Create a Windows 11 Virtual Machine on Windows 10 with Hyper-V
Windows 11 is now the hottest topics in technology world. And many folks are planning to give it a try. You can start a clean install, direct upgrade or only create a Windows 11 virtual machine for that. The last option is more safe and practical as Windows 11 is not stable in earlier release. And virtual machine is fairly enough to test Windows 11 out.
Actually, there are a couple of great tools available that lets you create a Windows 11 virtual machines on Windows 10 PC, such as Virtual Box, VMware Workstation or QEMU. But nothing beats the native application Hyper-V Manager developed by Microsoft . And now Windows 11 is officially available through Microsoft website, you can give Hyper-V a try to create a Windows 11 virtual machine on a Windows 10 PC.
Warning: Make sure your Windows 10 PC meets the minimal requirements of Windows 11 specification. If not, you have to hack the registry in order to create a Windows 11 virtual machine on unsupported hardware.
The process is fairly simple and can be divided into 2 major parts. First, create a new virtual machine using Hyper-V from Windows 110. Second, install Windows 11 using an ISO image file on this Hyper-V virtual machine. We have given step-by-step instructions for this entire process, hope you find it useful.
What is Hyper-V?
Hyper-V is a new virtualization technology developed by Microsoft and it comes with Windows 10 Pro, Education and Enterprise. You can run multiple operating systems on a single Windows 10 machine with Hyper-V manager, which is based on hardware virtualization. However, this feature is disabled by default on those supported operating systems.
This allows native support for virtualization so that you can create a Windows 11 virtual machines on a Windows 10 PC, and install any operating system on that virtual machine. Apart from Windows 10, Hyper-V is also a part of Windows 8, Windows 8.1, and Windows 11.
Pros:
- No additional software download and install.
- Easy to get started with intuitive setup wizard.
- Support many Windows and Linux OS.
- Run faster than 3rd-party virtualization software.
How to Create a Windows 11 Virtual Machine on Windows 10 Using Hyper-V Technology
Since Windows 11 is officially available through Microsoft website, we will be installing Windows 11 on a Windows 10 PC using Windows 11 ISO image.
Step 1. Download the latest Windows 11 ISO file from Microsoft website from below link:
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows11
Step 2. Search ‘hyper-v’ in desktop search field and you will see Windows Features prompt show up. It is the right place to turn Windows features on or off.
Step 3. Locate Hyper-v menu in scroll-down list and enable it. Click OK and Windows 11 starts to apply the changes. Once it is completed, Windows 10 has to restart to take the changes into effect.
Step 4. Search ‘hyper-v’ again once you are back to desktop. In this time, Hyper-V Manager appears in search result. Please run it as administrator.
Step 5. On welcome screen, you have to choose a way to connect to virtualization server. From my case, it is a local computer.
Step 6. In the Hyper-V window, you’ll see a pane called Actions on the right. From that pane, click on New, then click on Virtual Machine.
Step 7. As the new virtual machine is created, you’ll be asked to provide it a name. Name it Windows 11. If you do not want Windows 11 virtual machine to be stored in the default location mentioned on this window, click on the checkbox which says Store the virtual machine in a different location, and then choose a new location instead.
Step 8. Now, it will ask you to specify the generation for Windows 11 virtual machine. Please select Generation 2 and press Next.
Step 9. Next, it will ask you to allocate memory for your virtual machine. Allocate at least 4 GB RAM for Windows 11 virtual machine and click Next.
Step 10. Now it will ask you for the networking configuration of your virtual machine, select Default Switch from the dropdown if its not already selected, and press Next.
Step 11. Next, it will ask you to specify the hard drive for virtual machine. Select the first option that says Create a virtual hard drive, name it Windows 11.vhdx (unless it has that named already populated), change the path to the virtual drive if necessary, increase/decrease the size of the hard drive, and then press Next.
Step 12. Now it will ask you to select the ISO image file from which you would be installing Windows 11. For that, select the option that says Install an operating system from a bootable image file, and then click on the Browse button to select the Windows 11 ISO file that you had downloaded earlier. Once done, click on the Next button to continue.
Step 13. Finally, it will show you a summary of the settings you chose for Windows 11 virtual machine. If you are satisfied with them, click on Finish. This should create a new Windows 11 virtual machine on a Windows 10 PC.
Step 14. Once done, the Windows 11 named virtual machine will be shown in the middle pane below the list of Virtual Machines. Right click on it, then on the right pane, below Windows 11, click on Start.
Step 15. Once the virtual machine has started, once again from the right pane below Windows 11, click on Connect.
Step 16. This should connect to Windows 11 virtual machine. Since this is the first time you are using it, it will ask you to install Windows 11. Select your respective language and time zone settings, and then click on Next.
Note: If you received a boot loader failed error, please go to Action menu and reset the machine. This time, it will boot from ISO image.
Step 17. It will now ask for a product key. Click on the link that says I don’t have a product key. Now, choose the Windows 11 edition from the list shown in this new window. Once selected, click on Next to continue. Now, select Custom Install in the window asking you which type of installation would you like to go for this Windows 11 virtual machine.
Step 18. It would list the virtual hard drive created for this Windows 11 virtual machine. So, simply click on Next to continue. This should start the process of installing Windows 11 on your Hyper-V virtual machine.
Once created, complete OOBE and you should have a fully functional Windows 11 virtual machine on your Windows 10 PC.
Feel free to give Windows 11 a spin, even though you might often come with bugs since Windows 11 is quite riddled with it at its nascent stage. However, if you get bored using Windows 11, all you need to do is to delete the virtual machine on Hyper-V instead of formatting Windows 10 PC. If that’s not simple, I don’t know what is.
