Client Hyper-V in Windows 8

Client Hyper-V is the same virtualization technology previously available in Windows Server operating system. Unlike in earlier client operating systems, the technology is now built into Windows 8.

Hyper- V is currently selling like a hot cake across the world and it’s nothing like rocket science to understand and configure Client Hyper-V too. IT Pros and developers can use this technology to create virtual Machines (VM) and can move them from Client Hyper-V to server Hyper-V.

To Enable using GUI:

1. On the Control Panel click “Programs”, and then click “Programs and Features”

2. Click “Turn Windows features on or off”

3. Click “Hyper-V”, and then click “OK”, and then click “Close”

4. Machine must be restarted to complete installation.

There a few features included in Windows Server 2012 Hyper-V that are not included in Client Hyper-V like the remote FX, Live VM migration, Hyper-V Replica, etc.

Note that Hyper-V requires a 64-bit system that has Second Level Address Translation (SLAT). Atleast 4 GB RAM is required. The RAM on your Client Hyper-V machine is allocated and de-allocated dynamically as required by the VMs. We can run several VMs on a Client Hyper-V machine depending on the RAM requirements for each VM.

Client Hyper-V supports server Hyper-V’s “Live Storage Move” capability. This means we can use our host VMs keeping it independent of the underlying storage. We can move VMs to and from one local drive to another, to a USB stick, or to a remote file share without needing to stop the VM.