Hyper-V on Windows 8 (Pro or Enterprise)

Looking for a hypervisor on Windows 8? Look no further. If your Windows 8 is Pro or Enterprise Hyper-V is available as a feature, and can be enabled easily as long as your system complies with there requirements:

  • Windows 8 Pro or Windows 8 Enterprise (64-bit Operating System)
  • Minimum of 4GB of RAM
  • Hardware Assisted Virtualization (HAV) – (This may appear as Intel VT)
  • Dynamic Execution Prevention or No Execute (DEP/NX)
  • Second Level Address Translation (SLAT)

 

Open Windows Features to check if Hyper-V is enabled:

WindowsFeatureNoHyperV

 

To enable the Hyper-V feature check the box and press OK:

WindowsFeatureEnableHyperV

 

 

When the Hyper-V feature is enabled your computer needs to be restarted:

WindowsFeatureEnableHyperV_Restart

 

After restart Hyper-V will appear on your Start Screen:

StartScreenHyperV2

 

Hyper-V on your Windows 8 can be managed using Hyper-V Manager as any Hyper-V running on a Windows Server:

HyperV_Manager

Running a headless VirtualBox

 

Use this command to start headless VirtualBox named NameOfVirtualBox:

Start /b 'C:\Program Files\Oracle\VirtualBox\VBoxHeadless.exe' -s "NameOfVirtualBox"

Or using PowerShell:

Start-Process -FilePath 'C:\Program Files\Oracle\VirtualBox\VBoxHeadless.exe' -ArgumentList @("-s","NameOfVirtualBox") -NoNewWindow

 

Note: If you close your command prompt the processes with your headless VirtualBox will get killed.

 

Link to VirtualBox manual : http://www.virtualbox.org/manual/ch07.html#vboxheadless