My computer can only run virtual machines with 32-bit guest OSes.

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Ivan Ivanov

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Apr 28, 2009
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Hi All :)

I have a PC, based on Core i7 5930K and ASUS X99-E WS. Some time ago I had various different virtual machine softwares installed and everything worked fine on windows 7 x64 and Kubuntu x64. However I reinstalled and now I run windows 10 x64. I didn't need virtual machines for some time...

I decided to try Hyper V and noticed it only allows me to install 32 bit guest systems. I thought the fault was in hyper V. Then I installed VMware - the same thing?! I thought they cut that functionality from the free version :O. But when I installed virtual box, and it too restricted me to 32 bit guest OSes only, I realized somethings wrong with my PC.

I googled the problem and it turned out I have to enable the virtualization technology in the bios. What's called VT-x, (EPT) or just "Virtualization technology" as that setting is called in my bios.

I don't remember ever disabling it and when I checked in the bios, sure enough it WAS enabled?!

I know my CPU supports this feature but I checked anyway, and yes the intel's datasheed on my processor showed that it does support it.

I have an up-to-date version of AIDA64 so I went to the CPUID section to check there. To my surprise AIDA64 said my processor does not support EPT. In fact, of like ten virtualization related features AIDA says my CPU only supports "Hypervisor"?!

Encrypted State (SEV-ES) --- Not Supported
Extended Page Table (EPT) --- Not Supported
Hypervisor --- Present
INVEPT Instruction --- Not Supported
INVVPID Instruction --- Not Supported
Nested Paging (NPT, RVI) --- Not Supported
Secure Encrypted Virtualization (SEV) --- Not Supported
Secure Virtual Machine (SVM, Pacifica) --- Not Supported
Virtual Machine Extensions (VMX, Vanderpool) --- Not Supported
Virtual Processor ID (VPID) --- Not Supported

Not just disabled! Not supported?!

And the datasheed says:

Intel® Virtualization Technology (VT-x) = Yes
Intel® Virtualization Technology for Directed I/O (VT-d) = Yes
Intel® VT-x with Extended Page Tables (EPT) = Yes

What's going on? The only major thing I've done is a bios update and my PC works fine after that.

Before the update that setting was called: "Enable VT-x/VT-d" and now it's aclled: "Virtualization Technology". That's the only visible difference and it shouldn't mater, should it?

Also, Hyper V is uninstalled.

OK that's all description I can think of right now, If you need to know something more, feel free to ask me.

Thanks in advance. :)

P.S. While writing this thread I notices that all those features outlined in the bios have that "‡" sign on them. This is what it means:

‡ This feature may not be available on all computing systems. Please check with the system vendor to determine if your system delivers this feature, or reference the system specifications (motherboard, processor, chipset, power supply, HDD, graphics controller, memory, BIOS, drivers, virtual machine monitor-VMM, platform software, and/or operating system) for feature compatibility. Functionality, performance, and other benefits of this feature may vary depending on system configuration.

But in my case it shouldn't mater since it worked before?!...
 
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Ivan Ivanov

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Apr 28, 2009
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Hi All I found what the problem was!

Hyper V was not uninstalled successfully, although windows does not indicate that. I was kind of shocked after launching hyper v successfully after it was supposed to be uninstalled.

In "Turn windows features on or off" the checkbox was unchecked and since unchecking it required restart I thought everything was OK, but no, it wasn't.

Apparently what happened was that I had a virtual network switch set up and it refused to uninstall. Therefore the entire uninstall failed with no warning.

I searched for solution but all I found were solutions involving windows components That I don't have installed like: "Device Guard" some other networking administrative tools. I could not follow through with the steps described.

So I "uninstalled" it using brute force. I disabled all Hyper V related services. Uninstalled Hyper V's virtual network adapter manually from the device manager and rebooted.

After that Hyper V was inoperable,
AIDA64 was able to show that my CPU supports virtualization technology,
But most importantly both Virtual Box and VMware allowed installation of 64-bit operating systems!

I'm not happy with the way I removed Hyper V however, if someone knows a cleaner way I'd be happy if they shared it with us here :)

Thanks for your attention.
 
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mdd1963

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Jan 14, 2006
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Lots of folks don't realize what happens behind the scenes when Hyper-V 'role' is added...

Full Hyper-V is installed bare metal, and original parent OS is quickly converted into a special VM that auto starts to administer it , making it seem almost as though Hyper-V is quite 'VirtualBox-like', and similar to a Type2 hypervisor....which it is not.

Fun stuff!

 
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Ivan Ivanov

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Apr 28, 2009
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I didn't realize that when I enabled Hyper V, but I started to suspect that while I was tinkering with all those VM softwares, especially after I tried to uninstall it, and now you confirm it, so now I know it for sure.

That makes Hyper V quite a powerful stuff. Do you think games can be played on hyper v's virtual machine that uses the real graphics card?
 
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CoDrift

CoDrift

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Jun 11, 2018
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Just use IObit Uninstaller, if you don't wanna install, just use a portable version. It removes all its registry entries and dll files, so you get a 100% uninstall. :d
 
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