Running ElementaryOS in a Hyper-V Virtual Machine

This is a short guide to getting ElementaryOS running in a Hyper-V Virtual Machine.

Prerequisites

• A bootable ElementaryOS ISO (Direct link to download ElementaryOS 8)
• Hyper-V (Comes with Windows) – May need to be enabled via “Turn Windows features on or off”
• Virtualisation enabled in the BIOS

Creating the Virtual Machine

Open Hyper-V then navigate to “New” -> “Virtual Machine”.

Click “Next >” inside the dialog that just popped up. Name the Virtual Machine something (For example, “EOS” or “Elementary OS”). Then click “Next >”

On this page select “Generation 2”. This is important, if you do not follow this step, the Virtual Machine will not work. Once you have completed this step, click “Next >”.

On this page you decide how much memory your Virtual Machine should have. This is in megabytes (MB). See the table below for recommendations. Once you have completed this step, click “Next >”.

On this page you configure the network. You can either choose not to connect it to the internet, change it to a custom switch or you can select “Not Connected” to not connect it to the internet. Once you have completed this step, click “Next >”.

On this page you configure the virtual hard drive, think of this as a file on your computer that can be mounted as if it was a real drive. You can choose how big it is or leave it as the default. If you have an existing hard drive you wish to use instead you can select it, though I don’t recommend it unless it’s blank. Do not select “Attach a virtual hard disk later” as this will cause issues. Once you have completed this step, click “Next >”.

On this page, select “Install an operating system from a bootable image file” and locate the ISO you downloaded. Once you have completed this step, click “Next >”.

On this page, look through and make sure everything looks correct, once you are happy with this click “Finish” and wait for it to create the Virtual Machine.

Setting the Virtual Machine up

Now go back to the Hyper-V Manager and right click on the Virtual Machine that you just created and click “Settings”, then navigate to “Security” and disable Secure Boot. Then click “Apply” and then “Ok”.

Now right click on the Virtual Machine again and click “Connect”. You should see something similar to the image below. Click on the green power symbol or click the “Start” button to start your Virtual Machine.

Once you have started the Virtual Machine, it should look similar to the image below.

Now you have Elementary OS running in a Hyper-V Virtual Machine. If you have any questions feel free to comment them below or read some of my other guides.