Determine if my PC supports HW Virtualization

Question

How, in general, does one determine if a PC supports hardware virtualization? I use VirtualPC to set up parallel test environments and I'd enjoy a bit of a speed boost.

Answer 1

Try just turning the option on in VirtualPC. If it doesn't do anything (or the option isn't available), then your PC doesn't.

Answer 2

Try just turning the option on in VirtualPC. If it doesn't do anything (or the option isn't available), then your PC doesn't.

Some PC's require a BIOS setting to be turned on in order for this option to be enabled. I couldn't find that BIOS setting on my machine, but then again there are a lot of options to comb through. Presumably this is a CPU or motherboard chipset feature, so there must be a list of CPU's that support it.

Answer 3

The first thing is to run VPC, open Options, and see if the HW virtualization option is available.

If it isn't you may still have it. Many machines have HW virtualization disabled in the BIOS. If you believe this is the case you'll need to confirm with your processor mfg that MW virtualization is supported, then find out from your BIOS mfg how to enable that feature.

@Nick what processor do you have?

Answer 4

You can take a look in the BIOS of the machine. It indicates if the machine supports hardware virtualization. You can run programs like virtual pc even if you machine does not support HW virtualization, but if the machine supports it the program take advantage of this extensions.

Answer 5

@ EHaskins: CPU-Z reports Intel Pentium D 830 (3 Ghz, Smithfield). The option is disabled in VPC for me.

Answer 6

Download this: http://www.cpuid.com/cpuz.php

Also check, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/X86_virtualization

Edit: Additional, I know it's for XEN but the instructions are the same for all VMs that want hardware support. http://wiki.xensource.com/xenwiki/HVM_Compatible_Processors

I can't try it from work, but I'm sure it can identify whether you've got the Intel VT or AMD-V instructions. Intel will have a "vmx" instruction and AMD will have a "svm".

On linux you can check /proc/cpuinfo, "egrep '(vmx|svm)' /proc/cpuinfo"

Answer 7

@ basszero: Thanks! Unfortunately I don't have the vmx instruction.

Answer 8

Your processor does NOT support hardware-assisted virtualization, but as others have said you can still run virtualization tools.

http://www.intel.com/products/processor_number/chart/pentium_d.htm

Answer 9

Try cpu-z or SecurAble on windows or on linux, cat /proc/cpuinfo and look for the flags: vmx (Intel) or svm (AMD)

All of those will tell you if the hardware supports it, but as others said it must be enabled in the BIOS. (But checking first will avoid an unnecessary reboot...)

Answer 10

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/X86_virtualization first place I'd check