If you don’t know whether hardware virtualization is enabled on your PC, this article shows a few different ways to check it.
Virtualization is one of the most useful features in Windows. Using this feature, you can create a virtual environment on your computer, where you can run multiple operating systems or applications simultaneously, without the need for additional hardware. For example, if you want to use Windows Sandbox, Hyper-V, VMware, or VirtualBox, your computer should support and enable virtualization.
As useful as the hardware virtualization feature is, some PC might have enabled it by default while others don’t. For example, I recently built a new desktop PC with an Asus motherboard, only to find that virtualization wasn’t enabled out of the box. This meant that I had to manually enable virtualization in BIOS settings before I could start using it. Thankfully, I checked beforehand whether virtualization is enabled in Windows so that I did not receive any odd errors.
Just like me, if you’re unsure whether virtualization is enabled on your PC, I’ll show you how to check for virtualization support on your system in the following steps.
Table of contents:
How to check if virtualization is enabled
Here I’m showing four ways to check if virtualization is enabled on your PC; follow the method of your choice. No matter which method you follow, you will get the answer you are looking for.
1. Using Task Manager
You can tell whether the virtualization feature is enabled or not using the Task Manager, specifically from the Performance tab. Here’s how.
First, open Task Manager in Windows by pressing the Ctrl + Shift + Esc keyboard shortcut. Alternatively, right-click on the taskbar and select the Task Manager option from the menu.
Once the task manager application opens, click on the Performance tab on the sidebar. If the sidebar is collapsed, click on the three-line icon in the top left corner to expand the sidebar. It shows the sidebar options along with the icons.
Here, you will see “Enabled” next to “Virtualization” if virtualization is enabled on your PC. If virtualization is disabled, you will “Disabled” next to “Virtualization.”
2. Using Command Prompt
Of course, there is a command to check if your PC has virtualization enabled. Here is the command and how to use it.
First, launch the Command Prompt window. For that, search for Command Prompt in the start menu or open Terminal by right-clicking on the Start menu and then open the Command Prompt tab in it.
In the Command Prompt window/tab, run the systeminfo command. As soon as you do that, the cmd window will display all available system info. Here, scroll down till you find the “Hyper-V Requirements” section. If you see “Virtualization enabled in firmware: Yes,” then the virtualization feature is enabled. If you see “Virtualization enabled in firmware: No,” then the virtualization feature is disabled on your computer.
3. Using PowerShell
Just as with the Command Prompt, there is also a PowerShell command to find if virtualization is enabled on your PC. Here’s how.
First, launch the PowerShell application by searching for it in the Start menu. You can also open Terminal by right-clicking on the start icon on the taskbar and selecting the Terminal option. Terminal, by default, opens with the PowerShell tab.
In the PowerShell/Terminal window, paste the below command and press Enter.
Get-ComputerInfo -property "HyperV*"
From the output, if “HyperVRequrementVirtualizationFirmwareEnabled” is set to True, then virtualization is enabled on your computer. If it is set to False, the virtualization is disabled.
4. Using a third-party app (SecurAble)
There is also a free third-party app called SecurAble which tells you whether virtualization is enabled or not. What’s more, it also checks if your system is 32-bit or 64-bit. Here’s how to do it.
First, head over the SecurAble’s official web page and click the “Download now” button to download the application.
Download link: https://www.grc.com/securable.htm
After downloading, double-click on the exe file to open it. If you see “Yes” under “Hardware Virtualization, ” virtualization is enabled. Otherwise, it is disabled.
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That is all. It is that simple to check if virtualization is enabled. If virtualization is disabled, you can enable it from the BIOS/UEFI (firmware) settings. Consult your motherboard, laptop, or PC manual for exact instructions. If you are using an Asus laptop or motherboard, follow the steps in ‘How to enable virtualization in Asus PCs.’
I hope this simple and easy Windows how-to guide helped you.
If you are stuck or need help, send an email, and I will try to help as much as possible.
