Hardware Virtualization enabled on Workstation Hyper V platform running ok with 7 not with 8

[AnthonyK]

Just last week I got myself a refurbished HP XW 6600 Workstation equiped with dual Xeon E5450 Quad Cores processors. I played with Windows 2008 R2 Server Evaluation edition and was able to run the Hyper V platform and run on top a Windows 8 Pro Evaluation version and an Fedora Linux version.

Just this morning I have upgraded from Windows 7 Pro x64 to Windows 8 Pro x64, with hardware virtualization enabled in the BIOS.

The Hyper V platform worked fine in Windows 2008 R2 Server but on my fresh install of Windows 8 Pro (not the evaluation edition but a proper licensed one)

The feature Hyper V Platform is in grey.

If you move with you mouse a message pops up :

Hyper-V cannot be installed : The processor does not have SLAT (second level address translation capabilities. My HP has got two Xeon E5450 Quad Core processors.

What is going on here.

[AnthonyK]

Is there not a workaround for this processor under Windows 8 to make the Hyper V Platform accept this processor.

[AnthonyK · Accepted solution]

The solution... I 've found it myself:

http://social.technet.microsoft.com/wiki/contents/articles/7704.client-hyper-v-survival-guide.aspx

At first the message on the internet is that a client Hyper V on a Windows 8 machine requires a CPU that has SLAT (Second Level Address Translation) capabilities. Well in my case I have a HP XW6600 workstation with two Xeon Quad Cores - E5450 and how wonderful these are... no SLAT.

The best way I found that works is the link above.

What you have to do is go to the command line by typing in the Search Charm (Windows key + W) and search for CMD.exe and then run as administrator.

Then go to the command line - to the C prompt and type in there Dism /online /enable-feature /featurename:microsoft-Hyper-V -All and press [enter]

Your system will want to reboot, reboot and check the Windows Feature set and you will see the checkbox ticked and no longer grey.

Tataaa Spooon