Create Your First Virtual Machine in Client Hyper V using Windows 10 / 8.1

Hello everyone, and welcome again to the next chapter of using Client Hyper V. Today, we will learn about creating a new virtual machine inside Client Hyper V. In our previous video, we talked about installing Client Hyper V on your Windows PC, but some of users may be wondering, what to do next in Client Hyper V, as there are no such options to create new virtual machines. 

If this is also a case with you, then open Turn On or Off Windows Features, expand Hyper V, and make sure Hyper V Platform option is also checked. If it is not already then install this option as well, and restart your PC. This is the main service that Client Hyper V usage to create and manage virtual machines.

Once you are back into Client Hyper V Manager after restarting your PC, you may see new options in the right side pane. So, let’s get started creating a new virtual machine.

To create a new virtual machine, click New from the Action menu, and then click Virtual Machine. New Virtual Machine wizard will open that will help you to create new virtual machine. As you can see, in the very beginning of the wizard there is a finish button, which you can use to create a new virtual machine with default settings. 

However, it is not recommended, as we will configure many settings that are require to understand the whole concept of creating virtual machines. Click next, and you will be presented with Name and Location dialog box. Type a new name for your virtual machine. The default storage location of your virtual machine is on C drive, but you can make a check mark on “Store the virtual machine on a different location”, and then can specify a new location to store your virtual machine.

In the next dialog box, we need to configure the Generation of the virtual machine. The default setting is Generation 1. As we are beginning with the virtualization technology, we will go with Generation 1, but do remember that generation type cannot be changed later.

Then we need to allocate the memory usage to our virtual machine. Memory allocation depends on the operating system that you intend to install on your virtual machine, and later how you will use that virtual machine. As I am planning to install Windows XP, 512 Mega Bytes of RAM will be sufficient. If you are not sure that how much memory to allocate, then make a check mark on “Use Dynamic Memory for this virtual machine”.
The next option is to configure networking. Choose the default option, as will cover this topic in detail in our next videos on Hyper V.

Next is creating a new Virtual Hard Disk, which will store the entire data of your Virtual Machine including the operating system. Make sure of to provide sufficient disk space according to the operating system you are going to install, and the software and utilities that you are going to use on the Guest Operating systems.

The next and very important is about configuring the installation option. Here you have 4 choices. Either you can install the operating system later, or you can choose to install it from CD / DVD ROM, or from an ISO image file. You can also boot your virtual machine from a bootable floppy disk, if you have created one earlier. The last installation option is, “install an operating system from a network based installation server”, which is disabled by default, as we have not configured or network in previous step. As for now, I am going to install the operating system from an ISO image, so I will choose the second option, and will browse for the location of ISO image. In the end, you have a complete summary of your Virtual Machine configuration. Click Finish to save the changes. Now, to run your virtual machine, right-click on your Virtual Machine name, and click Start, or you may choose the options from the right side pane. Once your virtual machine is start and running, you will see a thumbnail view below. Now, right-click again on the name, and choose connect, or just double-click the virtual machine name, to see a larger view and work inside your machine.

As you can see the Windows setup has been started, and now you can proceed with the installation of your guest operating system inside Virtual Machine. Keep in mind that your guest operating system will be using the same hardware configuration that you have define while creating the virtual machine. For instance, the total unallocated space on virtual hard drive is the same that I had mentioned while creating the machine.

Once the installation is complete, you can work inside the guest operating system, as you are working on a physical computer.

Do remember that, you have to shut down your guest operating system, or turn off the virtual machine to free up system resources. If you just close the virtual machine box or, exit through file menu, the machine will still be running in the background, and will continue to use system resources. So, to turn it off, either Shut Down the operating system, or click the Action menu, and then click Turn Off.

In our next videos, we will be covering many more advance features of Windows 8.1, and you may require to run several tasks that may cause major changes to your system. So, we will advise the learner and enthusiast to work inside virtual machines, so your host operating system may remain intact.



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