Hyper-V and VMWare Incompatibility

Some ITC courses require the use of Microsoft's Hyper-V (notably the Microsoft Server courses), other courses require VMware Workstation (notably CCNA Voice to run the CUCM and CUC software). Windows 8 also includes Hyper-V so it is more likely to find it enabled on clients in the future.

If you try to install VMware on a system which already has Hyper-V installed you will get an error stating that they are incompatible. In this case you have two choices...

Option 1: Remove Hyper-V

If you do not need access to Hyper-V and VMware at the same time the cleanest thing is to only have one installed at a time. You can remove the Hyper-V feature/role from your system as described below.

Removing Hyper-V from Windows 8

1. Open the Control Panel
2. Open the Programs and Features section of the control panel
3. Navigate to "Turn Windows Features On or Off"
4. Make sure all Hyper-V components are unchecked as shown below.
5. Click "OK".
6. Close all windows.

Option 2: Create a Boot Option Environment

You will not be able to run VMware and Hyper-V at the same time. However, it is possible to have them both available on the same system and switch back and forth between them using a simple reboot of the system. The instructions below are based on the information which can be found here, here, and here. You will be able to set the default environment to be Hyper-V on or Hyper-V off so select which one you will use more frequently as the default.

1. Turn Hyper-V ON
   1. Open the Control Panel
   2. Open the Programs and Features section of the control panel
   3. Navigate to "Turn Windows Features On or Off"
   4. Make sure all Hyper-V components are unchecked as shown below.
   5. Click "OK".
   6. Close all windows.
2. Open an elevated command prompt
3. View your current boot settings
   1. bcdedit /enum
4. Make a copy of your current boot settings to a new option called "Hyper-V Off"
   1. bcdedit /copy {default} /d "Hyper-V Off"
5. Copy the new GUID (including the curly braces) for the "Hyper-V Off" option to your clipboard. The GUID is displayed between curly braces after the previous command completes.
6. Modify the "Hyper-V Off" boot option to disable the hypervisor
   1. bcdedit /set {guid-goes-here} hypervisorlaunchtype off
      • Where {guid-goes-here} is replaced by the actual GUID you copied above from your new "Hyper-V Off" boot option.
7. View your current verbose boot settings
   1. bcdedit /enum /v
8. Adjust the default boot option to use Hyper-V off if that's what you'd like by default
   1. bcdedit /default {guid-goes-here}
      • Where {guid-goes-here} is replaced by the actual GUID of the environment you want to boot by default.