Virtualization Enable or Disable Checkpoints for Hyper-V Virtual Machine in Windows 11

Brink · May 29, 2024

This tutorial will show you how to enable or disable checkpoints for a Hyper-V virtual machine in Windows 10 and Windows 11.

Hyper-V enables running virtualized computer systems on top of a physical host. These virtualized systems can be used and managed just as if they were physical computer systems, however they exist in virtualized and isolated environment. Special software called a hypervisor manages access between the virtual systems and the physical hardware resources. Virtualization enables quick deployment of computer systems, a way to quickly restore systems to a previously known good state, and the ability to migrate systems between physical hosts.

One of the great benefits to virtualization is the ability to easily save the state of a virtual machine. In Hyper-V this is done through the use of virtual machine checkpoints. You may want to create a virtual machine checkpoint before making software configuration changes, applying a software update, or installing new software. If a system change were to cause an issue, the virtual machine can be reverted to the state at which it was when then checkpoint was taken.

Hyper-V includes two types of checkpoints:

Standard Checkpoints: takes a snapshot of the virtual machine and virtual machine memory state at the time the checkpoint is initiated. A snapshot is not a full backup and can cause data consistency issues with systems that replicate data between different nodes such as Active Directory. Hyper-V only offered standard checkpoints (formerly called snapshots) prior to Windows 10.
Production Checkpoints: uses Volume Shadow Copy Service or File System Freeze on a Linux virtual machine to create a data-consistent backup of the virtual machine. No snapshot of the virtual machine memory state is taken.

When you create a Hyper-V virtual machine, production checkpoints is enabled by default.

Reference:

Using checkpoints

learn.microsoft.com

You must be signed in as an administrator to enable or disable checkpoints for a Hyper-V virtual machine.

Contents

Option One: Enable or Disable Checkpoints for Hyper-V Virtual Machine in Hyper-V Manager
Option Two: Enable or Disable Checkpoints for Hyper-V Virtual Machine in PowerShell

Option One

Enable or Disable Checkpoints for Hyper-V Virtual Machine in Hyper-V Manager

1 Open Hyper-V Manager (virtmgmt.msc).

2 Select the virtual machine (ex: "Windows 11 Home") you want in the middle pane, and click/tap on Settings in the right "Actions" pane. (see screenshot below)

3 Do step 4 (enable) or step 5 (disable) below for what you want.

4 Enable Checkpoints for Hyper-V Virtual Machine

This is the default setting.

A) Click/tap on Checkpoints in the left pane. (see screenshot below)

B) Check Enable checkpoints in the right pane.

C) Select (dot) Production checkpoints (default) or Standard checkpoints for the type you want.

If you select Production checkpoints, then you can also check (default) or uncheck Create standard checkpoints if the guest does not support creation of production checkpoints.

D) Click/tap on OK, and go to step 6.

5 Disable Checkpoints for Hyper-V Virtual Machine

A) Click/tap on Checkpoints in the left pane. (see screenshot below)

B) Uncheck Enable checkpoints in the right pane.

C) Click/tap on OK, and go to step 6.

6 You can now close Hyper-V Manager if you like.

Option Two

Enable or Disable Checkpoints for Hyper-V Virtual Machine in PowerShell

1 Open Windows Terminal (Admin), and select Windows PowerShell.

2 Type the command below you want to use into Windows Terminal (Admin), and press Enter. (see screenshots below)

(Enable Production Checkpoints for Hyper-V Virtual Machine)

Set-VM -Name "<VM Name>" -CheckpointType Production

(Enable Production Checkpoints for All Hyper-V Virtual Machines)

Set-VM -Name * -CheckpointType Production

This is the default setting to select Production checkpoints and check Create standard checkpoints if the guest does not support creation of production checkpoints.

OR

(Enable Production Only Checkpoints for Hyper-V Virtual Machine)

Set-VM -Name "<VM Name>" -CheckpointType ProductionOnly

(Enable Production Only Checkpoints for All Hyper-V Virtual Machines)

Set-VM -Name * -CheckpointType ProductionOnly

This is to select Production checkpoints and uncheck Create standard checkpoints if the guest does not support creation of production checkpoints.

OR

(Enable Standard Checkpoints for Hyper-V Virtual Machine)

Set-VM -Name "<VM Name>" -CheckpointType Standard

(Enable Standard Checkpoints for All Hyper-V Virtual Machines)

Set-VM -Name * -CheckpointType Standard

OR

(Disable Checkpoints for Hyper-V Virtual Machine)

Set-VM -Name "<VM Name>" -CheckpointType Disabled

(Disable Checkpoints for All Hyper-V Virtual Machines)

Set-VM -Name * -CheckpointType Disabled

Substitute <VM Name> in the command above with the actual virtual machine name (ex: "Windows 11 Home") you want to enable or disable checkpoints for.

For example:
Set-VM -Name "Windows 11 Home" -CheckpointType Production

Set-VM -Name "Windows 11 Home" -CheckpointType Disabled