Newb Questions: Hyper-V vs. VMWare?

1. What are the general considerations as to running Hyper-V vs. VM Ware? I'm looking at a using a VM to run A couple Windows 7 applications on Windows 11. They are not games and not particularly system aggressive, so I don't think performance (a la games / graphics) is a big consideration for me. My system has 16gb and an Intel 7 115H processor so I don't think I'll have resource issues.

2. I currently have Win 11 Home but I'm upgrading to Pro within the next day or so. MS says Hyper-V is only available on VM Ware. But when I started to run through the VM Ware install, it told me Hyper-V was installed and they would need to remove it. Does MS have some sort of stub Hyper-V in Win 11 Home that's running but not really available for use?

Hyper-V will not install on a Windows 11 home install.
Windows pro or Enterprise should be the ones to have.


VMWare as of November 2024 is now free for everyone.


Where to download and register:

Flashorn said:

Hyper-V will not install on a Windows 11 home install.
Windows pro or Enterprise should be the ones to have.

Install Hyper-V

Gives instructions for installing the Hyper-V role using Server Manager or Windows PowerShell. And gives instructions for enablings Hyper-V on Windows.

learn.microsoft.com

VMWare as of November 2024 is now free for everyone.

VMware Fusion and Workstation are Now Free for All Users

These powerful desktop hypervisor products are free to all users - commercial, educational, & personal users alike!

blogs.vmware.com

Where to download and register:

Fusion and Workstation | VMware

VMware Workstation and VMware Fusion desktop hypervisors are the industry leaders in local virtualization. Learn how VMware’s local virtualization solutions provide an easier way to build, test and deliver any app for any device or cloud.

www.vmware.com

Click to expand...

@Flashorn

VmWare is BTW no longer the leading corporate VM platform. KVM/QEMU is HUGE - and other technology also replacing classical VM's such as Containers, Dockers, Kubernetes etc plus cloud servers providing all sorts of solutions such as AZURE.

Classical VM's are increasingly retreating back towards individual home and very small business users - and towards specific developers who need to test OS'es and / or new hardware.

If you have W11 pro or above - then depending on what you want your VM to do then the choice is fairly simple -- for sheer efficiency and speedthen HYPER-V blows VMware out of the water.

Disadvantages of Hyper-V though :

1) Sound on a VM- especially if a Linux VM is somewhat impossible
2) USB devices (disks) need to be attached specifically before power on (and Offlined to the HOST although you can share files of couse via usual networking methods e.g SAMBA, SMB).
3) Other USB hardware not directly installable unless you do it via "Passthru" which is another whole exercise in itself (worth it if you can do it and hardware supports it though)
4) no "Dynamic" re-direct i.e you can't dynamically attach and detach disks / other hardware such as videocams.

VMware - everything is "para-virtualised" which means extra OS overhead but you can attach USB devices other than HDD's directly provided the HOST recognizes the device (doesn't need a driver - the VM can load the specific driver. Dynamic reconnect is also supported - which is quite a useful facility if you want to swap / add / remove disks frequently.

Cheers
jimbo

Thanks for the info but, I was simply sating that the OP would need Windows 11 Pro and beyond.
But, since the OP will upgrade to the Pro version then , he/she knows that Hyper-V will install.
As for VMWare well, it's now free to use so, it's another option.
On my Windows Vista I had a VMWare with window 7 when it came out. I didn't see slow downs
from one to the other but that was a long time ago.

The most crucial parameter is if sound is required (seems likely given you are playing games).

To get sound on Hyper-V guests, the guest has to be able to act as an RDS server.

Windows 7 cannot and thus can only run as a basic mode guest and hence has no sound.

Also host must be Win 10/11 Pro or better to run Hyper-V.

So if you need sound, you are pretty much limited to Vmware or VMBasic.

Not sure about KVM/QEMU but that is kind of a step jump in skill above Vmware/Hyper-V required to use them.

VMware sounds your best option unless you really want to beef up your skills quite a bit.

Thanks for all the info... so if I am reading this correctly, Hyper-V doesn't provide sound or dynamic device connectoin?

When I first read through I thought I was reading the opposite... VMware being non-MS had to go through MS and could not pull off those functions. But my second read through is telling me I read that backwards.

So is this a good basic summary?
- Hyper-V for pure speed
- VMware if I need sound or easy dynamic drive connect/disconnect

I run VMWare Workstation Pro for my Linux guest which I use for web surfing and e-mail. Workstation Pro does everything I need and the performance is just fine. But if you want you can also try Virtualbox (also supports audio playback) which is another free virtualization software.

Levitate11 said:

Thanks for all the info... so if I am reading this correctly, Hyper-V doesn't provide sound or dynamic device connectoin?

When I first read through I thought I was reading the opposite... VMware being non-MS had to go through MS and could not pull off those functions. But my second read through is telling me I read that backwards.

So is this a good basic summary?
- Hyper-V for pure speed
- VMware if I need sound or easy dynamic drive connect/disconnect

Click to expand...

No - it depends on the guest. If guest can act as an rdp server, Hyper-V will work on enhanced mode and provide sound /usb connection etc.

Windows 10 Home guests cannot run in enhanced mode as it does not have rdp server capability.

Windows 10 Pro can run in enhanced mode as it does have rdp server capability.

So, Window guests cannot run in enhanced mode as it does not have rdp server capability (hence no sound etc.).

So, having played with hyper-V a bit... I can see that the connection/resource limitations might be more of an issue for me than I first thought.

I think I'll give VMWare a run.

Levitate11 said:

So, having played with hyper-V a bit... I can see that the connection/resource limitations might be more of an issue for me than I first thought.

I think I'll give VMWare a run.

Click to expand...

Since it's totally free, why not? I used to use it about 15 years ago, I think I'll grab a current copy now that I can afford it on my dime.

Hi there.

As far as SOUND on a Windows VM (or any VM) on a KVM /QEMU Linux host -- not an issue so long as the HOST hardwae supports it whether natively, paravirtualisation or via hardware passthru.

If you just need a basic Server type VM just serving multi-media files to a load of clients, storing backups, running email client etc then HYPER-V is absolutely fine. If you NEED a VM to be a sophisticated desktop running a whole load of apps and be a "sort of desktop replacement" with attachable / detachable hardware other than just USB HDD's then IMHO it's not worth using HYPER-V. You've basically then only got 3 realistic choices - KVM/QEMU on a Linux Host, Virtual box or VMWare. Up to you.

Don't get me wrong -- HYPER-V is great -- but as rthe Brits say "Horses for Courses".

Cheers
jimbo

jimbo45 said:

Hi there.

As far as SOUND on a Windows VM (or any VM) on a KVM /QEMU Linux host -- not an issue so long as the HOST hardwae supports it whether natively, paravirtualisation or via hardware passthru.

If you just need a basic Server type VM just serving multi-media files to a load of clients, storing backups, running email client etc then HYPER-V is absolutely fine. If you NEED a VM to be a sophisticated desktop running a whole load of apps and be a "sort of desktop replacement" with attachable / detachable hardware other than just USB HDD's then IMHO it's not worth using HYPER-V. You've basically then only got 3 realistic choices - KVM/QEMU on a Linux Host, Virtual box or VMWare. Up to you.

Don't get me wrong -- HYPER-V is great -- but as rthe Brits say "Horses for Courses".

Cheers
jimbo

Click to expand...

As I understand it... if I'm running Win7 in Hyper-V, then I can't get sound because it doesn't support RDP?

FYI - Just adding this as a random bit out on the Internet in case someone else runs into it:

I am using a (new) DVD reader through a USB 3 port and a Win 7 DVD to set up my virtual Win 7 session. That worked fine in Hyper-V. This machine, like most now, has no DVD player. (I can't get an ISO for Win7 ).

However, with VMWare, I couldn't get it to install Win 7 off a DVD. It kept hanging in the "Expanding Files" stage, which is apparently really a copying stage after the intial OS is loaded. I was somewhat convinced that the problem was the DVD reader as most all the aftermarket units have some complaints of one sort or another. Failed several times. I decided that I'd either have to create a ISO or find some way to install off a hard drive.

After attempting to copy the DVD files to my hard drive, both as a test of the DVD unit and perhaps to facilitate making an ISO (which I know nothing about), I found that it was hanging when copying the 2.4gb install.wim file from the sources directory on the DVD. It would go well and then just hang at ~15% and show a zero transfer rate. I let it hang for a long time and it didn't come around. Reboots, restarts, etc, no joy.

Yada, yada, yada... after checking everything I could on the DVD hook up, software and hardware, a thought came to me: Perhaps Avast was slowing the process? Sure enough, I suspended Avast for an hour and I was able to copy the files from the DVD to my hard drive. It still had a big slowdown along the way on that file, but it finished copying.

So, I restarted VMWare, discovered that it would not install from a hard drive (doh!). Instead, it wanted the DVD based install (or an ISO). So, I let it run and sure enough, all went well.

I can't say conclusively that Avast was the issue, but it sure seems like it. I'll try some more copies to the hard drive again later and see if I can prove this out.

gunrunnerjohn said:

Since it's totally free, why not? I used to use it about 15 years ago, I think I'll grab a current copy now that I can afford it on my dime.

Click to expand...

I historically prefer VMWare, but need Hyper-V components to be able to run WSL2 (Windows subsystem for linux). Since VMWare Workstation and VMWare conflict with each other, based on how they implement virtualization, I just started using Hyper-V and it's been working fine enough for me.