization-vt-x-amd-v-bios/).

## Step 4: Turn the Feature On
1. Press **Windows + R**, type `optionalfeatures`, and press Enter.
2. Tick the **Hyper-V** box — this selects both **Hyper-V Management Tools** and **Hyper-V Platform**.
3. Click **OK** and restart when prompted. Windows applies the change across two reboots.
4. Or, from **Terminal (Admin)** using PowerShell:
   ```
   Enable-WindowsOptionalFeature -Online -FeatureName Microsoft-Hyper-V -All
   ```
5. After the restart, open **Hyper-V Manager** from the Start menu to confirm it is working.

## Step 5: Create Your First Virtual Machine
1. Open **Hyper-V Manager**, select your PC name in the left pane, then **Action** → **New** → **Virtual Machine**.
2. Name it, and choose **Generation 2** for any modern 64-bit operating system. Generation 1 is for legacy systems only.
3. Assign memory — 4096 MB is a sensible starting point — and leave **Use Dynamic Memory** ticked so unused RAM returns to Windows.
4. For networking, pick **Default Switch**, which gives the VM internet access through your PC.
5. Create a virtual hard disk (60 GB is ample for a test install), then point the installer at an ISO file.
6. Select the VM and choose **Connect**, then **Start**.
7. For a Windows guest, Generation 2 requires Secure Boot to stay on; for a Linux guest, open **Settings** → **Security** and change the template to **Microsoft UEFI Certificate Authority**, or the ISO will not boot.

## Step 6: Sort Out Networking
1. The **Default Switch** uses NAT — the VM reaches the internet, but nothing on your network can reach the VM. That suits most uses.
2. For a VM that needs its own address on your LAN, open **Virtual Switch Manager** → **New virtual network switch** → **External**, and bind it to your physical adapter.
3. ⚠️ Creating an external switch briefly drops the host's network connection while the adapter is rebound. Do not do this over a remote session you cannot afford to lose.
4. If the VM has no internet, check the switch assignment in the VM's **Settings** → **Network Adapter** first.
5. Related: [share files between Windows PCs on the same network](https://www.mytechnician.tech/tips/share-files-between-windows-pcs-same-network/).

## Step 7: Handle Conflicts With Other Virtualization Tools
Enabling Hyper-V puts Windows itself on top of a hypervisor, and anything else wanting exclusive CPU access has to cooperate.

1. Update **VirtualBox** to 7.x or later, or **VMware Workstation** to 17 or later — current releases run alongside Hyper-V, with some performance cost.
2. Some Android emulators and older anti-cheat systems still object. If one breaks, that is why.
3. Note that **Memory integrity**, **Windows Sandbox**, **WSL 2**, and **Virtual Machine Platform** all use the same hypervisor. Turning Hyper-V "off" while any of those are enabled leaves it running.
4. If a tool insists no hypervisor is present, check with `systeminfo` — *"A hypervisor has been detected"* is the definitive answer.
5. Related error: [fix error 0x80004005](https://www.mytechnician.tech/tips/fix-error-0x80004005-unspecified-error-windows-11/).

## Step 8: Turn Hyper-V Off Again
1. Untick **Hyper-V** in `optionalfeatures` and restart. Or from **Terminal (Admin)**:
   ```
   Disable-WindowsOptionalFeature -Online -FeatureName Microsoft-Hyper-V-All
   ```
2. If a hypervisor is still detected afterwards, disable the boot-level launch:
   ```
   bcdedit /set hypervisorlaunchtype off
   ```
   and restart. Re-enable later with `bcdedit /set hypervisorlaunchtype auto`.
3. Also turn off **Memory integrity** (**Windows Security** → **Device security** → **Core isolation details**) if you need the hypervisor fully out of the way — and turn it back on when finished.
4. Your VMs and their virtual disks are not deleted by disabling the feature; they are waiting when you re-enable it.

## What Not to Do
* **Don't use "Hyper-V enabler" batch scripts on Windows 11 Home.** They install components the edition is not serviced for and cause update failures later. Upgrade to Pro or use VirtualBox.
* **Don't give a VM most of your RAM.** Leave the host at least 8 GB, or the whole machine crawls: [how much RAM do I need](https://www.mytechnician.tech/tips/how-much-ram-do-i-need/).
* **Don't create an external virtual switch over a remote desktop session.** You will disconnect yourself.
* **Don't treat a VM as a backup.** A virtual disk on a failing drive dies with it: [set up automatic backups](https://www.mytechnician.tech/tips/set-up-automatic-backups/).

## Still Not Working?
If `systeminfo` shows all four requirements as **Yes** and Hyper-V Manager still will not run, repair the feature installation with SFC and DISM: [how to run SFC and DISM](https://www.mytechnician.tech/tips/how-to-run-sfc-dism-repair-windows-11/). If the feature itself fails to install, see [fix DISM error 0x800f081f](https://www.mytechnician.tech/tips/fix-dism-error-0x800f081f-windows-11/).

Related: [how to install WSL on Windows 11](https://www.mytechnician.tech/tips/how-to-install-wsl-windows-11/), [how to enable virtualization in the BIOS](https://www.mytechnician.tech/tips/how-to-enable-virtualization-vt-x-amd-v-bios/), and [check and upgrade your RAM](https://www.mytechnician.tech/tips/check-upgrade-ram-pc/).

---
Source: https://www.mytechnician.tech/tips/how-to-enable-hyper-v-windows-11/ — My Technician, free Windows 10/11 troubleshooting guides.
More guides: https://www.mytechnician.tech/llms.txt