Setting up a VM and issues you might run into

I have encountered it now on multiple Windows machines.

Usually following a tutorial.

Making following and then completing one, very hard.

Don't get me wrong, I loved it! I learned so much about it and how to troubleshoot some issues.

So first things first, Windows is , well, windows.

It has capabilities that can conflict with the virtual machine Software configuration.

I have so far, only used Virtual Box. And of course have not encountered everything that could interfere.

That is why, this blog post will be kept UpToDate. It will server as a growing knowledge base for reference points.

Hyper V on Windows

For Context my machine:

Architecture: 64-bit operating system, x64-based processor

Version: Windows 11 Pro

OS build: 26100.4946

Extras: Windows Feature Experience Pack 1000.26100.197.0

I knew about these conflicts so the first thing I did was turn them off in the control panel. At least I thought I did that.

You can disable Hyper- V in the WINDOWS FEATURES section in the Control Panel to turn Windows Features on and off.

As the screenshot demonstrates, the selections are off.

If you are using a Home Edition they might not display.

The reason is Hyper-V is not available in Windows 10 Home edition. Just Pro and Enterprise.

As i have read in some literature and documentation, in newer versions of Windows 10 builds (including HOME edition) there is an active "Virtualization based security". On these builds, you will find Hyper-V entry in System Information.

This doesn't mean that there might not be a third party visualization software installed that might conflict.

You can use this CLI command to check:

systeminfo.exe

I am guessing what I thought I had turned off was only the management features and not actually the Hyper- V itself.

To make sure it is off, and only do this if your machine is going to be dedicated to VMs, because the Hyper- V features are critical for other software features. Microsoft does not recommend to disable this feature. But if you want to run VMs from third parties like Virtual Box, it is required to disable the function.

To turn it off:

Run the command prompt as an administrator by searching Command and selecting RUN AS ADMINISTRATOR.

The command is:

bcdedit /set hypervisorlaunchtype off

I also have read that Docker enables Hyper- V, which prevents VirtualBox from running as well. But have not conformed this yet.

Keep that in mind if you should run into any issues, then read the documentation.

These are some issues I ran into during the initial setup on Windows 11 Pro. I had similar issues with my last device which was a Windows 10 Home Edition in an old Lenovo ThinkPad. There I had to set the BIOS settings for Virtualization to off.

To do that I had to:

Restarted the computer.

Immediately pressed consciously the BIOS setup key (commonly F1 or F12) to enter the BIOS Setup Utility. Some systems may require holding down the Fn key while pressing the key or using ESC (check the manufactures documentation).

Navigated to the Security tab, then selected Virtualization. Alternatively, the option might be found under the Configuration tab as Intel Virtual Technology or under the Advanced tab within CPU Setup.

Select Intel(R) Virtualization Technology (or AMD V(TM) Technology for AMD processors) and changed its setting to Disabled.

I saved the changes and exited the BIOS setup.

The computer restarted and I check via systeminfo.exe if it was really disabled.

This I did because it was an old laptop dedicated for working exclusively with VMs. So I was not worried about conflicts with other Software or Functions.

Slow/sluggish VM

This is most likely due to the host machine and the configuration when insufficient resources are allocated to the VM.

Increasing the RAM and CPU cores assigned to the virtual machine can provide better performance.

You do not have to start over to do that. Shut down the machine. Then go to its settings. Here you can adjust the functions you need.

I increased the CPU to 2, and increased RAM by a little as well.

While installing the ISO, I had to change the default Graphics/Display settings to VBoxSVGA in order to get the ISO to run. But this can cause the machine to be really slow as well.

So I changed that in the settings as well by selecting the default display configuration to VBoxVGA.

Another source for better performance are the power setting of (in my case) laptop.

Setting the power plan to "High Performance" ensured the host system wont throttle resources during VM operation.

8/24/2025