Windows 10 build 10565 features Nested Virtualization

Today it was announced by Microsoft that Windows 10 build 10565 includes one more secret feature. It includes an early preview of nested virtualization for Hyper-V. This feature emulates certain hardware capabilities which are required to run Hyper-V in a virtual machine. So you can have a virtual machine inside a virtual machine!

Here is the official statement they made:

Hyper-V relies on hardware virtualization support (e.g. Intel VT-x and AMD-V) to run virtual machines. Typically, once Hyper-V is installed, the hypervisor hides this capability from guest virtual machines, preventing guest virtual machines from installing Hyper-V (and many other hypervisors, for that matter).
Nested virtualization exposes hardware virtualization support to guest virtual machines. This allows you to install Hyper-V in a guest virtual machine, and create more virtual machines within that underlying virtual machine.

Here is how you can test this feature and have a number of nested vitrual machines.

1. Create a VM in Hyper-V.
2. Run the enablement script as follows:
   

   Given the configuration requirements (e.g. dynamic memory must be off), Microsoft has tried to make it easier by providing a PowerShell script.

   This script will check your configuration, change anything which is incorrect (with permission), and enable nested virtualization for a VM. Note that the VM must be off.

   Invoke-WebRequest https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Microsoft/Virtualization-Documentation/master/hyperv-tools/Nested/Enable-NestedVm.ps1 -OutFile ~/Enable-NestedVm.ps1
   
   ~/Enable-NestedVm.ps1 -VmName <VmName>

3. Install Hyper-V in the guest VM.
4. Enable networking (optional). Once nested virtualization is enabled in a VM, MAC spoofing must be enabled for networking to work in its guests. Run the following PowerShell (as administrator) command on the host machine:

   Set-VMNetworkAdapter -VMName <VMName> -MacAddressSpoofing on

5. Create nested VMs.

That's it. Microsoft has provided more details on this feature in their official blog post.

Support us

Winaero greatly relies on your support. You can help the site keep bringing you interesting and useful content and software by using these options: