Would I be able to go from Disk, to VHD (Hyper-V) and back to Disk? How?

CartmansPiehole · Nov 6, 2023

My work has provided me with the initial release of Windows 11. Our PCs do not allow me to upgrade to 22H2, much less 23H3. I was thinking of going from Disk to VHD, which I've done, and it boots up fine in Hyper-V. Then, use Hyper-V to run all updates, then convert back to Disk. Essentially, I would have this Hyper-V constantly running and updating so I would be able to just install Windows 11 with the latest updates.

How would I go from Hyper-V to installing the VM as a Disk? Any info on any reliable guides on how to do this would be appreciated. This would also have to be free for commercial use, as well.

Considering these are work PCs, I don't want to perform any steps that would force the upgrade to 23H2, as I would on my home computer.

neofita · Nov 6, 2023

sir you can boot natively a VHD, just add an option to BCD pointing to it
you need a BCD command (I don't remember) or use EasyBCD

Griff79 · Nov 6, 2023

Perhaps @Bree could offer some insights here......

Brink · Nov 6, 2023

Here's a couple of options below to boot and run Windows 11 from a VHDX file.

Native Boot Windows 11 Virtual Hard Disk (VHDX) Tutorial

This tutorial will show you how to boot a Windows 11 VHDX file natively to dual boot with Windows 10 or Windows 11. Native Boot allows you to create a virtual hard disk (VHDX), install Windows to it, and then boot it up, either on your PC side-by-side with your existing installation, or on a...

www.elevenforum.com

Create Windows 11 Virtual Hard Disk (VHDX) at Boot to Native Boot Tutorial

This tutorial will show you how to create a Windows 11 Virtual Hard Disk (VHDX) file at boot and natively boot it to dual boot with Windows 10 or Windows 11 Pro, Education, or Enterprise editions. Native Boot allows you to create a virtual hard disk (VHDX), install Windows to it, and then boot...

www.elevenforum.com

Griff79 · Nov 6, 2023

Brink said:
Here's a couple of options below to boot and run Windows 11 from a VHDX file.

Native Boot Windows 11 Virtual Hard Disk (VHDX) Tutorial

This tutorial will show you how to boot a Windows 11 VHDX file natively to dual boot with Windows 10 or Windows 11. Native Boot allows you to create a virtual hard disk (VHDX), install Windows to it, and then boot it up, either on your PC side-by-side with your existing installation, or on a...

www.elevenforum.com

Create Windows 11 Virtual Hard Disk (VHDX) at Boot to Native Boot Tutorial

This tutorial will show you how to create a Windows 11 Virtual Hard Disk (VHDX) file at boot and natively boot it to dual boot with Windows 10 or Windows 11 Pro, Education, or Enterprise editions. Native Boot allows you to create a virtual hard disk (VHDX), install Windows to it, and then boot...

www.elevenforum.com

@Brink is the MAN ofcoz ...... thanks to those I'm running Beta and Dev Builds as Native Boot VHDXs

Ofcoz I have to give credit to @Bree for giving me the idea

Bree · Nov 6, 2023

Griff79 said:
@Brink is the MAN ofcoz ...... thanks to those I'm running Beta and Dev Builds as Native Boot VHDXs

Ofcoz I have to give credit to @Bree for giving me the idea

Thanks, but it was @Brink's tutorials that told me how to do it. :thumbsup:

Griff79 · Nov 6, 2023

Bree said:
Thanks, but it was @Brink's tutorials that told me how to do it.

Yes but if you hadn't quoted @Brink Tutorials I would never have been brave enough to try it out and run it successfully

so take the credit hehe

cereberus · Nov 6, 2023

neofita said:
sir you can boot natively a VHD, just add an option to BCD pointing to it
you need a BCD command (I don't remember) or use EasyBCD

This presumes OP is allowed to add a bcd entry on a Company PC. My company locks down the bcd so only authorised admin users who also have insane 24 character length passwords (all random letters, numbers, special characters etc) can modify it.

TBH I am surprised OP is even permitted to use HyperV. When we ask for it, IT fall about in hysterics resembling "The Laughing Policeman" on steroids.

jimbo45 · Nov 7, 2023

CartmansPiehole said:
My work has provided me with the initial release of Windows 11. Our PCs do not allow me to upgrade to 22H2, much less 23H3. I was thinking of going from Disk to VHD, which I've done, and it boots up fine in Hyper-V. Then, use Hyper-V to run all updates, then convert back to Disk. Essentially, I would have this Hyper-V constantly running and updating so I would be able to just install Windows 11 with the latest updates.

How would I go from Hyper-V to installing the VM as a Disk? Any info on any reliable guides on how to do this would be appreciated. This would also have to be free for commercial use, as well.

Considering these are work PCs, I don't want to perform any steps that would force the upgrade to 23H2, as I would on my home computer.

Any VM system can install or use a "Physical disk" as a Native disk -- For Hyper-V :

Add or Remove Physical Hard Disk for Hyper-V Virtual Machine

How to Add or Remove a Physical Hard Disk for Hyper-V Virtual Machine

www.tenforums.com

Then simply use Macrium or similar to "clone" the VM to the physical disk (obviously from the Guest).

After that use a windows install disk / iso (from the GUEST) to install the bootloader on the "Physical disk" via BCDBOOT. Reboot and update drivers. This also works on external USB disks too so you could create this as an external Windows2GO system which gets round the problem of modifying the internal Windows system.

This assumes you have admin rights etc on the company laptop which is not often a "given".

Cheers
jimbo