Hyper-V Windows 11 Home - Risk?

Hey Guys,

I currently use a computer with Windows 11 HOME, and I would like to enable Hyper-V to install a virtual machine for a project of mine. I found THIS article on the internet, depicting how to create a batch file that would enable the aforementioned virtual machine manager for my version of Windows.
With this in mind, here comes the stupid question: Is it safe to execute this batch? Do I face any risk by having this at my Windows 11 HOME edition?
Thank you all in advance.

Yes, you're probably breaking MS License terms for Windows Home edition usage. There's a reason why this feature is not on Home Edition of Windows.

What I would rather do is pay the price for a Pro upgrade and don't worry. You get a lot of other benefits with Pro anyways.

I ONLY use Windows Pro everywhere.

SlicEnDicE said:

Yes, you're probably breaking MS License terms for Windows Home edition usage. There's a reason why this feature is not on Home Edition of Windows.

What I would rather do is pay the price for a Pro upgrade and don't worry. You get a lot of other benefits with Pro anyways.

I ONLY use Windows Pro everywhere.

Click to expand...

Got it. Makes sense.
Do you have any suggestions of where to buy a license upgrade? Or I should just do it through the Microsoft Store?

Anaksy said:

I currently use a computer with Windows 11 HOME, and I would like to enable Hyper-V to install a virtual machine for a project of mine. I found THIS article on the internet, depicting how to create a batch file that would enable the aforementioned virtual machine manager for my version of Windows.
With this in mind, here comes the stupid question: Is it safe to execute this batch? Do I face any risk by having this at my Windows 11 HOME edition?
Thank you all in advance.

Click to expand...

The batch file is just executing some straight forward command the you could execute yourself from the command line. It looks safe enough.

I've not needed to try it myself as I have other machines with Pro. By why take the risk when there are perfectly good (and free) alternatives available for use in Home? My favourite is VirtualBox, which I have had some success with. It also has the advantage that. if you also have Macrium Reflect v8, you can use Macrium's viBoot to boot a Macrium image as a virtual machine.

There are cheap upgrades all over the internet...not sure how legal they are though. You can look them up yourself.

Personally I would pay the 100-150€ upgrade price at MS store. It ensures a working key forever.

What I am curious about though is why on earth those Hyper-V packages are even available locally on Windows 11 Home. What feature could possibly be using them, including the Hyper-V manager...? They should not exist on those systems in the first place.

SlicEnDicE said:

What I am curious about though is why on earth those Hyper-V packages are even available locally on Windows 11 Home. What feature could possibly be using them, including the Hyper-V manager...? They should not exist on those systems in the first place.

Click to expand...

Good question.

I'd just use virtual box.

Yeah vBox is more than enough for most

Yeah, I think I will use vbox or VMware then, just to save a few bucks.
I thought that using Hyper-v because it is integrated, would be better somehow.

SlicEnDicE said:

What I am curious about though is why on earth those Hyper-V packages are even available locally on Windows 11 Home. What feature could possibly be using them, including the Hyper-V manager...? They should not exist on those systems in the first place.

Click to expand...

Basically all the items needed for Pro are included with Home, so it is a case of simply activating extra features.

Re. if activating Hyper-V on home is a risk, the only risk really if MS can disable it and you no longer have the capability.

Regarding legality - that is one for lawyers. In the end you can run Pro unactivated to use Hyper-V although it is against EULA.

For avoidance of doubt, I take a neutral position and neither encourage or discourage you.

cereberus said:

Basically all the items needed for Pro are included with Home, so it is a case of simply activating extra features.

Re. if activating Hyper-V on home is a risk, the only risk really if MS can disable it and you no longer have the capability.

Regarding legality - that is one for lawyers. In the end you can run Pro unactivated to use Hyper-V although it is against EULA.

For avoidance of doubt, I take a neutral position and neither encourage or discourage you.

Click to expand...

Thanks for sharing your thoughts.
Yeah, I think I will go the easier and cheaper way, and use VMware.

Is there any actual benefit on choosing Hyper-V over third party solutions like VMware or Vbox?

Anaksy said:

Thanks for sharing your thoughts.
Yeah, I think I will go the easier and cheaper way, and use VMware.

Is there any actual benefit on choosing Hyper-V over third party solutions like VMware or Vbox?

Click to expand...

Not really!

VirtualBox is free and open source...use that if you don't want to spend any money. It also has the widest support for different OSes.

SlicEnDicE said:

Not really!

VirtualBox is free and open source...use that if you don't want to spend any money. It also has the widest support for different OSes.

Click to expand...

Thanks

Anaksy said:

Is there any actual benefit on choosing Hyper-V over third party solutions like VMware or Vbox?

Click to expand...

Hyper-V is a type 1 hypervisor, VirtualBox and the others are type 2. Both types have their pro's and con's. More here...

Anaksy said:

Thanks for sharing your thoughts.
Yeah, I think I will go the easier and cheaper way, and use VMware.

Is there any actual benefit on choosing Hyper-V over third party solutions like VMware or Vbox?

Click to expand...

Well yeah plenty of reasons but main reason is Hyper-V has far superior performance compared to vmware/vbox.

Also, it is more "update" proof. I have never know Hyper-V be impacted by updates.

Another significant feature is it uses native vhdx files which can be attached as native host boot files.

However, it has a significant downside if guest OS cannot act as an RDP server and then you cannot get sound (most non windows OSs regrettably fall into this category).

So it is great for Windows guests (except Home), fine for some Linux distros that have xrdp servers, but no so good for others.

Bree said:

Hyper-V is a type 1 hypervisor, VirtualBox and the others are type 2. Both types have their pro's and con's. More here...

Hypervisor Type 1 and Type 2 - Windows 10 Help Forums

Have you ever wondered what the difference between a type 1 and type 2 hypervisor is. This drawing shows the principle Type 1 Hypervisors sit between the hardware and your virtual machines AND your Host OS. In effect, your Host OS is turned into a virtual

www.tenforums.com

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Yes but VirtualBox gives you 3D acceleration which Hyper-V does not...one of many benefits.

Type 1 Hypervisor cuts out the middle man but it is not always much faster...

SlicEnDicE said:

Yes but VirtualBox gives you 3D acceleration which Hyper-V does not...one of many benefits.

Type 1 Hypervisor cuts out the middle man but it is not always much faster...

Click to expand...

I have done extensive tests and Hyper-V out performs by miles in most of my tests but I admit use CPU intensive tasks more than GPU tasks.

Of course, each peron should benchmark the vm tools against their own tests suited to them.

I do use vmware now and then (may 3 or 4 times a year) but only when I cannot run an OS in Hyper-V enhanced mode.

@cereberus

Did VirtualBox run in HM, NEM or CPUM mode? There's a HUGE difference between the three.

Also there has been reports of VB running near host speeds on AMD hardware when on Intel the performace was poor. Go figure what's going on there...

SlicEnDicE said:

@cereberus

Did VirtualBox run in HM, NEM or CPUM mode? There's a HUGE difference between the three.

Also there has been reports of VB running near host speeds on AMD hardware when on Intel the performace was poor. Go figure what's going on there...

Click to expand...

Well I have an Intel system and Hyper-V surely performs better by a mile.

Re. operating mode for vb, I admit I have no idea but a user should not really even have to select different modes.

It is certainly not something obvious - perhaps you could kindly tell me (us) what the mode differences are and how to select them, and I (we) can try them (for me on an Intel device).