Windows 11 is famous for its strict hardware requirements. These requirements require you to take some extra steps when setting up a Windows 11 virtual machine – here’s all you need to do to get it up and running.
Content
- Windows 11 virtual machine requirements
- How to install Windows 11 in a virtual machine
- Download Windows 11
- Install Windows 11 in VirtualBox
- Install Windows 11 in VMWare Workstation Player
- Disabling TPM 2.0 and Secure Boot
Windows 11 virtual machine requirements
Virtual PCs allow you to run an operating system – like Windows 11 or Ubuntu – without the need for another physical computer. You can create a virtual machine that will run on your existing PC. Virtual machines are very useful for testing new operating systems, beta versions of operating systems, testing software in a sandbox, and many other tasks.
You must meet the usual Windows 11 hardware requirements in order to run a Windows 11 virtual machine, these are:
- Dual Core Central Processing Unit (CPU) 1 GHz
- 4 Gigabytes of Random Access Memory (RAM)
- 64 gigabytes of disk space
- Display 720p or higher
- Trusted Platform Module (TPM) 2.0
- Secure Boot
- Windows 11 installation media
The CPU, RAM, memory and display requirements are fairly easy to handle on most modern computers. Even SSDs – which are perfect for running virtual machines – aren’t much more expensive than regular hard drives. The real problematic requirements tend to be TPM 2.0 and Secure Boot – one (or both) often prevents Windows 11 VM installation.
How to install Windows 11 in a virtual machine
There are several different ways to run virtual machines on Windows. The two most popular options are VMWare Workstation Player and Oracle VirtualBox. User interfaces are completely different, and they have slightly different requirements. You can use any – it doesn’t really matter here – but don’t install both if you don’t want to use both.
Note. It is possible to use TPM in VMWare Workstation Player and Oracle Virtualbox’s 7th edition will support it too. However, we’ve just disabled it here as it’s much easier.
If you like using other virtualization software, it will probably work – you just need to adapt these steps to your software.
Download Windows 11
The first thing you need to do is download the Windows 11 ISO image . Select “Windows 11 (ISO Multi Edition)” from the drop down list, then click “Download”
Start this download as soon as possible. The Windows 11 executable is about five gigabytes in size, and if you don’t have gigabit internet, it will take at least a few minutes to download.
Make sure you know where the Windows ISO image was saved when you downloaded it. You will need this location later.
Install Windows 11 in VirtualBox
If you want to use VirtualBox, download the latest version of VirtualBox from its website and install it. At the time of writing this is version 6.1, but be sure to keep an eye on version 7 if available.
Launch VirtualBox after installing it, click “Tools” then click the “Add” button.
Name the virtual machine sensibly and descriptively so you can recognize it in the future. Also make sure the OS version is “Windows 11” then click “Next”
Warning. The machine folder can be placed anywhere, but try placing it on an SSD. In comparison, starting a virtual machine on a regular hard drive is extremely slow.
Technically, Windows 11 only requires four gigabytes of RAM, but if you can spare eight gigabytes, that might help.
Click “Next” a few times for the rest of the options. The default settings should be suitable for general use. After setting up the virtual machine, select your Windows 11 (VM) from the list, right-click it, and select “Settings.” You can also select a virtual machine and click “Settings” from the menu bar at the top.
Click on the “Storage” tab Select the “Empty” SATA device, click on the small disk icon on the right, then select “Select file on disk” Browse to the downloaded Windows 11 ISO image and select it.
Click “OK” to close the settings window, then click the big green “Start” button.
You will see a black screen with “Press any key to boot from CD or DVD…. .” The Windows ISO image we selected earlier is currently mounted on a virtual DVD drive. By pressing any key, you tell your virtual machine to boot from the virtual DVD drive.
Proceed to the Disable TPM section. 2.0 and Secure Boot ” as soon as you see the familiar Windows logo.
Install Windows 11 in VMWare Workstation Player
The second option you can choose is VMWare Workstation Player . This is another major hypervisor popular for everyday applications. Download it from the VMWare website and install.
Launch VMWare Workstation Player, then click “Create a new virtual machine”
The first thing you need to do is select the Windows 11 ISO you downloaded earlier as the installer image. Select the “Install Disk Image File” option, then click “Browse” to find your ISO. Having done this, click “Next”.
VMWare Virtualbox Player will probably not detect that it is a Windows ISO; change the operating system type to “Microsoft Windows” and install the version “Windows 10 and later x64.”
Name the virtual machine whatever you want and set the virtual disk size to at least 64 GB. Stop at the page “Ready to create a virtual machine” window. You must add additional RAM to the virtual machine, otherwise Windows 11 will not work correctly. Click “Set Up Hardware”
You need to allocate at least 4 gigabytes of RAM, although if you can allocate 8, you should do so instead.
Click “Close” on the setup window, then click “Finish.” Your virtual machine will boot up immediately and you will see the message “Press any key to boot from CD or DVD”. Press any key as instructed and you will see the familiar Windows setup screen.
Disabling TPM 2.0 and Secure Boot
In order for the installation to work correctly, we need to apply two small tweaks. Windows 11 requires TPM 2.0. – By default, neither VMWare Workstation Player nor Oracle VirtualBox meet this requirement, so it must be disabled. Also, VirtualBox does not support Secure Boot, so that should be disabled as well.
Scroll through the first few pages until you reach this window:
ClickShift + F10to open a command prompt, type regeditat the prompt and press Enter.
This is the same Registry Editor that comes with all Windows installations. It allows you to change most of the settings available in the Windows operating system. In this case, we are going to use it to disable TPM 2.0 requirements and secure boot. Usually you need to be very careful when editing the registry as a changed value or a deleted key can cause serious problems. However, since this is a VM that hasn’t even been installed yet, you have nothing to worry about in a worst case scenario, you just restart the VM before installing Windows and any changes you made will be reverted.
Navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/SYSTEM/Setup, then right-click “Setting”, hover over “New” and click “Key”. The new registry key should be named “LabConfig” – it’s not case sensitive, but using mixed cases can improve readability.
We need to create two DWORD (32-bit) values in the LabConfig key . Select the “LabConfig” key, right-click on an empty space in the right pane. , then click New > DWORD (32-bit) Value. Name one DWORD value:
BypassTPMCheck
, and the other
BypassSecureBootCheck
If you did everything right, you should have two DWORDs that look like this:
The value should be changed from 0 to 1. Right click on “BypassTPMCheck” and click on “Change”
Set “value data” to 1 and click “OK”
Repeat the same process with the “BypassSecureBootCheck” Double word option. When done, you should see two DWORDs in the LabConfig key, and both should be 1.
That’s it – you’re done and you’re ready to install Windows 11. Click the “X” in the top right corner of the Registry and Command Prompt Editor, then click “I don’t have a product key.”
Note. > You can also enter a product key if you have one. Windows 11 will eventually start complaining that Windows needs to be activated, however, if you don’t use a key. Whether this is a problem depends on what you are using the VM for.
All you need to do now is click on the usual prompts to install Windows 11 and wait for the installation to complete.
