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Windows Nested Virtualization: Use Nested Virtualization with VMware Workstation Pro on Windows 11

284 words·
Windows Nested Virtualization VMware
Table of Contents

Overview
#

This tutorial worked for the setup of nested virtualization on “Windows 11 23H2” and “VMware Workstation Pro 17.5.2”, but also on previous Windows and VMware Workstation Pro versions.


Enable Nested Virtualization
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Check Optional Features
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Run optionalfeatures

Disable the following Windows featues:

  • Hyper-V

  • Virtual Machine Platform

  • Windows Hypervisor Platform

  • Windows Subsystem for Linux

  • Windows Sandbox

  • Windows Subsystem for Linux


Verify Hyper-V Status
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Verify Hyper-V is disabled:

# Verify the Hyper-V status (Run in PS)
Get-WindowsOptionalFeature -Online -FeatureName Microsoft-Hyper-V-All

# Shell output:
FeatureName      : Microsoft-Hyper-V-All
DisplayName      : Hyper-V
Description      : Provides services and management tools for creating and running virtual machines and their
                   resources.
RestartRequired  : Possible
State            : Disabled
CustomProperties :

DisableMemory Integrity
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Go to: “Windows Security settings” > “Device Security” > “Core Isolation” > “Memory Integrity” > “Off”


Change Hyper-V Launch Type using BCDEDIT
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Set Hypervisor Launch Type to Off
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# Set Hyper-V launch type to "off" (Run CMD as admin)
bcdedit /set hypervisorlaunchtype off

  • Reboot Windows 11

  • Verify the Hypervisor Launch Type

# List the boot configuration (Run CMD as admin)
bcdedit

# Shell output:
Windows Boot Manager
--------------------
identifier              {bootmgr}
device                  partition=\Device\HarddiskVolume1
path                    \EFI\Microsoft\Boot\bootmgfw.efi
description             Windows Boot Manager
locale                  en-US
inherit                 {globalsettings}
default                 {current}
resumeobject            {9330d8a3-51ea-11ef-bdf2-9a5a5f2e3d14}
displayorder            {current}
toolsdisplayorder       {memdiag}
timeout                 30

Windows Boot Loader
-------------------
identifier              {current}
device                  partition=C:
path                    \Windows\system32\winload.efi
description             Windows 11
locale                  en-US
inherit                 {bootloadersettings}
recoverysequence        {9330d8a5-51ea-11ef-bdf2-9a5a5f2e3d14}
displaymessageoverride  Recovery
recoveryenabled         Yes
isolatedcontext         Yes
allowedinmemorysettings 0x15000075
osdevice                partition=C:
systemroot              \Windows
resumeobject            {9330d8a3-51ea-11ef-bdf2-9a5a5f2e3d14}
nx                      OptIn
bootmenupolicy          Standard
hypervisorlaunchtype    Off # Check

VMware Workstation Pro
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Enable Nested Virtualization
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Enable nested virtualization for the desired VM:

  • Select the VM

  • Select “Settings”

  • Go to: “Hardware” > “Processors”

  • Enable Virtualize Intel VT-x/EPT or AMD-V/RVI