How to Enable and Configure Hyper-V on Windows 11 using PowerShell

Hyper-V is Microsoft’s native hardware virtualization product, allowing IT professionals and developers to create and run virtual machines (VMs) directly on Windows 11 Pro, Enterprise, or Education editions. While it can be enabled via the “Turn Windows features on or off” GUI, PowerShell provides a much faster, scriptable method for deploying Hyper-V across multiple workstations.

Prerequisites for Hyper-V

Before enabling Hyper-V, ensure your system meets the hardware requirements:

• A 64-bit processor with Second Level Address Translation (SLAT).
• CPU support for VM Monitor Mode Extension (VT-x on Intel).
• A minimum of 4 GB of RAM.
• Hardware virtualization enabled in the motherboard BIOS/UEFI.

You can verify hardware compatibility by opening a command prompt and typing systeminfo. Scroll to the very bottom to view the “Hyper-V Requirements” section.

How to Enable Hyper-V via PowerShell

If the hardware requirements are met, follow these steps to install the Hyper-V role and management tools.

1. Click the Start button, type PowerShell, right-click on the result, and select Run as administrator.
2. Execute the following command to enable the Hyper-V feature, including all necessary management tools and the hypervisor platform:

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

3. PowerShell will begin the installation process, displaying a progress bar. This typically takes a minute or two.
4. Once the installation is complete, PowerShell will prompt you to restart the computer. Type Y and press Enter to initiate the reboot.

How to Verify the Installation

After your Windows 11 machine has rebooted, you can verify that the Hyper-V services are running correctly.

1. Open PowerShell as administrator again.
2. Run the following command to check the status of the Hyper-V Virtual Machine Management service:

   Get-Service -Name vmms

If the status says Running, the hypervisor is active. You can now launch the Hyper-V Manager from the Start menu to begin creating virtual switches and deploying virtual machines natively on your Windows 11 desktop.