How to Enable Hyper-V on Windows 10 and Windows 11

Hyper-V is built into Windows 10 and 11 Pro. You don’t need to download anything to run virtual machines on your PC. It’s off by default, and enabling it takes less than five minutes.

Before You Enable Hyper-V

A few requirements have to be met first, or Hyper-V won’t appear in the features list at all.

Supported editions: Windows 10 and 11 Pro, Enterprise, or Education. Home editions don’t include Hyper-V natively, so skip to the Alternatives section if that’s your edition.

Hardware:

• 64-bit CPU with Intel VT-x or AMD-V (also called SVM) support
• SLAT (Second Level Address Translation); any CPU from roughly the past decade has this
• Enough RAM for both Windows and your VMs, 8 GB is a practical minimum; 16 GB is comfortable

Virtualization must be enabled in BIOS/UEFI: Even if your CPU supports it, this setting is often off by default. The quickest check: open Task Manager (Ctrl + Shift + Esc), click the Performance tab, select CPU, and look for the Virtualization row. If it says “Disabled,” fix that in firmware before continuing by following the steps to enable virtualization in the BIOS.

Enable Hyper-V on Windows 10

Method 1: Windows Features (GUI)

1. Click Start, search for Settings, and open it.
2. Click Apps, then Apps & features.
3. On the right side, click Programs and Features under Related settings. Control Panel opens.
4. In the left pane, click Turn Windows features on or off.

5. Check Hyper-V in the Windows Features dialog. Both Hyper-V Management Tools and Hyper-V Platform will be selected automatically.

6. Click OK and wait while Windows installs the feature.
7. Click Restart now.

After rebooting, search Hyper-V Manager in the Start menu to confirm it installed.

Method 2: PowerShell

Skip the dialog chain if you prefer the command line. One command handles everything.

1. Right-click Start and select Windows PowerShell (Admin) or Windows Terminal (Admin).
2. Run:

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

3. When asked to restart, type Y and press Enter.

Enable Hyper-V on Windows 11

The path is slightly different on Windows 11. Control Panel is the starting point here, not Settings.

1. Click Start, search for Control Panel, and open it.
2. Click Programs, then Programs and Features.
3. Click Turn Windows features on or off in the left pane.
4. Check Hyper-V and click OK.
5. Restart when prompted.

The PowerShell command from Method 2 works identically on Windows 11, same command, same restart.

Troubleshooting: Hyper-V Is Missing or Won’t Install

Hyper-V is greyed out or not listed in Windows Features: Virtualization is disabled in your BIOS/UEFI. Reboot and enter firmware setup (common keys: Del, F2, F4, or F12 depending on your board). Look under CPU, Chipset, or Advanced settings for “Intel Virtualization Technology,” “VT-x,” “AMD-V,” or “SVM” and enable it. Enable virtualization in the BIOS covers that step-by-step for both Intel and AMD systems.

You’re trying to enable Hyper-V inside another virtual machine: This requires nested virtualization. Power off the VM and enable the setting that exposes hardware virtualization to the guest in your virtualization app. In VMware Workstation, open VM > Settings > Hardware > Processors > Virtualization Engine, then enable Virtualize Intel VT-x/EPT or AMD-V/RVI. If that option is unavailable or the VM will not start afterward, the host is not passing the required virtualization features through to the guest.

“The processor does not have the required virtualization capabilities”: The CPU either lacks SLAT support or doesn’t support hardware virtualization at all. Older or entry-level processors may not qualify.

You’re on Windows 10 or 11 Home: Hyper-V isn’t available on Home editions. Your options are upgrading to Pro or using a free alternative like VirtualBox.

Hyper-V breaks VMware Workstation or VirtualBox: Enabling Hyper-V can interfere with older versions of both. Updating to their current releases fixes this; modern VMware and VirtualBox run alongside Hyper-V without issue.

Creating Your First Virtual Machine

With Hyper-V Manager open, click New > Virtual Machine in the right-hand pane to start the wizard. A few things to sort out before clicking through:

• Generation 2 is the right pick for any modern 64-bit OS, it supports UEFI and Secure Boot. Use Generation 1 for legacy systems like Windows XP or some older Linux installs.
• No guest OS is included, the Windows XP Mode that shipped with Windows 7 is long gone, and nothing like it exists in Windows 10 or 11 Hyper-V. You’ll need your own ISO and a valid license for whatever you’re installing.
• Before building the VM, open Virtual Switch Manager and create a network switch if you want the VM to reach the internet.
• To convert your existing Windows installation into a VM, read how to virtualize your current PC using Hyper-V.

Alternatives to Hyper-V

Hyper-V doesn’t fit every situation:

VirtualBox and VMware Workstation Pro are free and run on Windows Home. VirtualBox also supports macOS and Linux; on a Mac, VMware’s equivalent product is Fusion Pro.

Windows Sandbox (Pro and Enterprise) spins up a fresh, disposable Windows environment in seconds with no VM wizard required. It runs on top of Hyper-V, so Hyper-V has to be enabled first.

WSL2 is worth a look if a Linux terminal or dev environment is all you need; it’s considerably lighter than a full VM for that task.

One thing to know: if WSL2 or Windows Sandbox stops working after you enable Hyper-V, check that Virtual Machine Platform and Windows Hypervisor Platform are also checked in Windows Features.

Conclusion

The Windows Features GUI method gets Hyper-V running in under five minutes for nearly every Windows Pro setup. The BIOS virtualization step is where most people get stuck, if Hyper-V shows as greyed out, that’s almost certainly the reason. Fix that first, and the rest is straightforward. The PowerShell method is worth bookmarking if you’re rolling this out across more than one machine.