How to Configure Microsoft Hyper-V to Run on Windows 11 Home Edition

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Using virtual machines to run multiple virtual computers on one physical computer is nothing new. But back when virtual machine technology was beginning, we could only run VM on expensive servers that were compatible with the hypervisor technology we were trying to implement.

But these days we have several options when it comes desktop virtualization software that we can run on our PC at home. There are several programs that are available with many of them being free to use. Some of the more popular examples would be Oracle VirtualBox, VMware Workstation and Player, and Parallels for macOS.

Microsoft has its own virtualization software called Hyper-V that is typically run on Windows servers but can also be run on the professional edition of the Windows desktop operating system. Many people are using the Windows Home edition on their desktops at home which doesn’t come with Hyper-V. In this article, we will be showing you how to configure Microsoft Hyper-V to run on Windows 11 Home edition. This should also work if you are still running Windows 10 Home.

If you are running the Professional version of Windows 11, all you need to do is go to the Windows Features section which can be found in Control Panel under Programs and features. Then check the box for Hyper-V as well as the options beneath it.

In order to enable Microsoft Hyper-V on Windows Home, we will be using a custom made batch file that will need to be run as an administrator on your computer. The text below shows the contents of the batch file that can be downloaded here.

pushd "%~dp0"
dir /b %SystemRoot%\servicing\Packages\*Hyper-V*.mum >hyper-v.txt
for /f %%i in ('findstr /i . hyper-v.txt 2^>nul') do dism /online /norestart /add-package:"%SystemRoot%\servicing\Packages\%%i"
del hyper-v.txt
Dism /online /enable-feature /featurename:Microsoft-Hyper-V -All /LimitAccess /ALL
pause

Once you have the file downloaded, simply right click on it and choose Run as Administrator and click on Yes at the UAC prompt. The batch file will then run, and you will be able to see all the Hyper-V components being installed as it goes through the process. When the process is complete, you will be prompted to restart your computer to finish the installation. Of course, you do not need to do this right away but you will need to reboot before being able to use Hyper-V on your PC.

Once you reboot, Windows will finish the installation which will look similar to how Windows Updates look when running on your computer.

Once you log back in, you can do a search for Hyper-V and you should be able to open the Hyper-V Manager from there.

Once you have Hyper-V Manager open, you can then start creating virtual machines.

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