Set Up Hyper-V

Lab SetupWindows Pro/Enterprise/Education path45–75 minutesChoose one setup pathBuilds on: VMware Workstation ProNo lab next

Learning objectives

When you finish

• Hyper-V will be enabled on a supported Windows edition.
• Ubuntu Desktop will boot inside a Generation 2 x86-64 VM.
• The guest will use the Default Switch and a 60 GB virtual disk.
• You’ll have a clean checkpoint to fall back to before future labs.

Make sure Hyper-V is an option

Hyper-V ships with the Pro, Enterprise, and Education editions of Windows 11. It is not available as a host hypervisor on Home editions at all, so check what edition you’re actually running before you spend any time on the rest of this page. If you’re on Windows 10, take the VMware Workstation Pro path instead, since that is the one this course keeps current for Windows 10.

Open Settings → System → About and find Windows specifications. If the edition says Home, close this page and use the VMware Workstation guide.

Open Command Prompt and run:

systeminfo.exe

Look for Hyper-V Requirements near the bottom of that output, where every entry should say Yes if Hyper-V is not already running (anything else means the host can’t run it yet). If virtualization turns out to be disabled in firmware, enable Intel VT-x, AMD-V, or SVM Mode in the UEFI or BIOS. Change only that setting while you’re in there.

Microsoft keeps the current list in System requirements for Hyper-V, which I’d recommend skimming if systeminfo.exe tells you something surprising.

Enable Hyper-V

1. Open the Start menu and search for Turn Windows features on or off.
2. Select Hyper-V. Make sure Hyper-V Management Tools and Hyper-V Platform are both selected beneath it.
3. Select OK and let Windows install the feature.
4. Restart the host when it asks.

There’s no separate Hyper-V download to hunt for. It is an optional Windows feature, already sitting on your disk.

After the restart, search for and open Hyper-V Manager. Your computer’s name should show up in the left pane, and if it doesn’t, the feature did not finish installing.

Download Ubuntu

These instructions follow the Hyper-V interface in Windows 11 Pro, Enterprise, or Education 24H2 and 25H2. Download the official Ubuntu 24.04.4 Desktop AMD64 ISO. The file you want is named ubuntu-24.04.4-desktop-amd64.iso.

Open PowerShell on the Windows host and check what you actually got:

Get-FileHash "$env:USERPROFILE\Downloads\ubuntu-24.04.4-desktop-amd64.iso" -Algorithm SHA256

The SHA-256 value must be:

3a4c9877b483ab46d7c3fbe165a0db275e1ae3cfe56a5657e5a47c2f99a99d1e

So if the hash doesn’t match, delete the file and download it again. And don’t use an arm64 image here (it will not boot, and the failure will not explain itself).

Create the virtual machine

In Hyper-V Manager, select your host in the left pane, then select New → Virtual Machine.

1. Name the VM UnderDunn Systems Foundations.
2. If you change its storage location, choose a drive with at least 80 GB free.
3. Select Generation 2.
4. Assign 8192 MB of startup memory, or 4096 MB if the host has only 8 GB in total. Leave Use Dynamic Memory for this virtual machine selected.
5. Connect the network adapter to Default Switch.
6. Create a 60 GB virtual hard disk.
7. Choose Install an operating system from a bootable image file and select the Ubuntu ISO.
8. Review the summary and select Finish.

A Generation 2 VM uses modern virtual firmware, and it is the right choice for any current Ubuntu release (Generation 1 is there for considerably older guests, and nothing here needs it).

Before you start it, right-click the VM and select Settings:

• Under Processor, assign 4 virtual processors, or 2 on a smaller host.
• Under Security, keep Secure Boot enabled and select the Microsoft UEFI Certificate Authority template.
• Under Network Adapter, confirm Default Switch is still selected.

That security template matters more than it looks. The ordinary Microsoft Windows template is meant for Windows guests, while Ubuntu’s bootloader is signed by the Microsoft UEFI Certificate Authority instead. Pick the wrong one and the VM usually fails to boot with an error that really doesn’t tell you much.

Install Ubuntu

Double-click the VM and select Start. If you see Press any key to boot from CD or DVD, click inside the window and press a key quickly, because that prompt does not wait around very long.

1. Select your language, accessibility settings, and keyboard layout.
2. Select Install Ubuntu.
3. Choose the interactive installation and the default application selection.
4. Allow updates during installation if it offers.
5. Choose Erase disk and install Ubuntu.
6. Create an account. Something simple like student is fine (you will be typing it a lot).
7. Let the installation finish and restart the guest.

The disk being erased is the empty 60 GB virtual disk we just made, and not the Windows drive in your host.

If the VM boots straight back into the installer, shut it down. Open Settings, select the DVD drive, and either remove the ISO or set its media to None, and then start the VM again.

Confirm the result

Log in, open Terminal, and run:

uname -m

It should print:

x86_64

Confirm the pinned guest release:

grep '^VERSION_ID=' /etc/os-release

It has to print VERSION_ID="24.04". Now update the installation inside that LTS release:

sudo apt update
sudo apt upgrade

The Default Switch does NAT for you, so the guest should reach the internet without any custom virtual network. But if the updates can’t reach anything, confirm the adapter is still on Default Switch before you go editing anything inside Ubuntu.

Create the clean checkpoint

Shut Ubuntu down. In Hyper-V Manager, right-click the VM and select Checkpoint, then rename the new checkpoint:

Clean Ubuntu installation

Hyper-V calls its recovery points checkpoints. This one preserves the clean installation so you can return to it after a later experiment.

Checkpoint

Ready to continue

Confirm that Ubuntu boots, uname -m prints x86_64, the network uses Default Switch, and the clean checkpoint shows up beneath the VM.

Check the setup and recover

Before continuing, confirm that Ubuntu boots, reports x86_64, and can reach its package repositories. Keep the recovery point so you can return to this working setup.

• Hyper-V is absent: check the Windows edition first. On Home, take the VMware path rather than trying to force an unsupported feature on.
• The VM won’t boot the ISO: confirm Generation 2, the Microsoft UEFI Certificate Authority template, and that the console actually received your boot key.
• The installer keeps repeating: power off and detach the ISO from the DVD drive.
• Updates can’t reach the repositories: put the Default Switch back before you go editing guest networking.
• The baseline gets uncertain: restore the clean checkpoint and run the confirmation commands again.

Keep Ubuntu running, and continue to Prepare Your Course Workspace and complete it inside the VM.

Use Hyper-V documentation to check a host-specific configuration or startup problem. Preserve the previous setting before trying a documented change.

Check your understanding

Knowledge check

Question 1 of 2

The Ubuntu desktop starts. Which evidence checks the instruction set needed by the course binaries?

The guest reports UbuntuThe host reports x86_64The guest reports x86_64

Check answer