Enable Hyper-V on Windows 11 and Create Virtual Machines with PowerShell: Practical Tips for Developers – ITFROMZERO

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The Problem: Windows Dev Machine, but CI/CD Runs Linux

Almost every developer working on Windows has run into this scenario: the CI/CD pipeline runs Ubuntu, the production server is Debian, but the dev machine is Windows 11. The result? “Works on my machine” but the build fails on the server, or a bash script runs fine on your colleague’s Mac but throws an error on the very first line.

The go-to solution is usually WSL2 — and yes, WSL2 is much better than it used to be. But WSL2 isn’t a real VM. There’s no independent kernel, you can’t test the network stack, and you can’t simulate a multi-host environment. Not to mention some services that require a full systemd setup simply won’t install.

I run a homelab with Proxmox VE managing 12 VMs and containers — it’s my playground for testing everything before pushing to production. But I don’t always want to SSH into a homelab server just to quickly test a script. When you need a Linux environment right on your Windows machine without installing extra software, Hyper-V is already there — you just need to turn it on.

Why Hyper-V Instead of VirtualBox?

VirtualBox and VMware Workstation are both Type-2 hypervisors — they run on top of Windows like regular applications. Hyper-V is a Type-1 hypervisor (bare-metal), meaning your Windows 11 actually runs on top of Hyper-V, not the other way around.

A direct comparison on the same hardware:

Performance: Hyper-V VMs use CPU virtualization directly, bypassing the emulation layer. Ubuntu 24.04 boots in around 8–10 seconds compared to 20–25 seconds on VirtualBox.
PowerShell Integration: The full VM lifecycle — create, snapshot, clone, delete — can all be managed via cmdlets, making it ideal for automation scripts.
No conflicts: Running Hyper-V no longer requires disabling WSL2, Docker Desktop, or Android Emulator (Windows 11 fixed this as of build 22H2).

One caveat: Hyper-V is only available on Windows 11 Pro, Enterprise, and Education. If you’re on Windows 11 Home, you’ll need to upgrade your license or fall back to VirtualBox.

Checking and Enabling Hyper-V

Check CPU Virtualization Support

Run PowerShell as Administrator:

# Check if the CPU supports virtualization
Get-ComputerInfo -Property HyperV*

# Or use systeminfo for a quick overview
systeminfo | findstr /C:"Hyper-V"

If you see HyperVisorPresent: False and your CPU supports virtualization, go into BIOS/UEFI and enable Intel VT-x (Intel) or AMD-V/SVM (AMD). The menu name varies by motherboard but is usually under the Advanced → CPU Configuration tab.

Enable Hyper-V via PowerShell

# Enable Hyper-V and its companion tools (requires Admin rights and a reboot)
Enable-WindowsOptionalFeature -Online -FeatureName Microsoft-Hyper-V-All -All

# After rebooting, verify the installation
Get-WindowsOptionalFeature -Online -FeatureName Microsoft-Hyper-V | Select-Object State

Once the machine restarts, Hyper-V Manager will appear in the Start Menu and the Hyper-V cmdlets will be available in PowerShell immediately.

Creating a Linux Virtual Machine with PowerShell

Setup: Create a Virtual Switch

Before creating a VM, you need a virtual switch for network connectivity. There are two common types:

External: The VM gets its own IP on your home LAN and is reachable from other devices. Use this when you need to test your app from a phone or another machine.
Internal: The VM can only communicate with the Windows host and isn’t exposed to the outside network. Safer for dev environments.

# List available physical network adapters
Get-NetAdapter | Where-Object {$_.Status -eq "Up"}

# Create an External Switch (replace "Wi-Fi" with your actual adapter name)
New-VMSwitch -Name "ExternalSwitch" -NetAdapterName "Wi-Fi" -AllowManagementOS $true

# Or create an Internal Switch (no physical adapter needed)
New-VMSwitch -Name "InternalSwitch" -SwitchType Internal

Create an Ubuntu 24.04 VM

Download the Ubuntu Server ISO, then run the following commands in order:

# Define variables for cleaner code
$VMName    = "ubuntu-dev"
$VMPath    = "D:\Hyper-V\VMs"
$ISOPath   = "D:\ISOs\ubuntu-24.04-live-server-amd64.iso"
$VHDSize   = 40GB

# Create a Generation 2 VM (UEFI, for modern Linux)
New-VM `
  -Name $VMName `
  -Path $VMPath `
  -Generation 2 `
  -MemoryStartupBytes 2GB `
  -SwitchName "ExternalSwitch"

# Create a virtual hard disk (dynamic VHDX)
New-VHD -Path "$VMPath\$VMName\$VMName.vhdx" -SizeBytes $VHDSize -Dynamic
Add-VMHardDiskDrive -VMName $VMName -Path "$VMPath\$VMName\$VMName.vhdx"

# Attach the ISO
Add-VMDvdDrive -VMName $VMName -Path $ISOPath

# Set DVD as the first boot device
$DVDDrive = Get-VMDvdDrive -VMName $VMName
Set-VMFirmware -VMName $VMName -FirstBootDevice $DVDDrive

# Disable Secure Boot (required for Linux without a shim)
Set-VMFirmware -VMName $VMName -EnableSecureBoot Off

# Enable Dynamic Memory (saves RAM when the VM is idle)
Set-VMMemory -VMName $VMName -DynamicMemoryEnabled $true -MinimumBytes 512MB -MaximumBytes 4GB

# Assign 2 CPU cores
Set-VMProcessor -VMName $VMName -Count 2

# Start the VM
Start-VM -Name $VMName

# Open the console for installation
VMConnect localhost $VMName

Important Tip: Enable Integration Services

A commonly skipped but critical step: inside the freshly installed Ubuntu VM, run the commands below to enable Hyper-V Integration Services. Without them, copy-paste won’t work, the VM clock will drift, and the host won’t be able to perform a graceful shutdown:

# On the Ubuntu guest
sudo apt update && sudo apt install -y linux-image-virtual linux-tools-virtual linux-cloud-tools-virtual
sudo systemctl enable hv_kvp_daemon hv_vss_daemon
sudo reboot

Day-to-Day VM Management with PowerShell

This is the part I use most — instead of clicking through Hyper-V Manager, write a script once and use it forever:

# View the status of all VMs
Get-VM | Select-Object Name, State, CPUUsage, MemoryAssigned, Uptime

# Start / Stop / Suspend
Start-VM -Name "ubuntu-dev"
Stop-VM -Name "ubuntu-dev" -Force          # Hard power off
Stop-VM -Name "ubuntu-dev" -TurnOff:$false  # Clean shutdown (requires integration services)
Suspend-VM -Name "ubuntu-dev"               # Hibernate the VM

# Snapshots (checkpoints)
Checkpoint-VM -Name "ubuntu-dev" -SnapshotName "before-upgrade-$(Get-Date -Format 'yyyyMMdd')"
Get-VMSnapshot -VMName "ubuntu-dev"
Restore-VMSnapshot -VMName "ubuntu-dev" -Name "before-upgrade-20260616"

# Delete old snapshots (free up disk space)
Remove-VMSnapshot -VMName "ubuntu-dev" -Name "before-upgrade-20260616"

# Clone a VM via export/import
Export-VM -Name "ubuntu-dev" -Path "D:\Hyper-V\Exports"
Import-VM -Path "D:\Hyper-V\Exports\ubuntu-dev\Virtual Machines\*.vmcx" -Copy -GenerateNewId

The Best Approach: Combining Hyper-V with Automation Scripts

Creating a VM manually like that takes 15–20 minutes every time — mostly clicking through wizards. I wrapped everything into a New-DevVM.ps1 script that gets the whole process down to about 2 minutes:

# New-DevVM.ps1 — Quickly spin up an Ubuntu dev environment VM
param(
  [string]$Name = "ubuntu-$(Get-Date -Format 'MMdd')",
  [int]$CPUCount = 2,
  [long]$RAMBytes = 2GB,
  [long]$DiskBytes = 40GB,
  [string]$ISOPath = "D:\ISOs\ubuntu-24.04-live-server-amd64.iso",
  [string]$VMBasePath = "D:\Hyper-V\VMs",
  [string]$SwitchName = "InternalSwitch"
)

$VHDPath = "$VMBasePath\$Name\$Name.vhdx"

New-VM -Name $Name -Path $VMBasePath -Generation 2 -MemoryStartupBytes $RAMBytes -SwitchName $SwitchName
New-VHD -Path $VHDPath -SizeBytes $DiskBytes -Dynamic
Add-VMHardDiskDrive -VMName $Name -Path $VHDPath
Add-VMDvdDrive -VMName $Name -Path $ISOPath
Set-VMFirmware -VMName $Name -FirstBootDevice (Get-VMDvdDrive -VMName $Name) -EnableSecureBoot Off
Set-VMProcessor -VMName $Name -Count $CPUCount
Set-VMMemory -VMName $Name -DynamicMemoryEnabled $true -MinimumBytes 512MB -MaximumBytes ($RAMBytes * 2)

Write-Host "[OK] VM '$Name' created. Starting..."
Start-VM -Name $Name
VMConnect localhost $Name

Call it like this:

# Create a VM with an auto-generated name
.\New-DevVM.ps1

# Create a custom VM
.\New-DevVM.ps1 -Name "test-nginx" -CPUCount 4 -RAMBytes 4GB

Connect via SSH Instead of the Console

The Hyper-V Manager console is pretty clunky — there’s input lag and you can’t scroll through command history. Enable SSH inside the VM and connect from Windows Terminal instead:

# On the Ubuntu guest — enable SSH
sudo apt install -y openssh-server
sudo systemctl enable --now ssh

# Get the VM's IP address
ip -4 addr show eth0

# On the Windows host — get the VM's IP via PowerShell
(Get-VMNetworkAdapter -VMName "ubuntu-dev").IPAddresses

# SSH into the VM
ssh [email protected]

Common Errors and How to Fix Them

“Hyper-V cannot be installed: A hypervisor is already running”: This is usually caused by Docker Desktop using the WSL2 backend. Try restarting your machine or check Task Manager to see if any vmwp.exe processes are running.
VM won’t boot from ISO after creation: With Generation 2 and Linux, remember to disable Secure Boot (Set-VMFirmware -EnableSecureBoot Off) or select the appropriate CA certificate.
VM loses network after suspend: An old Hyper-V bug that still pops up occasionally. Fix it by restarting the network adapter inside the VM (sudo ip link set eth0 down && sudo ip link set eth0 up) or by loading the hv_netvsc driver.
VHDX bloats after many snapshots: Run Optimize-VHD -Path path\to.vhdx -Mode Full periodically to compact the file.