Today, we are going to install Windows 10in a virtual machine using Hyper-V in Microsoft’s Windows Server I’d also like to share files so I’ll make sure I can access my network folders from within the VM.
Before we start: anyone who has installed Windows 10 knows that the real-time installation, just by itself, can take more or less an hour. So when I say it’s going to take ten minutes, I’m referring to the length of this article. So what are the requirements for running Hyper-V? If you are using the Datacenter version, the procedure for enabling Hyper-V and installing VMs is the same for both editions. If you don’t want to do these steps, you can simply order Full Admin RDP from tryrdp.com.
On the hardware side, you’ll need a VM to monitor mode extensions, at least 4GB of RAM, a 64-bit processor with second-level address translation, and virtualization support turned on in the BIOS. How can you find out if your PC meets those requirements? The easiest way to view your System Information is by going to the Start menu, typing in System Info, and clicking on the first returned search result. I’ll maximize the window and expand the columns. You can see I’m using the Datacenter edition of Windows. The most important line items are at the bottom, which is the last four that are prefixed with Hyper-V.
If you see a Yes after all four lines, you’re good to go. For this post, I’m going to assume that you meet the requirements. I’m going to go ahead and close this out. The first thing you’ll need to do is start the Server Manager. From the Manage menu, select Add Roles and Features – because, in Windows Server 2016, Hyper-V is a server role that you need to add. In future articles, you’ll see the procedure for Windows 10 is a little different, because it’s installed as a new feature as opposed to a new role. In the Add Roles Wizard, let’s click Next to leave the introduction, and we’ll keep this selection as a Role-based installation, and click Next. I only have one server to worry about, whose static IP address ends with dot 130. On the next screen, what you’ll want to do is click on Hyper-V, and add those features.
This will take a couple of seconds, after which you’ll see the Hyper-V options appear. There are no other features to install, so you can click Next here. This is the introduction screen for the Hyper-V section of the wizard, so let’s continue -and what you’ll want to do is click on the network adapter listed here. Now, I only have one network card in my machine, but many of you will probably have two or more. In my case, the virtual switch will be shared by the host and any or all VMs. Let me quickly show you my network settings by going to the Network and Sharing Center. So you can see I have a single Ethernet connection here, but if you had two, you could make one of them your virtual switch while leaving the other alone. Let’s close out these, then click Next.
I’m not planning any migration, so I’m going to skip to the next screen. These are the locations of the virtual hard disk files and the Hyper-V configuration files. Feel free to change these if you like, as you’ll probably want to place the virtual hard drive, at least, on an SSD. As we visit the last screen, we finally arrive at the Install button, but before I click it, I know I’m going to be required to reboot after the hyper-V installation because I’ve done this a couple of times before. So I might as well check the box to automatically reboot. I’ll now click Install, and since this will take a while, When we come back after the reboot, we’ll be back in Windows Server 2016 with the Hyper-V role and management tools added.
OK, we’re back. Our notifications show that Windows has successfully added the new features; we have a new entry for Hyper-V in the Server Manager; and if we go to the Start menu, under Administrative Tools, you can see that we have the Hyper-V Manager. After making sure the server is selected, you can now select New -> Virtual Machine, which brings up a new wizard. From the intro screen, click Next. We’ll name this Windows 10Testbed. Now you can place this in a different location, but I’ll keep the default and click Next. Here, we need to specify either Generation 1 or Generation
Depending on your guest operating system, Generation 2 supports secure boot, shielded virtual machines, and direct storage spaces. But I do plan on doing anything fancy, so I’ll stick with Generation 1. Here you assign the amount of memory you want to give to the VM. For the purposes of this article, I’m going to assign just 2 GB of memory by typing 2048, but you can change this later on after we create the VM. You’ll want to enter a number to meet your use case requirements for the virtual machine
You can check the dynamic memory box to have Hyper-V assign memory as the VM needs it, but I’ll leave it unchecked. Here, we need to select the network connection. You’ll notice that one of my options is a virtual switch, which is something that happened during the Hyper-V install. If you recall, I had a normal Ethernet connection with a static IP address of dot
Let’s return to the Networking and Sharing Center to see how that has changed. This used to be just a normal ethernet card, but now it’s a virtual switch with an IP address assigned from the DHCP server. I do want a static IP address, so I’m going to go into the TCPIP properties and reset that to dot 130. I’m going to close out of these networking dialog boxes. Now we can go to the next screen, where I can define the file that holds the virtual machine. I’m going to leave it in the default folder, then I’m going to assign the size of the hard drive 100 GB.
We’ll install Windows 10 from an ISO file, which I have handy on my D drive. Let’s go ahead and browse for that. It’s an older ISO image of Windows 10 but that’s fine. That’s going to be my virtual DVD drive into which the VM boots when I start the machine. Let’s click Next, and then Finish. So that creates the virtual machine. Let’s double-click this entry, which starts the VM viewer, which I’m going to move over.
To actually turn on the machine, you click the green start button on the toolbar, which boots into the Windows 10 ISO file. At this point, this becomes an exercise in installing Windows 10, including entering the product key, selecting the Windows 10 Edition, accepting of terms, creating an account, rebooting, and waiting. So I’ll fast forward and return when Windows is fully installed. In the meantime, I’m going to heat up some lunch in the toaster oven.
OK, three reboots later, we’re back. I’ve finished my lunch – and dinner. Let’s allow network discovery then go into the network settings. If I open the connection… go into its properties… and open its TCPIP settings… you’ll see that it’s a DHCP configuration. I prefer my VM to have a static IP, so I’ll change this to dot 131, and Google’s 8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4. Remember, this is a connection going through the virtual switch. Let’s close out these windows. We should now be able to connect to a location on the local network. Using File Explorer, let’s point to a known folder on the network… enter the credentials to access it….. and voila, we’re in.
Now let’s configure the remote desktop settings. I’ll go to the Start menu, go to settings… and type in Remote Desktop to search for those options… and select Allow Remote Access to your computer. Let’s select Allow Remote Connections, and then OK.
I should now be able to go to my host PC, start Remote Desktop connection, connect to 192.168.1.131… enter my account information… click Yes… and we now have a full-screen view into the VM. You can start Microsoft Edge and confirm that you have internet access as well. Before I end this post, I wanted to show you the VM settings. After shutting down the virtual machine, let me navigate to the virtual switch settings. Windows Server 2016, Hyper-V creates one for you, going through your network adapter. If you go to the settings for the VM itself, there are quite a few settings you can change, such as the size of the memory, the dynamic memory setting, the number of cores on the CPU, additional virtual hard drives, and so on. I hope you enjoyed it! – Thanks for reading.