Run Hyper-V on Windows 10 on ARM and the Surface Pro X

Here is a quick blog post on how you can run Hyper-V virtual machines (VM) on Windows 10 on ARM and the Surface Pro X.

I am running theSurface Pro X as my daily driver for a couple of months. It is a fantastic device and combines a light designed and the Surface Pro form factor with a 13-inch screen. But the most significant difference to the other Surface devices like the Surface Pro 7, is that the Surface Pro X is running Windows 10 on ARM. It has a custom Microsoft SQ1 chip. This limits it to run native ARM64 or emulated 32-bit x86 applications, and it can’t run classic 64-bit x64 applications at the moment. Another limitation was that I wasn’t able to run Hyper-V virtual machines (VMs) on my Surface Pro X.

With the Windows 10 Insider Preview build 19559, you were able to install Hyper-V. However, you didn’t have a compatible image to run inside the virtual machine (VM). With the Windows 10 Insider Preview Build 19631 , Microsoft is now also providing an ARM64 VHDX file, which you can download and run as a guest OS in Hyper-V.

How to enable Hyper-V on Windows 10 on ARM

You need a Windows 10 ARM-based PC with a Microsoft SQ1, Qualcomm Snapdragon 8cx, or Qualcomm Snapdragon 850 processor. To enable the Hyper-V feature on Windows 10 on ARM and the Surface Pro X, you will also need to have installed the Windows 10 Insider Preview build 19559 or higher and have Windows 10 Pro or Windows 10 Enterprise.

1. Join the Windows Insider Program and update to the latest Windows 10 Insider Fast Ring build 19559 or newer
2. Upgrade your Windows edition from Home to Windows 10 Pro or Windows 10 Enterprise
3. Install the Hyper-V feature on Windows 10 You can run the following PowerShell command to install the Hyper-V feature.

   Enable-WindowsOptionalFeature -Online -FeatureName:Microsoft-Hyper-V -All

4. Download the Windows 10 on ARM VHDX file from here .
5. After that, you can create a Hyper-V virtual machine (VM) with an existing VHDX file on your Surface Pro X.
6. Visit Windows 10 on ARM developer center for more details and documentation.

Conclusion

I hope this gives an overview of how to run Hyper-V VMs on Windows 10 on ARM. This is still in preview, but if you are like me and want to give it a try, you can. Let me know if you have any questions.