How to Install Windows 11 on a Hyper-V Virtual Machine

Microsoft released a set of hardware requirements to install Windows 11 on a device. In particular, your computer must have a built-in TPM module (chip), a pretty modern CPU, UEFI Secure Boot support. Even if your computer doesn’t support these features at the hardware level, you can use a virtual TPM module and run Windows 11 on a virtual machine. Let’s take a look at how to install Windows 11 on a Hyper-V virtual machine.

Create a Windows 11 Virtual Machine on Hyper-V

The Hyper-V role must be installed on your computer. You can install Hyper-V both on a desktop Windows 10 edition, on a host running Windows Server, or free Microsoft Hyper-V Server.

You can create a Windows 11 virtual machine from the Hyper-V Manager graphical console or with PowerShell.

1. Open Hyper-V Manager and click Create -> New Virtual Machine;
2. Set the VM name;
3. Select Generation 2 virtual machine (Generation 2 virtual hardware supports UEFI, Secure Boot, and a virtual TPM);
   
4. Specify the RAM size for the VM (at least 4 GB, otherwise an error appears that the device doesn’t meet minimum system requirements to install Windows 11);
5. Connect the VM to a Hyper-V virtual switch having Internet access (optional);
   
6. Specify the size of a VHDX disk for a Windows 11 VM (it is recommended to use at least a 64 GB disk, but 30GB is enough or a minimum VM);
   
7. In the next step, check the option to install the OS later.

So the virtual machine is ready. Now you need to configure the VM options for installing guest Windows 11.

1. Open the VM settings;
2. Click the Processor tab and increase the number of vCPUs to at least 2;
   
3. Go to the Security tab, check the Secure Boot and select Microsoft Windows as a template;
4. Check the Enable Trusted Platform Module option;
   

You can create a Windows 11 virtual machine on Hyper-V using PowerShell:

$VMName = "win11_test"
$VM = @{
Name = $VMName
MemoryStartupBytes = 4Gb
Generation = 2
NewVHDPath = "C:\HV\$VMName\$VMName.vhdx"
NewVHDSizeBytes = 30Gb
Path = "C:\HV\$VMName"
SwitchName = "ExtVMSwitch"
}
New-VM @VM

Add the second vCPU to the VM:

Set-VM -VMName $VMName -ProcessorCount 2

Installing Windows 11 on a Hyper-VM

To install Windows 11 on a virtual machine, you will need an installation ISO image. You can download the Windows 11 install ISO image from the Microsoft website (https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows11) or use the Media Creation Tool to create a Windows installation image.

Connect the Windows 11 ISO image to your virtual machine. To do it, open SCSI Controllers and add a virtual DVD drive (DVD Drive -> Add).

The DVD Drive will appear in the list of VM hardware. Select it, check the Image file item and specify the path to your Windows 11 install image. Save the VM settings.

Open the VM properties again, and set the virtual DVD drive as a primary boot device (move the entry to the first position using the Move Up button) on the Firmware tab.

You can do the same things with PowerShell. Mount the ISO image to the virtual DVD drive and change the VM boot order:

$virt_dvd = Add-VMDvdDrive -VMName $VMName -Path 'C:\ISO\Win11x64.iso' -Passthru
Set-VMFirmware -VMName $VMName -FirstBootDevice $virt_dvd

Then enable the virtual TPM support:

Set-VMKeyProtector -NewLocalKeyProtector -VMName $VMName
Enable-VMTPM -VMName $vmname

Start the virtual machine from the Hyper-V console or using PowerShell:

Start-VM -Name $vmname

Open the virtual machine console and press any key to boot from the virtual DVD drive.

Follow Windows 11 setup wizard instructions: select a language, time format, keyboard layout, OS edition (an ISO image may contain several Windows editions). If you don’t have a Windows 11 installation key, you may skip the step by clicking I don’t have a product key.

This PC can’t run Windows 11. This PC doesn’t meet the minimum system requirements to install this version of Windows. For more information, visit aka.ms/WindowsSysReq

Select the installation mode Custom: Install Windows only advanced.

Then you just have to create a partition table on your virtual disk. You can create partitions manually or install Windows to an unallocated space (Drive 0 Unallocated Space -> Next). In this case, the Windows setup wizard will create EFI, MSR, and System Reserved partitions, and the rest space will be used for the Windows partition.

Then Windows 11 will be installed on the selected virtual disk.