Hyper-V is Microsoft’s solution to local virtualization. It is available on Windows Server 2008, Windows Server 2008 R2 Standard, Enterprise or Datacenter edition, Windows Server 2012 Standard or Data centre edition, Windows 8 (or 8.1) Pro or Enterprise edition, Windows 10 Pro, Education or Enterprise edition or any edition of Windows Server 2016. By enabling this feature of Windows, you are now able to run virtual guest operating systems right from your machine, without any 3rd party software!

Hyper-V is an excellent virtualization tool for Windows users, one which is a great rival to VMware player, and even EXSI server. Many businesses use Hyper-V due to it’s simple to install and deploy on both Windows Servers and client machines alike. It is great for virtualizing additional servers on a domain network, possibly a secondary domain controller, only used in emergencies, running in a Hyper-V VM on your file server? Hyper-V is user-friendly and has a plethora of tools for the home user, and IT professional.

All you need to do is install Hyper-V on two machines, and connect to the Hyper-V server which has the VM’s running on it, and you’re good to go!

Hyper-V Installation Tutorial

Hyper-V – Connecting to a Server

Hyper-V – Creating a Virtual Machine