Hyper-V on Windows 7?

I'm running the new Windows 7 RC x64. I would like to set up a couple of virtual servers running on the same box as my desktop OS. I know that I can do this with some of the other virtualization pacakges (Windows Virtual PC, VirtualBox, etc.) but there a couple features of Hyper-V that I would like to take advantage of.

Is it possible to install Hyper-V on Windows 7 x64? If so, how?

Solution 1:

I would say it isn't possible to use Hyper-V on Windows 7. You could put Server 2008 with Hyper-V as the host and use Windows 7 as a guest machine. Your best bet is to either use the new Windows Virtual PC or VirtualBox and the like.

Solution 2:

Windows 7 is a client OS and thus does not support the bare metal (level 1) Hyper Visor technology that Win2k8 server does. However Windows 7 does have a new Virtual PC client - which is NOT the same as the old one (which used emulation), this basically uses a level 2 hyper visor. Mark Wilson covers it in detail in his blog post

So it is much faster than the old one, but not as fast as native Hyper-V. The trade off is that with this you get more hardware support (USB devices are fully supported) and some of nicer features like drag/drop support.

Finally an important note (since you already have VM) is that Hyper-V machines do not natively run on the new virtual PC due to HAL issues (I have yet to try uninstalling the Hyper-V components first, but I suspect it won't work because the HAL is a driver update). Old Virtual PC to new Virtual PC is fine.

Solution 3:

Hyper-V only available on Windows Server 2008 with Hyper-V or the freely available Hyper-V Server

You could install one of these as the base OS and then install Win7 into a Hyper-V VM

Solution 4:

In fact, yes, it is somehow possible.

Windows 7 includes a "boot to VHD" feature. So, it is possible to install Windows Server 2008 R2 (64bits) inside a VHD that resides on the Windows 7 file system. This system will be available as dual-boot on system startup.

When booted on Windows Server 2008 R2, it is possible to enable the Hyper-V Server Role and everything works perfectly.

In order to set this up on your Windows 7 workstation: a) Boot on the Windows Server 2008 R2 Installation Media b) When the language selection dialog appears, hit Shift+F10 c) In the command prompt, run a series of command to create a virtual hard disk.

Something like:

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd744338(WS.10).aspx

diskpart create vdisk file=c:\windows7.vhd maximum=25600 type=fixed select vdisk file=c:\windows7.vhd attach vdisk

Then, you can proceed with the installation.

Solution 5:

Windows 7 has a new version of Virtual PC available currently in Beta. This is available here. There is also the new Virtual Windows XP Mode for Windows 7 available.